Saturday, April 14, 2007 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach - Streets of Long Beach, Calif. Round 2 of 14 in the Champ Car World Series 2007 Season
McDONALD'S® DRIVER BOURDAIS EARNED SECOND CONSECUTIVE POLE FOR THE TOYOTA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH AND AIMS TO WIN THREE IN A ROW HERE; MEDI | ZONE DRIVER RAHAL FIFTH
Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 McDonald’s Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: “I think it was a little bit of a better today for the McDonald's team. We were a little frustrated after yesterday. Obviously we had a very strong first run, then not making it happen on the second with the pit selection we had after the terrible mistake I made in Vegas. We just paid the price. You know, very costly. It was tough because we only got one lap and couldn't improve on the second run. But today was a different day. We worked really well this morning. We found some improvements and the track came to us a little bit, too. In second qualifying, I was pretty confident after the 15 minute practice. We seemed to have a nice margin. But when we put the option tires on the car, the car got completely disconnected. It lost the balance and I was really not feeling comfortable at all. So we decided to -- despite the fact that we were on pole, we didn't feel like we got everything out of it, and didn't feel like the balance was going to get there, so we switched back to the standard tires. That run really never happened. But the last lap was looking pretty good, and unfortunately I ran into some traffic. I was pretty happy to see that Will made a mistake because it would have been difficult. It's tough, when you start like this in a last-minute rush after a red flag and you start from the back in the pits. It's difficult and makes life pretty stressful. So we hopefully are going to have a better weekend and better race tomorrow. We'll have a better pit selection so we don't have to go through this again.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his fifth race here. Scored the maximum of points here in 2006 after starting first, leading 70/74 laps, setting the fastest race lap en route to a win. Started fourth and won in 2005 after he led 37 laps. Started second and finished third in 2004. Started fifth in 2003, led three laps and was in fifth place when his engine failed after 70/90 laps which resulted in a 16th place finish…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… He has the rare opportunity to win four consecutive championships this year if he can again capture the Vanderbilt Cup, which would extend his run that began in 2004. Bourdais would be making history as no Champ Car driver has ever won four straight championships. Four in a row is very rare in professional sports in fact it has never been done in either NASCAR or NFL and it hasn’t been accomplished in the last twenty years in the NBA, NHL or MLB.
Graham Rahal, No. 2 Medi | Zone Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: "I think that a fifth place starting spot is pretty good for the Medi | Zone team. Certainly we expected to be quicker and thought we would go quicker; that’s always the goal. It didn’t end up happening that way but we’re happy with fifth. It’s not too far from the front, let’s just hope this time its not in the zone of the crashes. I would much rather start on the inside like we are so I can hug the wall here than let someone else sneak down the inside. We saw last year with (Mario) Dominguez and all these other guys that you have to be conservative here. That’s kind of the goal right now. It will really be my first race. Hopefully we’ll get a better start; hopefully the field will be more packed up than last race. Hopefully it will be a clean start and Tony (Cotman) can make sure that nobody is being idiotic out there and we’ll make it.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his second race here and first in a Champ Car. Made his Atlantic debut here last year. Started seventh and finished fifth…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).
10 POLES IN LONG BEACH: NHLR has FIVE WINS, 13 PODIUMS and 10 POLES here. (WINS by Bourdais 2005-2006 & Mario Andretti 1987, 1985, 1984; 2nd place finishes by Junqueira 2004, Cristiano da Matta 2001, Nigel Mansell 1994, Michael Andretti 1989; 3rd place finishes by Junqueira 2005 & 2003, Bourdais 2004, Mansell 1993.) (POLES by Bourdais 2006 & 2007, Junqueira 2004, Mi. Andretti 1995, Mansell 1993, Mi. Andretti 1992, Mi. Andretti 1991, Ma. Andretti 1987, Ma. Andretti 1985, and Ma. Andretti 1984.)
The morning warm-up will take place from 9:05-9:35 AM PT while the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will begin at 1:00 PM PT and will be televised live on NBC Sports at pm PT / 4 pm ET.
