August 3, 2006

Second time’s a charm for Bourdais

Defending San Jose Grand Prix winner Sebastien Bourdais
takes checkered flag again at 2006 Grand Prix

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Editor

Sebastien Bourdais took the checkered flag once again on July 29 at the 2006 San Jose Grand Prix, winning the race while putting forth his best driving effort in the final laps of the event.

McDonald’s Newman/Haas Racing driver Sebastien Bourdais, center, reached the top spot on the podium once again at the San Jose Grand Prix, taking home a win to defend his 2005 San Jose Grand Prix title. Overall, it was Bourdais’ fifth win this season. Cristiano da Matta, left, finished second, while Justin Wilson, right, finished third. Photo by Jeff Frazee
Sebastien Bourdais took the checkered flag once again at the 2006 San Jose Grand Prix, defending the title he earned last year at the inaugural event. Bourdais led for 69 laps of the 97-lap race on July 30 to walk away with his fifth win of the season. Photos by Ron Stenn at www.actionphotodesign.com

In winning the 2006 San Jose Grand Prix, Bourdais, driving for the McDonald’s Newman/Haas Racing, also held on to his title as the defending champion of the Inaugural San Jose Grand Prix, held last year. Overall, the win was Bourdais’ 21st of his career in the series in 54 starts. The win was also the fifth of the season for Bourdais, who held on to his overall first-place standing in the Champ Car World Series by 34 points over Justin Wilson, who finished in third place at the San Jose Grand Prix.

“I think it was a brilliant day for the McDonald’s team,” Bourdais said of winning the 2006 San Jose Grand Prix, which drew a total weekend attendance figure of 155,934. “We just had the perfect setup. The car would take a few laps to really go up to speed but once it was there, it was just unstoppable. It was a great feeling.”

Bourdais, who held pole position at the starting grid after a solid first-place finish in the qualifying session July 28, led for 69 laps in the 97-lap race, taking the lead initially on lap 4 and holding on through lap 54 when he made a pit stop under a yellow caution flag. Upon re-entering, Bourdais found himself in fourth place while still driving under the caution flag before moving into third place on lap 58, with Charles Zwolsman briefly taking the lead in the race before giving way to Oriol Servia on lap 60.

With fuel conservation on his mind and realizing that Servia still needed to make a pit stop, Bourdais trailed close behind, taking over second place from Zwolsman at lap 73. Bourdais finally made his move on lap 80, taking over first place and building up his lead while Servia finally made a pit stop, with da Matta and Wilson moving into second and third place during lap 80, respectively.

“I was achieving a much better mileage than I had to when I was behind Zwolsman,” Bourdais said. “That’s why I decided to take a shot at him (Zwolsman for second place), because at some point, fuel wasn’t an issue anymore. …I just wanted to put a car between Cristiano and I, just in case.”

Champ Car Atlantic Series driver James Hinchcliffe goes airborne with his car on the first lap of the Atlantic Series race on July 30 at the San Jose Grand Prix. The high-flying fender-bender ended Hinchcliffe’s day on lap 1. Photo by Jeff Frazee

Bourdais proceed to put together his best three lap times of the race in back-to-back-to-back fashion, posting a 49.881-second time on lap 92, followed by a 49.708-second time on lap 93, and finally, a day’s best time of 49.678 seconds on lap 94. Those times helped Bourdais finish the race with a 6.686-second gap time between himself and da Matta.

“I was able to, without taking stupid chances, really run fast towards the end of the race when the fuel (conservation strategy) didn’t matter anymore,” Bourdais said.

Fists fly between Tracy and Tagliani
And while there was plenty of action on the street course in downtown San Jose, there was also action off the track, namely in pit lane, which saw drivers Paul Tracy of Indeck-Forsythe and Alex Tagliani of Aussie Vineyards/Team Australia get into a fistfight just past the midway point in the race.

The fracas was the result of a dangerous move on the track by Tracy, who experienced braking problems on turn 6 on lap 52, forcing him into the turn’s runoff area. Tracy then spun his car around in the runoff and bolted back out onto the track, cutting off and colliding with Tagliani at the turn, wrecking both cars and bringing an end to the day for both drivers.

Tagliani then confronted Tracy in pit lane minutes later, grabbing Tracy’s driver’s suit pushing him, and yelling at him for the ill-advised move. After the two were separated, Tagliani went back for more, yelling at Tracy once again, resulting in a fist-flying scene caught by television cameras.

“This is a huge disappointment for our team,” said Tagliani. “…Everything was working as planned. I really think we had the car to finish right in front of da Matta, which was for second place, and Tracy hitting me took the podium away from us.”

Driver Alex Tagliani of Aussie Vineyards/Team Australia saw his day come to a premature end on lap 52 when Indeck-Forsythe driver Paul Tracy (right) re-entered the track from the runoff at turn 6, colliding with Tagliani and ending the race for both drivers.	Tagliani later confronted Tracy in the pits, resulting in a fistfight between the two drivers. Photo by Ron Stenn at www.actionphotodesign.com

Following the race, Champ Car said it would review the incident and make a ruling in the coming days. Fines and/or point deductions are expected for both drivers.

“I went into the runoff, got the car turned around and I thought I had enough room to leave before Tagliani got past me, but obviously I didn’t,” said Tracy of the incident.

“…As I was coming back on to the track we touched and that was it for both of us. I came back to the pits and he kept confronting me, he kept grabbing me and I told him to stop grabbing me, and he kept grabbing me and I kept telling him to stop, then he walked away and came back and grabbed me again and that was it, I had to push him off me.”

Tracy was also penalized during the early stages of the race for jumping the running start on lap 1, blazing ahead of Bourdais for first place before reaching the starting grid. Tracy, as ruled by Champ Car officials, was forced to relinquish his lead to Bourdais on lap 4.

When asked about the incident between Tracy and Tagliani, Bourdais said, “when you’re being a bad-ass, you’re going to have to pay the price for it at some point,” referring to Tracy’s dangerous move in re-entering the race, resulting in the physical confrontation.

Tough day for Allmendinger
Although it was a day to forget for both Tracy and Tagliani, it was also a tough race for South Bay native A.J. Allmendinger, who ended the race in seventh place after starting out on the starting grid in row two as the third-place driver.

Friends and family hold up a sign encouraging local Champ Car driver A.J. Allmendinger. Among them is Allmendinger’s old go-kart racing buddy, Jim Padilla and his wife, Joy.

Allmendinger, driving for Indeck-Forsythe, was in trouble right off the bat when his front wing made contact with Bourdais’ rear tires at turn 1, the hairpin turn, on the first lap of the race, forcing him into the pit for repairs. Allmendinger re-entered the race in 15th place and quickly moved himself into better positions, first into 12th place on lap 4, then in 10th place on lap 6 before moving into ninth place on lap 18.

Following a pit stop on lap 53, Allmendinger moved into third place on lap 55 but was forced to give up his position on lap 58 after Champ Car officials gave him a black flag for illegally making the pit stop during the first lap during a yellow caution flag, a result of the Tracy/Tagliani collision. Champ Car rules dictate that drivers must continue driving the first lap during a yellow caution period before pitting on the second lap. The black flag forced Allmendinger to drop back all the way to 12th place before making up ground steadily and finishing seventh in the race.

Allmendinger said the black flag was the result of a miscommunication. “We heard from race control that the pits were open and came straight in,” he said, “(and) afterwards they said that they (the pits) weren’t (open) and penalized us and ruined our race.”