August 8, 2005

Sebastien Bourdais wins San Jose Grand Prix

Frenchman holds off Paul Tracy and Newman/Haas
teammate Oriol Servia for third win of season

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Writer

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais took the checkered flag at the inaugural Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San Jose on Sunday, giving the 2004 Champ Car World Series champion his third win of the season.

Sebastien Bourdais led for 63 of the 93 laps at the Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San Jose on Sunday, and took the checkered flag after regaining the lead from Bjorn Wirdheim with 22 laps to go. It was the third win of the season for Bourdais, who drives for the Newman/Haas Racing team. Photo by Ron Stenn of www.actionphotodesign.com.

Bourdais, racing the No.1 McDonald’s sponsored car for the Newman/Haas Racing team, led for the majority of the race and raced nearly mistake-free, starting out as the pole sitter and holding the lead for 63 laps throughout the race, including the last 22.

“It felt very good. I think I was in the preferred position; I just tried to stay there,” Bourdais said.

Throughout the weekend, several Champ Car drivers, as well as drivers from other race series were critical of the 1.44-mile, 11-turn racecourse, including complaints about the track being too bumpy and too narrow for passing. Another chief concern for the drivers were the VTA light rail tracks, which cut across the pit lane exit and between turns one and two at East San Carlos and Almaden Boulevard. During practice sessions throughout the weekend, cars were routinely catching nearly 6 inches of air with the back tires.

“When you look at the street, it really doesn’t look that bumpy,” Bourdais said, “but when you’re doing 175 miles per hour down a straightaway, all of a sudden, it becomes a different affair. I guess it would be really convenient if we didn’t have to cross these rails, but the fact is it was a premiere and I think we still made it work.”

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais (center) celebrates on victory lane after winning the Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San Jose on Sunday. Bourdais held off Canadian Paul Tracy (left), who finished second, and Newman/Haas teammate Oriol Servia (right), the third-place finisher. Photo by Ron Stenn of www.actionphotodesign.com.

Given the track conditions, drivers with up-front starting positions had the advantage throughout the race, unless mechanical problems or a crash into the walls occurred. Both of these problems did pop up during the race, which saw only nine out of a total of 18 drivers finish the 93-lap race. Four drivers experienced mechanical issues, but five didn’t finish the race because of contact with walls.

Local driver A.J. Allmendinger (RuSport team), who was born in Los Gatos and now resides in Hollister, lasted only 12 laps before he hit the wall on turn four, causing damage to his right front suspension and ending the 23-year-old driver’s day. Allmendinger began the race in the No. 4 position.

“To say I’m disappointed is a huge understatement,” Allmendinger said in a statement released by the RuSport team. “To say I’m tired of making those kinds of mistakes is a huge understatement. I’ve clearly got to fix the problem, but I’m not sure how to just yet, because these results are not acceptable. … I really wanted to win this one here in San Jose, so I’m sorry I didn’t bring it home.”

San Jose native Grant Ryley, shown here in his No. 22 Intervision Systems team car, finished 7th in the Toyota Atlantic Championship race after qualifying in 11th on Saturday. Ryley said he was thrilled to race in his hometown and said it was nice to be able to sleep in his own bed for a weekend.

Bourdais’ Newman/Haas team took measures to prevent any mechanical or other problems from occurring, rebuilding the driver’s car throughout most of Saturday night to tighten up and replace parts in preparation for the bumpy course.

“It’s an extremely demanding course for the mechanical systems but everything stayed together,” Bourdais said. “That in itself was a pretty big achievement.”

Bourdais led for the first 28 laps of the race before rookie Ronnie Bremer took the lead for 19 laps when Bourdais, along with the majority of his competitors, elected for pit stops on lap 28. Bourdais eventually took the lead again when Bremer stopped in pit lane on lap 47. Later, Sweden’s Bjorn Wirdheim briefly took the lead on lap 61 after Bourdais decided to pit once more, before the Frenchman retook the lead on lap 72 for the remainder of the race.

“It was really difficult because if you were trying to pass the guy, you definitely had to pass him, and it felt really difficult,” said Bourdais. “I also had PT (second-place finisher Paul Tracy) behind me waiting to get the best advantage of the smallest mistakes I was going to make. So I just elected to try and be safe, keep saving fuel, and wait for my turn to take the lead back and more importantly, not to make any mistakes. I think it was the key of the race, the key of the day. I’m very happy for the McDonald’s crew. I think they did an awesome job.”

Champ Car veteran Jimmy Vasser, who grew up in Morgan Hill and now lives in San Francisco, exits pit lane during the Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix. Vasser completed only 60 of the 93 laps throughout the race because of mechanical problems. Photos by Ron Stenn of www.actionphotodesign.com.

Bourdais did his best work during the last 20 laps of the race. On lap 90, Bourdais put together a lap time of 55.083 seconds, the best time of any drivers during the race. Bourdais also lengthened his lead from just over 1 second to 3.724 seconds by the end of the race over Tracy (Forsythe Championship Racing), who trailed Bourdais for most of the race, along with Oriol Servia, also of Newman/Haas Racing.

Servia and Tracy began the race at the No. 2 and 3 positions, respectively, but during the pit stop on lap 28, Tracy overtook Servia on pit lane and gained the No. 2 position behind Bourdais after his crew fueled up less to get him back on the track quicker.

Nevertheless, Tracy never found the chance to overtake Bourdais, given the tight street course around the downtown area. At one point, Bourdais’ brakes locked up during the hairpin turn (turn three), but the 26-year-old driver recovered quickly and unscathed, negating any chance for Tracy to make a pass.

Forsythe Championship Racing driver Paul Tracy finished second behind winner Sebastien Bourdais, trailing by 3.724 seconds. Tracy registered the fifth-best time on the track, clocking in at 55.769 seconds.

“Our two (pit) stops were identical,” said Tracy of his and Bourdais’ pit stops. “We came in and out the same. Really from there out, there was really no way to get around Sebastien on the track. He made a very, very small mistake at the hairpin and locked up. There was really no way to get by. Really I just had to hope for a mistake or come home in second.”

Another local driver, San Francisco resident Jimmy Vasser, didn’t fare well on Sunday.

Vasser, a 14-year veteran of the Champ Car circuit, completed only 60 of the 93 laps throughout the race, spending several laps early on in pit lane with mechanical problems before re-entering the race 11 laps behind.