CCWS Feature - Bourdais Makes It 100
11/06/2007
Sebastien Bourdais scored Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing's 100th Champ Car win after a dominant drive at Portland.
His third victory in the first four rounds of the championship saw the Frenchman prove again to be the class of the field, and he has pulled further away from Team Australia's Will Power in the championship standings.
Bourdais regularly lapped the 1.964-mile road course between 0.5 and 0.8 seconds quicker than his nearest challenger, pole-sitter Justin Wilson.
The Briton brought his RSPORTS car home 13.5 seconds behind the Frenchman and ahead of Team Minardi USA's Robert Doornbos.
The race started with Champ Car’s first ever standing start – as opposed to the traditional rolling start – and it went without incident. Wilson pulled away from the field convincingly and built up an 18.8-second lead before his first pitstop on lap 27.
However, second placed Doornbos had headed a train of cars - namely Power, Bourdais, Alex Tagliani (RSPORTS) Tristan Gommendy (PKV Racing) and Doornbos' own teammate, Dan Clarke.
This allowed Bourdais to save a lot of fuel, and even though he was passed by Tagliani into Turn 1 on lap 20, the Frenchman was able to stay out longer, make the most of a clear lap, and emerge from his own pitstop in second place.
He rapidly closed Wilson down, and by his second pitstop, a 16-second lead had shrunk to little more than five seconds.
Bourdais' Bridgestone tires were well up to temperature when Wilson emerged from his stop four laps later, and it took just a lap - and a slightly obstructive backmarker - to get the champion's car on to the Briton's tail, allowing him to draft past down the front straight and grab the lead.
Thereafter, Wilson had nothing to offer in the way of a challenge, as his car appeared to suffer ever worsening understeer. But due to his excellent first stint, the RSPORTS car remained easily clear of his pursuers.
Although Power had emerged from the first pitstop ahead of Doornbos, the Dutchman found his final set of tyres much to his liking, and he was able to pass the Australian into the Turn 1 chicane.
Tagliani's RSPORTS crew gave him an excellent final pitstop, and his own out-lap was strong, allowing him to catch the later-stopping Gommendy while the Frenchman was still on cold tyres, and pass him.
The PKV car then faded, and Clarke too was able to pass him and drafted up on to the Canadian's tail, finishing less than a second behind him.
Forsythe Championship Racing had a disastrous day, with Paul Tracy scraping into the top 10, and Servia taking 11th only when Jan Heylen - who had been pressuring Tracy - had his Conquest Racing car retire in the closing stages.
From the Portland road course, the Champ Car World Series heads to Cleveland for the race on the airfield in two weeks’ time, and with Bourdais firmly in control. However, in between, the Frenchman heads home to race with Peugeot at the world famous 24 Hours of Le Mans.