Notes taken during the ABC broadcast of the Mazda Champ Car Grand Prix in Portland presented by Joe's on June 10, 2007.
pressdog's beer of the race is Labatt's Blue in the "Big Blue" configuration. One pint, nine ounces. One can.
Rick Benjamin -- After a long spring break, Champ Car is back. Six-week layoff. Rick and Jon (that's Yan) Beekhuis on camera.
First Champ Car event with a standing start. Jon says standing start is more fair since jumping the gun is painfully obvious. (Pretty sure Champ Car likes the standing start since it should cut down on the festival of carbon fiber in turn 1.) First three races the leader in turn 1 wins. (Like that's hugely unusual for a street race, Jon.) Bourdais starts third, so we'll see. (Keep hope alive that this won't be another Bourdais Bitchslap.)
Pit guy Cameron Steele. Newman Haas Lanigan is looking for its 100th win. 25 of them with Bourdais. Rough weekend this time, though. Video of Bourdais going off the race track into the grass.
Bill Stephens, pit reporter, with the Paul Tracy Report. Paul is back after cracking a bone in his back at Long Beach. Replay of Tracy going nose first into the wall at Long Beach during practice. Portland weekend Tracy Montage. Hard contact with the wall AGAIN. Not injured. Spun in the rain. Starts 13th. Not real happy.
Michelle Beisner, Champ Car Pit Hotty, on camera. Justin on the Pole. Feeling good.
Starting lineup: Justin Wilson, Robert Doornbos, Sesbastien Bourdais, Alex Tagliani, Tristan Gommendy, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Graham Rahal, Dan Clarke, Neel Jani, Oriol Servia, Jan Heylen, Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira, Alex Figge, Katherine Legge, Ryan Dalziel (pretty sure Ryan Dalziel was last. The charts on champcar.ws said he started "0." Helpful.)
Standing start. Much heartburn over it. Carnage predicted. There's a set of lights dangling over the starting grid. Like a drag race. Here we go. 15 seconds. Red, red, red, red (off). Off=green. Much burning out. Nobody rams anyone. Clean start.
Wilson leads the field into turn 1. Cars shortcut the first turn all over the place. Can't improve their positions but no penalty for shortcutting.
Jon said the drivers were very apprehensive bout the standing start. Much fear and loathing.
Justin is off and running. Got the thing in hyperspace. Bourdais is in fourth while Wilson leads. Much cursing in French.
Jon -- once the tires get up to temperature and the drivers get in rhythm, this is a very tough place to pass. (Unlike all those other easy-to-pass road courses.)
Bourdais is in the back like a shark. Swerving. Biding time. Waiting.
Replay of start. Power goes crazy and wide and gets from 7th to third on the start.
Lap 3 -- Wilson leads by two seconds.
Used to be a two-pit-stop race. Probably 100 laps today in the 90-minute timed event. Now it's a three-stop race since the league reduced fuel cell size from 35 to 32 gallons. This must be their effort to encourage passing -- force teams to pit more since 98% of all passing on a road course happens in the pits.
Bourdais won two straight after Will Power took the first race in Vegas (baby!)
Tracy has gone off the track. He's back on. In-car from following car as Tracy goes ass-around. Not exactly Tracy's weekend.
Niel Mickelwright says car is OK.
Wilson is four seconds up on Doornbos.
Lap 5 -- Wilson, Doornbos, Power, Bourdais, Tagliani.
Wlson is now up by 6 seconds. Running away. Jon -- nearly two mile race track, a rhythm race track. Turn 12 turns onto a drag strip.
Jani (master of the Pan Flute) helmet cam. Much love for the helmet cam. Personally, I don't see the attraction. Great view of the inside of Jani's visor.
Power used Power to Pass to move up. Bourdais working on him for third.
Will Power is on black sidewalls. Bourdais is on Reds.
Derrick Walker with Cameron Steele. Derrick -- Says Power is better on the blacks.
Rick -- lots of rain Saturday created green (clean) track. Black clouds are approaching today. Will it rain?
Michelle with Kieth Wiggins who is apparently a team owner. Not identified and I'm not that familiar with Champ Car. None of my business, I guess. Whatever team we're talking about, Wiggins says they get more competitive each year. And they have two great drivers, whoever they are. Doornbos and Speedy Dan? Maybe.
Bourdais is still fourth and working on Will. Power used 27 seconds of Power to Pass to get to third.
Jan -- Bourdais is putting still more pressure on Will.
Some unidentified voice, I think it's Stephens, says Tagliani was not happy with his setup after practice. Thank you, whoever you are.
Jan points out that the new DP01 aero lets everyone run close through the turns.
Lap 17 --Tracy is pitting out of sequence. This is what you do when you're in the back and have virtually no chance to win. Pit early, hope for a yellow.
Lap 19 -- pit window opens.
Lap 22 -- Tag passes Bourdais for 4th. Seriously. Reports of the sun starting to freeze. Jon -- Snuck through as Bourdais was preoccupied with trying to pass Power. Tag should understand that he's only pissing Bourdais off by doing that.
Drivers are reporting rain drops. Michelle with Derrick Walker. Derrick -- Power (I think) used a lot of power to pass. He's on the blacks and everyone else is on the reds (which are allegedly faster tires, but generally just wear out faster so they are actually slower overall). He's pushing really hard.
Walker says they set up to use the reds or blacks so they flipped a coin and went with the blacks.
Jon -- Blacks may suit some cars better. Depends on the car setup.
Meanwhile, Wilson is up by 18 seconds. WTF? That's about a third of a lap ahead.
Lap 26-ish -- Wilson around Tracy to put him a lap down. You know Wilson and his team were holding their breath on that deal.
Wilson is on the button (Power to Pass). Tires are going way and will pit soon.
Servia is 9th and on a race-to-race contract.
Lap 32 -- Wilson pitting. Reds off. Blacks on. Back out.
Jon -- Wilson fuel flow shows that the DP01's horrid fuel flow problems are solved.
Power beats Doornbos out of the pits to move into second.
Doornbos shortcuts turn 1, gives the position back to Power.
Bourdais pitting. Craig Hampson is reportedly bitching about traffic. I need to stop here and get a bath towel to cope with my tears. Bourdais' crew pulls off a lightning fast stop. Like 8.6 seconds or something obscene like that.
Lap 30 -- TV says Bourdais, Wilson, Rahal, Power Doornbos.
Wilson cycles back to the lead. Bourdais is in second. Not sure if I was told Bourdais got out in front of Power and Tag to get into second. It might have been none of my business. Suddenly he's in second.
Justin is up by 16 seconds. May be driving one handed.
Doornbos is now 4th.
Michelle with Doornbos pre-race. Lives in an exotic place (where is none of our business!) No income tax there.
Jon has to tell us after the segment that Doornbos lives in Monaco. Impressive. It's like "guess the place." We'll list a bunch of attributes and then you guess where the hell we are talking about.
Go Mindy get's air. Fifth place. Bourdais has 35 seconds of power to pass left. Just posted the fastest lap.
That would be a clue that he's starting to run down Wilson, but, again, none of our business since TV says zip about Wilson's probably shrinking lead.
Gommendy ran 8 to 10 miles per day to lose weight. Then he got back problems.
Jon, who is our interpreter for basically all interviews and segments today, says Gommendy is talking about injuring his back during a fishing accident. Yeah. Torqued himself trying to land the big one. Thank God Jon is around to explain to us just what the hell everyone is talking about.
Lap 37 -- Reports that Tag is being aggressive. My viewing is enhanced.
Dan Clarke. Hasn't rammed anyone yet. Six weeks and Dan is back up to speed. Started late in the pre-season, so he's doing well despite that.
Graham Rahal is 8th.
Bubbles on the nose of the car are for the shock absorbers.
Wilson up by 14.5 in front of Bourdais.
Michelle with Dan Pettit who I think is with Justin Wilson. Wilson has a very good car.
Two years ago Wilson dominated at Portland and then BLEW UP.
Lap 41 - Tracy is 9th.
Steele -- some cars short filled. Maybe Sebastien short filled to gain posistions. 8+ second pit stop could have been a short fill.
Lap 43 -- Rahal is reeling in Dan Clark for 7th.
Steele -- Joe Barbiere of Bridgestone. No wear issues on Sebastien's tires. Red and black. Some cars work better with blacks just because of the setup.
Bourdais is now 6.5 behind Wilson. Holy run down, Batman.
Bourdais on camera about fatherhood. Gives you perspective. Bad day, go into the motor home, there's the baby with yoru wife and smiling and it makes up for it all.
Gained 10 seconds on Justin in the last 15 laps. The inhalation process has started. Reminds me of the scene where Jaws is swimming toward a kid who is swimming as fast as he can.
Lap 49. Wilson's lead now down to 6.
Cameron -- Hampson -- Short filled last time. Happy with the car. Pit in one lap. One turn of wing.
Bourdais just turned a 59.8 for the fastest lap.
Lap 51 -- Wilson's lead now down to 4.1 seconds. Bourdais is about a day ahead of third place.
Tire changer cam! Love it.
Bourdais in. Full fill. Wing. Tag gets by on the track.
Wilson pitting next lap. Wilson uses the Power to Pass on the in-lap.
Reds back on Wilson. Clean stop.
Lap 57 -- Power leads. Pitting soon.
Holy shit. Bourdais gets under Wilson for P1. WTF? How? Where? Kind of sad that this is a "oh, by the way, we have video of a pass for the lead." You'd kind of think that ABC would see this pass coming and stay with it.
Jon -- Replays. Bourdais dive bombed into T1 to get under Wilson. Knew it was that moment or nothing. Justin's car just isn't as fast on the new tires.
Jon -- Bourdais is now in a position to win this thing.
And with only 45 laps to go. Game over. Bourdais will have to drive off the course and onto an interstate to lose this one now.
Newman Haas Lanigan has 99 wins. First one was 20+ ago at Road America with Mario Andretti. Mike Andretti won the most with NH wtih 31. Bourdais has 25.
Runs better on blacks. Blew by Wilson.
Rahal -- Speedy Dan. Back stretch. Rahal has him. Major run. Holy Block Party. Speedy Dan totally blocks Rahal bad enough to put two wheels into the grass. Tony Cotman, the Champ Car Bringer of the Law (chief steward) will be taking a look.
Lap 65 -- Recap -- Standing start. 17 whole cars in the race today! Wilson was up by 15 seconds. Tracy spins, gets lapped.
Speedy Dan vs. Graham for 7th. Replay of the block party. Let's go to Tony Cotman in race control. Tony on camera. Warning to Speedy not to do that again. Jon -- No blocking allowed this series whatsoever, right? Tony: Right. (Except, you know, for that wicked block that Dan just threw. So I guess it's absolutely no blocking allowed after your first block. You can almost hear the entire field shuddering with fear. Note to drivers: if you block, you'll get a stern talking to from Tony!
Speedy Dan's people says he was "defending." Sha. Whatever. "Defending" Rahal off into the grass.
Lap 71 -- Jimmy Vasser. Gommendy's boss. Michelle: What's it take to get your car up front. (Maybe an act of God? Miracle? All the cars in front of him flipping down the track like freshly beheaded chickens?) Jimmy - trying to catch Doornbos. Maintain fifth place.
Lap 72 -- Sebastien, Wilson, Power, Doornbos, Go Mindy.
Atlanatic Series recap. Saturday in the rain. Robert Wickens won. Second race. Kevin LaCroix.
Sebastien up by 10.5 seconds now. Only going to get uglier.
Lap 77 -- we've had zero yellows so far.
Pit window is open again.
Someone locks them up in turn one, then turns the wrong way. Announcers: oblivious.
Onboard with Wilson.
Bourdais and Rahal are on pit road at the same time. Jon surprised they brought them both in at once.
Clearly, NHL is just dicking around with the rest of the field now.
Bruno out of pit. About puts it sideways.
20 minutes to go. Paul Newman and Carl "Cigar" Haas get air.
Wilson is TWENTY SECONDS ahead of third.
Katherine Legge gets air. She's in 15th. Dale Coyne didn't test here earlier. That hurt Bruno and Katherine.
Lap 92 -- Bourdais, Wilson, Doornbos, Power, Tag.
Tracy 10th with Heylen 11th.
After Tracy hit the wall in Long Beach and cracked his back, Panoz changed the seat position and seatbelt positions. Tracy on camera -- no pain driving. Pain in ego. Not where want to be on the grid. Started 13th.
Five minutes to go. Bourdais may, in fact, be five minute ahead at this point.
Jon -- Bourdais trying to get by Tracy.
Two to go. Paul Newman and Haas get more air. Newman is conservatively 98. Bourdais leads by 15 seconds.
Legge spins and stalls. Turn 1. At least that's what Rick told us. Truth was (and the truth is none of our business) that she ran out of gas. Kind of different, stalling and running out of gas. But, you know, details. No yellow. She's well off the racing line.
This is going to be a yellow-free race. NASCAR fans everywhere are, like, "What the hell is that? A race with no yellows. Not familiar with that."
Bourdais has lapped up to P6. If he started in P1, he might have lapped all but P2.
Bourdais wins. A murmur of shock spreads across the crowd.
Cameron -- With Paul Newman. Congrats on win 100. Paul -- The kid is quite a phenomenon. Got a great crew. Unbeatable combination.
Bourdais -- Race unfolded like a dream. Very surprised that Justin got so far ahead. My bad visions didn't happen on the start. Pass Wilson -- he was on cold tires. I knew I would have a very short window to pass him.
Finish -- Bourdais, Wilson, Doornbos, Power, Tag, Clarke, Gommendy, Pagenaud, Rahal, Tracy, Servia, Jani, Bruno, Dalziel, Heylen, Figge, Legge.
Bill Stephens -- Wilson. First stint went pretty good. Went as fast as could while saving fuel. Pretty good car. Not good enough (to win).
Rookie of the Year points -- Doornbos, Rahal (28 points back), Gommendy.
Michelle -- Doornbos. Another podium. First stint on red tires sucked.
Championship points -- Bourdais, Power (-12), Doornbos, Tag, Wilson.
Tune in June 24, 1 p.m. eastern on CBS for the Cleveland Old Airport Grand Prix. A scant two weeks from Portland! Teams are rushing to get to Cleveland on this "condensed" schedule. Don't miss it.
Glad to see you've joined the Labatt's Blue Crüe. A better taste per cost value simply doesn't exist.
The standing start was at least exciting and Doornbos may soon enter that rarified Wilson, Tracy and Power club of "guys who on occasion can challenge Bourdais."
Posted by: Johnny | June 13, 2007 at 06:14 AM