Saturday, April 07, 2007 Vegas Grand Prix – Streets of Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada Round 1 of 14 in the Champ Car World Series 2007 Season MEDI | ZONE DRIVER RAHAL TO START 10TH IN THE VEGAS GRAND PRIX; McDONALD'S® DRIVER BOURDAIS TO START 16TH AFTER LOSING FAST LAP DUE TO ACCIDENT 1st: Will Power 1:17.629 / 113.154 mph 10th: Graham Rahal 1:19.710 / 110.199 mph 16th: Sebastien Bourdais 1.20.197 / 109.530 mph* * Friday’s time; only ran one fast lap on Saturday which put him P3 before he crashed but it was disallowed when he brought out the red flag for stopping on course. Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 McDonald’s Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: “I screwed up and brushed the wall on the outside of Turn 9. The McDonald’s car had too much understeer and I just forced the thing. The car stepped out a little bit on exit and I was already too close to the wall and hit the rear a little bit. It wasn’t that bad a hit but it bent the toe link and broke the rim. To aggravate things we had the clutch creeping so I couldn’t get into neutral, couldn’t back up, couldn’t anything so we were stuck in fourth gear in front of tires and they wouldn’t push me back or do anything so I was stuck there until they moved me out of the way. We have 60 seconds of push to pass which isn’t a lot here. We are going to have to be pretty darn good to get it (win) done but we’ll see. It’s a new track so we don’t quite know if it’s possible to pass or not. I think Turn 1 seems to be pretty difficult because everyone starts braking in the middle of the track so maybe Turn 4 might be the best option. We’ll have to try and pull it off. We’ve done it before but it was a different thing; we don’t have the car we knew. It’s not the best way to start the season for sure.” FAST FACTS: Will be his third race here. Has won both events he competed in, in Las Vegas…Started from pole in 2005 and led 53 laps en route to victory. During the race, made slight contact with Tracy who failed to signify he was pitting. Started third in 2004 and led 100 laps which included a wheel-to-wheel battle with his teammate Junqueira for the final 15 laps en route to a 0.066-second margin of victory. Bourdais and Junqueira swapped the lead four times in the final seven laps as well as ran wheel to wheel for the final 20… Became the first open wheel driver to win three consecutive championships since Ted Horn accomplished the feat from 1946-1948 and only the second in the 98 year history of the sport…His previous qorst qualifying was his sixth race in the series in 2004 when he qualified 13th in Milwaukee. Graham Rahal, No. 2 Medi | Zone Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: "It’s been a tough day for the Medi | Zone team. I hooked it on the last curb at the end of the chicane and damaged the car so we had to get the backup car out for qualifying. The car was equally prepared. The guys did a great job getting it ready especially since it’s never turned a wheel. Qualifying was pretty good but we just can’t seem to get that last little bit; we need to find it. I know I’m giving my 100 percent so we need to figure out what it is. It’s going to be a tough race. It’s really hot out here. I think a lot of guys will fall out of the saddle. For me it will be a learning experience to go out there and figure out what I have to do. It’s tough for me to tell if we have a good race setup having not run in a race” FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here as well as Champ Car debut…His father Bobby made his Champ Car debut in 1982 at Phoenix and qualified 15th and finished 18th…First test in a Lola Champ Car was for the team in Sebring, Fla. on September 13-14, 20006. Also ran in Homestead, Fla. and Houston in 2006. Tested the DP01 Panoz in Sebring, Houston and Laguna Seca in 2007. .. Rahal finished second in the 2006 Champ Car Atlantic championship after a title hunt that concluded in the season finale. Led 129 laps to champion Pagenaud’s 31. He earned a series-high five wins (42 percent), four poles (33 percent) and six podium finishes (50 percent) in the 12 events and at 17 years old was the youngest race winner in series history (Monterrey, Mexico on 5-21-06). 3 WINS, 1 POLE, 6 PODIUMS IN FOUR LAS VEGAS RACES: The team has earned THREE WINS (Bourdais 2004-2005, Mario Andretti 1983), ONE POLE (Bourdais 2005) and SIX PODIUM finishes in the FOUR Champ Car races here (2nd – Servia 2005, Junqueira 2004, Ma. Andretti 1984) and finished 2nd in the race they didn’t win. The series most recently competed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2004 & 2005 and on a temporary road course around Caesars Palace in 1983-1984. The morning warmup will take place from 9:00-9:30 AM PT while the Vegas Grand Prix will begin at 1:00 PM PT.