Friday, June 22, 2007 Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by LaSalle Bank – Burke Lakefront Airport, Cleveland, Ohio Round 5 of 14 in the Champ Car World Series 2007 Season
McDONALD’S ® DRIVER BOURDAIS ON PROVISIONAL POLE FOR THE GRAND PRIX OF CLEVELAND PRESENTED BY LASALLE BANK; MEDI | ZONE DRIVER RAHAL SEVENTH
Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 McDonald’s Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: “I don't know if there is a safe place (to start), but I'd rather start on the front row than back in the pack. We'll see what happens. I think the McDonald's team did a good job. The car was pretty good. I think it was a little harder to do it on the second run because there was a lot of traffic and I didn't slot in the right place on the racetrack. I had a slow car in front. You know, it was just kind of playing yo-yo a little bit. It's never really easy when you can't put a string of laps together around here. You really need to get in the rhythm and get it a little bit faster lap after lap. I think we were pretty lucky we held onto it on the last run. We'll see how it goes. But it seems to be going on for a good weekend.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his fifth race here for the two-time Cleveland GP winner (2003 & 2004). Experienced the scariest moment of the 2006 season here last year when he started third but was hit on Lap 1 when Paul Tracy tried to drive between Bourdais and Junqueira which caused Tracy to launch over Bourdais and roll over his helmet. Retired in 18th place and was admitted and subsequently released from a local hospital after a precautionary CT scan was negative for damage. Started third, ran as high as second and finished fifth here in 2005 due to the timing of the caution flag and his final pit stop. Started third, led 88 laps and won back-to-back races here in 2004 after having provisional pole taken away on Friday. Won from pole in his rookie race here in 2003 after having led 33 laps to earn his first win in the U.S. in the debut of having McDonald’s on his race car...Going for his fourth consecutive win for the second time. Last year he became only the fourth driver in the CART/Champ Car era (1979-present) to earn four consecutive wins in the series (Long Beach, Houston, Monterrey, Milwaukee) in 2006. Others include Al Unser Jr. (1990), Alex Zanardi (1998), and Cristiano da Matta (2002 with NHR). His Milwaukee win was his 9th in 11 races. Failed to set a CART / Champ Car era (1979-present) record fifth win in Portland after finishing third. Overall, the last time a driver earned five straight wins was when Al Unser accomplished the feat in 1970…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: "Qualifying was disappointing for the Medi | Zone team. In pre-qualifying warmup we were the fastest and we thought we had a pretty good car. We ran the Bridgestone reds at the end but they weren’t faster like we thought they would be so we wasted them. I think we would have gone faster on the standard black tires like we ran on the first run. I went out but couldn’t put a lap together because of all the traffic. I came up on Tracy a couple of times and it screwed up my laps. Luckily he spun on my second set (of tires) so I didn’t have to deal with him again. It makes it tough. We also had an oil leak and haven’t figured that out yet. So far it seems like another classic weekend for us where we haven’t been able to put it together. Eventually things have to start going our way and we can make something happen.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his fifth race here and first in a Champ Car. Won both Atlantic races here last year after starting fifth and second, respectively. He ran in two Formula BMW events here in 2004 where he finished 8th and 6th. Graham’s father Bobby won the first Champ Car race at this track in 1982 and also earned one pole here in 1985.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).
The team has earned 235 top-three finishes (1st - 100, 2nd – 76, 3rd - 60) and 101 poles…NHR has won FOUR races at this track (Bourdais 2004 & 2003; Michael Andretti 1991; Mario Andretti 1988) and FIVE poles (Bourdais 2003, da Matta 2002, Mi. Andretti 1989, Ma. Andretti 1984 & 1983). They have earned a total of 15 podium finishes (2nd – Junqueira 2004 & 2006, Mi. Andretti 1998, Mansell 1994, Mi. Andretti 1992, Ma. Andretti 1989; 3rd – Servia 2005, Junqueira 2003, Mi. Andretti 1999, Mansell 1993, Ma. Andretti 1986).
The morning warm-up will take place from 10:15-11:30 AM ET while final qualifying will begin at 2:00 PM ET.
