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2003 Racing ScheduleStandingsCART CHAMP CAR PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT WITH THE TOP THREE FINISHERS FROM THE GRAN PREMIO TELMEX-GIGANTE WITH MARIO DOMINGUEZ, SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS AND PAUL TRACY
ERIC MAUK: We'll go ahead with the top-three finishers press conference for the Gran Premio Telmex/Gigante Presented by Banamex/Visa. I am Eric Mauk of CART Communications. We're joined by the top-two finishers today Paul Tracy and Sebastien Bourdais. We'll be joined by Mario Dominguez shortly.
We'll start with the second-place driver, the driver of the No. 2 Lily Ford-Cosworth Lola/Bridgestone Sebastien Bourdais, who claims the seventh podium of his rookie season by finishing second today. Sebastien also officially clinches the Series Rookie-of-the-Year title, becoming the second driver in the history of Newman/Haas Racing to earn that honor. Sebastien, congratulations, good run today, real tight battle with Paul towards the end. How do you feel the way things went?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Kind of two feelings, pretty happy for my own result. Obviously, a rookie title, finished on the podium with Cialis for the first time. Pretty good weekend for me, and kind of disappointed for Bruno because he got sick this morning. I think he got kind of the tourist disease and so he had to stay the whole morning at the medical center. And obviously he didn't look that good from the middle to the end of the race. That's kind of a shame because he lost a lot of opportunity to win the Championship which was pretty much the main target for Newman/Haas Racing and obviously for me to help him. So it's racing, but it's kind of disappointing.
ERIC MAUK: Late-race caution flag right after you had come out the pits and put up two very quick laps. Then we take the caution, you take the restart, you are half a second behind Paul for a number of laps. Strategy there? Any shots to get him at all?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: I think in one way the yellow helped us because we closed the gap, but we were so much faster with the new tires that the yellows kind of ruined the strategy because when you go up to speed, then you have to slow down, it kind of kills the performance of the new tires, and the car was running really, really well and then suddenly after the restart it was really, really difficult to try to pass Paul. Then I tried a lot to pass Bruno to kind of catch Paul and then after I tried to pass him, but there was really no way today. And I think, you know, the configuration of the track was the quickest is where you lose a lot of downforce and overheat the tires when you are in the back of the car. Then after this slow section, it's making life pretty hard when you want to pass so it's kind of very challenging but also very difficult. And obviously, I didn't succeed, but still a pretty good race for me. And finishing second is a great result for the series car.
ERIC MAUK: Talk about winning the Rookie-of-the-Year title, we had a big rookie field this year and had guys that, like you, had a lot of international experience.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: That was the main target of the year. I think it is very good, obviously, to get it two races before the end. We could have achieved that in Miami, but, you know, you know what happened. (Laughs). Obviously we knew that we were in pretty good shape. We had a big advantage over Darren (Manning) and were looking very strong here in Mexico, but now the biggest target is try to finish in the final podium and to make another podium final for Newmann/Haas Racing. I think we closed the gap with Michel today. We got very important points and these next two races are going to be very difficult and I just hope to be there and to prove that I really deserve this final podium.
ERIC MAUK: Congratulations. Good run today. The winner of the Gran Premio Telmex/Gigante Presented by Banamex/Visa is the driver of the #3 Indeck Ford-Cosworth Lola/Bridgestone for Player's/Forsythe Racing, Paul Tracy. Paul claims his seventh win of the season making him just one of six drivers to win as many as seven races in a year win; the win is also the 26th of his career tying him with Rick Mears for third on the all-time CART list. The win more importantly gives him 226 points on the year, boosting his series lead to 29 over Bruno Junqueira meaning that he can clinch series title in our next race two weeks from now with either a first- or second-place finish. Congratulations. Big win for you. Tell us what it means.
PAUL TRACY: Fantastic weekend for Forsythe Racing. Very happy for the team. I mean, after the weekend we had in Miami, we struggled all weekend and really had one of the poorest weekends we've had all year, and I got frustrated and made a mistake in the race. And that really cost us a lot. So I think it was a good opportunity for us to sit down and we had a couple of meetings and really think about what we had to do for here. We came in here with our all of our best setup on the car and the car was good right away. It was good to bounce back this way because we were struggling to get some podium finishes in the last five races and Sebastien and Bruno were building momentum getting good finishes and starting to build momentum, so to come back and bounce back and score a 22-point weekend was fantastic.
ERIC MAUK: Take us through that last restart, all of a sudden Sebastien is right on your rear wing for quite a while.
PAUL TRACY: Yeah, I had a really good car. I was just running my pace. I built up about a 10-second lead on Sebastien after the second pitstop. They radioed me and said he was going really quick. But still I was a long way away. I was a bit disappointed when the yellow came out because they said he was very quick, and you know, from there I knew that we had to be very clean, you know, I didn't -- I knew that Sebastien was going to try to apply as much pressure as he could - like he did in Miami - and I kind of caved into the pressure there. So I knew that I had a good car and I just had to be clean and smooth through the esses and really the most important thing was to get off the last corner well and I was able to do that every time and really Sebastien didn't have any opportunity.
ERIC MAUK: 29-point lead going to Surfer's. Two races to go. Make the title hope a little more real for you?
PAUL TRACY: For sure, but you never know what can happen. I can, you know, you can have a bad race there and Bruno could win the race and score 22 points and we have got an eight-point lead, so you know, we have got to have another good race, we have got a weekend off, go home, you know, rest and relax and get ready for the next race.
ERIC MAUK: Congratulations, great win. Before we open it up to the media we'll go over our top-five in points Paul Tracy leads with 226; Bruno Junqueira second with 197, Michel Jourdain Jr., 183 in third and is still alive in the title race. Sebastien Bourdais is fourth with 158 and Patrick Carpentier is 136 in fifth. We will go ahead and take questions for our top two finishers if you have a question.
Q. This is for Paul. Sebastien was very dangerous at the last of the race. You started out very good. But Sebastien had nothing to lose. He already was the Rookie-of-the-Year, and you are just going for the Championship and you couldn't give -- it's not a choice to put in risk your first place in the Championship. My question is: If Sebastien started better in the race, would you let him pass or you will go all the way for the first place.
PAUL TRACY: What I can say is that Sebastien has always raced very clean with me and what happened last weekend between us was my mistake. It was my fault. I got impatient and thought I could get him back but really had no opportunity. And I wanted to have, for sure, to keep a clean relationship with Sebastien and that's important to me. So I knew that he's not going to do anything crazy. He wants to get a good result for his team, and the new sponsors here, so I knew that if I kept it clean and a tidy line, if he was faster than me then I'd have to let him go. If he got along side then -- I knew where Bruno was, I knew he was struggling and falling back from us. The most important thing was to stay in front of Bruno.
ERIC MAUK: We are now joined by the third-place driver today, the driver of the #55 Herdez Ford-Cosworth Lola/Bridgestone, Mario Dominguez who scores his fourth podium finish of the season and the fifth of his career by coming in third today. This marks the second time this season that Mario has earned podium finishes in consecutive events. It also gives him 115 points in the Championship and moves him up into sixth position in the season standings. Mario, congratulations, on the podium again, doing it here in Mexico City, how does it feel?
MARIO DOMINGUEZ: I was just-- cannot believe it, the result finishing third in Mexico after the great support of all the Mexican fans, all the support they gave the Mexican drivers and being able to pay them with a third-place podium finish is just the best thing that could have ever happened. Thanks to my team. They give me wonderful pit stops. I really can't thank them enough. Thank to the whole Herdez Competition for their support and trust in me being able to finish third here is better than anything -- that's the best thing that's ever happened to me in my whole life. I want to thank the whole people of Mexico that were here for their support. I can't thank them enough from the bottom of my heart, and I just really love -- all the guys in Mexico, all the guys at the racetrack were in the car with me through the whole time. It was great.
ERIC MAUK: Again as you have done in several races this year made a couple of very daring passing moves and completed some tough passes on track where many guys weren't able to make passes. What was the difference in making some of the late race passes today?
MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Well, it was really the setup we put on the car. We put a low down-force setup. We knew the only place we could pass was at the end of a straight. So we just, you know, best effort there, we gambled a little bit. It paid off. We were pretty fast at the end of the straight; not very straight in the esses, but it was definitely the way to go over here to overtake.
ERIC MAUK: Congratulations. Great result. Again, we'll go back to questions from the media.
Q. Paul, yesterday you were a little bit apprehensive about the start and obviously it worked out very well for you. Can you kind of take us through how it went.
PAUL TRACY: I decided to go maybe a little bit too early the first time. I held about a 70 mile an hour speed second gear and then jumped it and I got a pretty big jump on Tiago, so the flagger waived that one off. Then I just waited maybe 50, 100 meters later, to go and we were pretty even coming across the line, but I saw Bruno coming and I stayed in the middle of the road and he split the gap between me and Tiago and came to the outside of me. As soon as he pulled out of draft, he didn't really start going by me, he got side-by-side with me, all the way down the straightaway. But that's as far as he can get. I just waited for him to brake and braked a fraction a second later and then I was into the first corner first and you know, once I came out the first complex I had about five car lengths on him and at the end of that lap I was two seconds in front and just steadily pulled away to the first stop, I was almost six seconds.
Q. Talk about towards the end of race Oriol Servia went off and he came on back, I don't know, came back on in front, I think both all of you guys -- was that a problem?
PAUL TRACY: He was getting a pull-start, no. I was glad they didn't go full-course yellow for that, for sure but you could see all the way to the other side of the track from there - when you turn in off the front straightaway you could see, I can see that he was getting pulled and before I got there, he had just started so I just held a tight line. I think it maybe held up Sebastien more than it did me.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Basically I pushed really hard after the last pitstop. I really overused my tires, I really tried everything I could, but you know when you are in the draft, you lose a lot of downforce and then you beat up your tires and then at that point that was already over. I had like five or six laps where just couldn't find a spot and just really tried all I could.
MARIO DOMINGUEZ: I'd like to compliment the officials for not going yellow at the end because it made for a better race, good call. Congratulations to them.
Q: What did you think of the weekend?
PAUL TRACY: I think the track is a beautiful track, fantastic layout. I think it is a bumpy track, but I don't think there's any real way that you can fix that situation here because you have got, from what I understand, you have a very high water table here because of the ocean on one side and the gulf on the other. The water table is very high. Very volcanic region, the ground is moving all the time, so I don't think there's -- even if you repave it, the bumps are still going to form in the track no matter what you do. I think it's just something that you have to set up for and get your car balanced as best you can and you know, something that we have to deal with.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Basically it was a very tough racetrack, but obviously for everybody, it's the same. It's just giving a great show for the fans. It is just making life a lot harder for us because to find the right balance on the car is a big problem because also the altitude you have a lot of downforce so it's just -- really no offense to that, it's just an observation, the track is definitely bumpy, but it is a beautiful one.
ERIC MAUK: Last question for these two guys.
Q. Before I ask my question I just want to remark something that it's important that I say not only for me but all the Mexicans, you are welcome, this is your home, we're really glad to have the CART Series in Mexico. And my question is what image do you take home about Mexico not only as a race -- as a circuit but as the treatment, how did Mexico treat you? Do you like Mexico?
PAUL TRACY: I think the most important thing is that the fans are really enthusiastic about racing. They have great fans, beautiful women, fantastic facility both Monterey and here are fantastic tracks. It's so much fun to come down here and race and have a lot of fun. Any time you can race with this many people, it's a great feeling.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Yeah, I think it's definitely the point, I mean, to race, I don't know how many people were there today, but it was like all the grand stands were sold out, and you know, we don't see that often in CART Series even if we had a pretty good visit. But it's a long track, a lot of grandstand, these ones are huge, and it's full and it's unbelievable to race in front of such a good crowd.
PAUL TRACY: Such an awesome feeling to go through that stadium, when you come to a stadium and there's 60,000 people in the stadium it's just an incredible feeling.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Thank you for coming.
Q. There was a lot of question, a lot of concern about tire wear yesterday. And not just you but everybody was a little bit concerned about it. Can you just talk about -- probably you were -- you didn't have the luxury of being like Paul kind of being able to manage your tire wear because you were having to pass so many people. Can you just talk about --
MARIO DOMINGUEZ: I really got to hand it to the Bridgestone because the tires were great. Especially this type of track it's very demanding. Towards the end, my tires were behaving very, very well. My tires were very, very good for like the first eight laps that's when I started -- after the last pitstop to catch Sebastien and Paul, and then just the last three or four laps I couldn't gain anymore distance on them because I think I overheated them. I think I just pushed a little too hard at the beginning and overheated them. So I couldn't gain anymore. Derrick Walker Steps Down from Cart Board of DirectorsINDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 19, 2003 (PRNewswire-FirstCall) -- Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. (NYSE:MPH) announced today that team owner Derrick Walker has relinquished his position as a member of the Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. Board of Directors, effective immediately. In making his decision, Mr. Walker cited that he was sensitive to the potential for an appearance of a conflict of interest in connection with decisions regarding the future of the company, and that he felt his resignation was in the best interests of the company and its shareholders. Chris Pook, CART's President and CEO, offered his thanks to Mr. Walker for the contributions he made as a Board member. "Mr. Walker has provided the CART Board of Directors with useful insight and expertise during his tenure and will be missed," Pook said. "We appreciate the time and effort he has devoted to CART, his wise counsel and his support of the series." CART CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES POINTS LEADER PAUL TRACY THRILLS TORONTO CROWD OF 73,255 WITH DOMINATING VICTORY IN SUNDAY’S MOLSON INDY TORONTO
TORONTO (July 13, 2003) – With the rains that plagued the first two days of the Molson Indy Toronto finally yielding to a blue sky on race day, it was only fitting that the blue colors of Player’s/Forsythe racing were carried to the top of the podium during today’s 10th round of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.
Paul Tracy (#3 Player’s/Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) carried those blue colors to the top step of the podium Sunday, sending a race-day crowd of 73,255 into a frenzy as the driver they call the Thrill From West Hill led all 112 laps en route to taking his second Toronto victory. Tracy’s dominance on Sunday was never in question as he roared away at the drop of the green flag. He built an 11-second advantage after just 21 laps and would stretch the lead to more than 35 seconds at one point before a late caution flag forced him to settle for a 4.533-second margin of victory.
The win was the first for a Player’s-sponsored CART Champ Car, and comes on a weekend when the long-time open-wheel backer announced that it would be forced to leave racing due to impending tobacco legislation. Tracy is the only Canadian driver to ever win a Champ Car race in his home country and allows him to widen his series lead to 15 points over Bruno Junqueira (#1 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) of Newman/Haas Racing.
“This means maybe 10 times more than my first win here in 1993,” said Tracy. “I’ve been breaking my back ever since then to get back to Victory Lane here and today it paid off. I had a great car and guys in lapped cars did a great job getting out of the way and not holding people up. It was a great crowd and I am thrilled to be able to give them a win. I expect to see a lot of street parties tonight.”
Michel Jourdain Jr. (#9 Gigante Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) benefited from a late slip in the pits from Junqueira to snare the runner-up spot, taking his fifth podium finish of the 2003 season. Jourdain ran in the top four for much of the day and would move into the second spot after the last round of pit stops. He had one final shot at Tracy with 24 laps to go after a caution period erased a 35-second lead, but the points leader was equal to the task on the Lap 88 restart and pulled away from Jourdain and Junqueira.
The two would battle nose-to-tail behind Tracy for the second spot with Jourdain managing to hold off the Brazilian over the final laps to earn his first podium finish since his Milwaukee victory. Junqueira would settle for the third spot and was able to maintain his second-place standing in the championship chase.
Tracy rocketed away at the drop of the green flag but behind him it was fellow Canadian Alex Tagliani (#33 Johnson Controls Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) that was making all the noise. Tagliani made a solid pass of Jourdain for third on the first trip through Turn One, and then outbraked Junqueira later in that lap to claim the second spot. He would run second for the first 27 laps before a steering problem led him to have problems in Turn Three. He went wide and then came across Junqueira’s car and made contact that would eventually lead to his retirement.
After that, the only drama for the next 50 laps was whether or not Tracy was going to eclipse the event record for highest margin of victory (38.100 seconds, 1990, Al Unser Jr.). He fashioned a 20-second lead after 40 laps, made it through a pair of flawless pit stops and was adding a second per lap to his lead when the yellow flags flew on Lap 78 for the stalled car of Jimmy Vasser (#12 American Spirit Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) that had spun in Turn 1.
2-2-2-2 Tracy wins Toronto
Everyone waited until Lap 81 to pit in order to avoid making a final splash-and-go and formed up behind the points leader for one more restart heading into the Princes’ Gates in Turn One. Tracy took the green flag with a six carlength advantage and left Jourdain and Junqueira to their own battle.
More fierce battles took place behind the top three although the leaders were able to hold the point in nearly every situation. Rookie points leader Sebastien Bourdais (#2 Lilly Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) strengthened his hold on the lead in the first-year driver standings with a fourth-place run as he held off a pair of charges at the end of the day. Oriol Servia (#20 Visteon/Patrick Racing Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) celebrated his 29th birthday on Sunday by rounding out the top five, scoring his seventh consecutive top-six finish.
Roberto Moreno (#4 Herdez Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) had his best weekend since March as he turned his best 2003 starting position into a sixth-place finish – his best since Monterrey, Mexico. He fought off Patrick Carpentier’s (#32 Player’s/Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) late charge to send the Canadian home in seventh with rookie Darren Manning (#15 RAC/Walker Racing Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) leading the Reynard contingent in eighth. Portland winner Adrian Fernandez (#51 Tecate/Quaker State/Telmex Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) placed ninth while rookie Tiago Monteiro (#7 Fittipaldi-Dingman Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) rounded out the top 10.
TOP THREE FINISHERS QUOTES
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: “I really think that if I had been ahead of Jourdain after the last stop, I would have been able to pressure Paul (Tracy). Newman/Haas gave me a very reliable car. Considering I haven't had the best of luck in Toronto in my past two races here, it's good to get a podium. I made a mistake on the last stop and locked up the tires coming in the pit box. The PacifiCare crew did a good job to get the tires on but we lost second place to Jourdain. Considering the fact that I got hit on the first stint by Alex (Tagliani), I'm glad to finish on the podium.”
MICHEL JOURDAIN JR.: “I just hope some day that I can win in Mexico because I see Paul and what it means to him and the team to win here and I am very happy for him. I am pleased to get second place and get the championship points because the last couple of weeks we have had a good car but haven’t gotten the points that we should have scored.”
PAUL TRACY: “It's unbelievable to win here because of the importance of the race. It's the most dominant race of my career and to do it, I had to have a great car and Team Player's gave me a perfect car. It was kind of frustrating when the yellow came out because we had such a lead on second place. We had a great pit stop and I was able to pull away again to win. We have the momentum and Vancouver has always been good to me, so we are hopeful.”
NOTEWORTHY
Paul Tracy’s
win is the first in Canada for a Player’s-sponsored car, and the
first for a Canadian driver in his home country since Tracy won in Vancouver
in 2000. Tracy’s
112 laps led propelled him to third on the all-time CART Champ Car list
for laps led. Tracy has now paced 3,176 laps in his career, moving him
ahead of Mario Andretti (3,064), Bobby Rahal (3,107) and Al Unser Jr.
(3,113). He needs to lead 91 more to pass Rick Mears for second on the
list. Tracy’s
23rd victory of his career moved him into sole possession of fifth place
on the all-time victory list. He needs one more victory to tie Bobby Rahal
for fourth. His fifth career win from the pole makes him only the eighth
CART driver to win as many as five races from the pole. Oriol Servia’s
seventh consecutive top-six finishes equals a record for the venerable
Patrick Racing team, which has competed in 22 of the series’ 25 seasons.
The winner of the very first CART event, Gordon Johncock strung seven
straight top-six finishes together on two different occasions while driving
for Patrick in the early 1980s. Sebastien
Bourdais widened his gap in the rookie points standings over Darren Manning
with Sunday’s fourth-place run, giving him 86 points to 50 for Manning.
Four rookies tallied points in Sunday’s race including Tiago Monteiro
and Ryan Hunter-Reay. INDIANAPOLIS (July 9, 2003) – When CART’s turbocharged Champ Cars come screaming through Miami’s downtown streets again September 28th for the second annual Grand Prix Americas, the effects of the race will be felt far in to the community surrounding the 1.314-mile circuit in Bayfront Park.
The South Florida region that hosts Round 16 of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford and beyond will benefit from initiatives introduced by the recently formed Grand Prix Americas Foundation.
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz launched the Grand Prix Americas Foundation, which hopes to raise more than $250,000 to benefit charitable organizations, including Cody Unser’s First Step, the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the Camillus House, the Miami-Dade College Foundation and the Children’s Home Society of Florida.
The major fundraiser for the Grand Prix Americas Foundation will be the Magic in Miami Charity Gala taking place Thursday night of race week, September 25, 2003 at the InterContinental Miami Hotel. In addition, the Grand Prix Americas will donate one dollar for every ticket sold on Saturday September 27, 2003, and during a specific time frame will offer a five percent donation on all tickets sold.
“It’s great to see the Grand Prix Americas contributing to our community,” said Mayor Diaz. “Building on the success of last year’s race, the Charity Ball promises to raise much needed funds for these great organizations.”
Diaz was joined in Miami by Ambassador for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis Marc Buoniconti, President and General Manager of Grand Prix Americas Chuck Martinez and Cody Unser, who leads her charity First Step, in announcing the foundation’s goal at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.
“The establishment of this foundation is another example of our focused commitment to Miami,” said Martinez. “These charities represent vital issues facing our communities.”
The Grand Prix Americas Foundation will be headed by a Board of Directors comprised of local community leaders. Also serving as honorary co-chairs of the Grand Prix Americas Foundation are Mayor Diaz and current Champ Car team owner Emerson Fittipaldi of Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing.
The Grand Prix Americas is Round 16 of 19 in the 2003 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford, hosted in Miami’s Bayfront Park on a 1.314-mile temporary downtown street circuit. Call (888) 248-RACE for ticket information or catch all the action live on SPEED Channel September 28th at 12:30 p.m. ET. INDIANAPOLIS (July 9, 2003) – In its new sponsorship with Newman / Haas Racing and high impact rookie talent Sebastien Bourdais, fast food chain McDonald’s is one-for-one after the Frenchman ran a dominant race to win last Saturday’s U.S. Bank Presents The Grand Prix of Cleveland.
Bourdais brought new sponsor McDonald’s a victory in their first race with Newman / Haas Racing, as well as a third win for pharmaceutical industry leader Lilly this season. In addition to last weekend’s Champ Car race at Cleveland, McDonald’s alliance with Newman-Haas Racing includes Round 15, the Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver, August 31 and Round 16, the Grand Prix Americas in Miami, September 28.
The victory marked the third on the Bridgestone / Lola / Bridgestone) of Player's / Forsythe Racing.
Bourdais, 21, the latest addition to the NHR fraternity of top caliber drivers, is proving he belongs in the most diverse open wheel racing challenge in motorsport, with backing from one of America’s most recognizable companies.
“It feels very good, obviously, because the car turned red for this event with the arrival of McDonald’s to complete the Lilly partnership,” said Bourdais. “I'm very glad of that because it looked like the black car was a synonym of bad luck and now it's gone. I'm just very proud to score my first win in US. It was an awesome race.”
The exposure gained by racing in the Champ Car World Series is starting to help the newer teams in the paddock earn sponsorship for their race cars. In addition to McDonald’s relationship with Newman/Haas Racing, the #7 Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing machine driven by Tiago Monteiro signed a deal with Carrera sunglasses as an associate sponsor while the #27 PK Racing entry with Max Papis behind the wheel inked a deal with Japhiro Swiss Watches. Walker Racing signed an associate deal with Air China for the #15 car of Darren Manning while Geoff Boss in the #11 Dale Coyne entry has sponsorship from Lacoste and Cross Pens. Gevril watches has also done a deal with the #34 Mi-Jack / Conquest machine driven by Mario Haberfeld.
McDonald’s is the world’s leading food service retailer with more than 30,000 restaurants serving 46 million customers each day in more than 100countries. Approximately 80 percent of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent, local businessmen and women. CART CHAMP CAR ROOKIE POINTS LEADER SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS FIRES FINAL BULLET IN LAST-LAP SHOOTOUT TO WIN U.S BANK PRESENTS THE CLEVELAND GRAND PRIXCLEVELAND (July 5, 2003) - His law student looks belie his competitive fire but young Sebastien Bourdais (#2 McDonald's/Lilly Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) is serving notice that he will fight as hard as anyone to climb into the upper ranks of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. Bourdais used nearly every ounce of his energy in surviving a warm and humid evening in Cleveland, then summoned his final reserves to hold off a charging pack in a last-lap shootout to earn his third CART Champ Car World Series victory of the season, winning the U.S. Bank Presents The Cleveland Grand Prix. The rookie points leader led the last 33 laps around the 2.106-mile Burke Lakefront Airport course, beating series points leader Paul Tracy (#3 Player's/Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) to the flag by 2.241 seconds in front of a crowd of 58,271 that witnessed the first-ever nighttime road course race in series history. Tracy would hold off a fierce challenge from Bourdais' Newman/Haas teammate Bruno Junqueira (#1 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) on what ended up being a last-lap shootout to claim second place and maintain the series points lead as the season makes the turn and heads to Round 10 in Toronto next week. Despite having just eight races under his belt, Bourdais showed the steeled nerves of a veteran as he roared through the last 10 laps in search of his third win. He survived a brief moment of contact with Adrian Fernandez (#51 Tecate/Quaker State/Telmex Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) in Turn One that inflicted slight damage to his car, then saw his 11-second lead erased in one flick of the yellow flag as Jimmy Vasser's (#12 American Spirit Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) machine spun in Turn One with three laps to go to bring out the fourth and final caution of the day. The Simple Green Champ Car Safety Team got the stricken car out of the way in time and the lapped car of Mario Haberfeld (#34 Mi-Jack Conquest Racing Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) moved over to let the leaders through on the restart, but Tracy would not be able to make a dent in Bourdais' lead as the rookie roared away to the win. "I'm just very proud to score my first win in US. It was an awesome race. I think Paul and myself pushed as hard as possible, that means 100 percent and even more, all through the race," Bourdais said. "And that's why we draft together. He said he couldn't handle the steering wheel anymore, but if you could see my blisters, you won't believe it. But it's been a very, very tough race, and obviously I'm very, very happy for the McDonald's/Lilly crew." With Bourdais gone, Tracy and Junqueira fought hammer-and-tong for the second spot. Junqueira made a strong move to take the spot in Turn Three, but Tracy fought back two turns later to reclaim the runner-up position after leading 67 laps and stretched his lead to eight points. Junqueira would settle for his third podium finish of the season, while Tracy's teammate Patrick Carpentier (#32 Player's/Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) would take the fourth spot. "After 114 laps, I didn't want to take everything out, you know. I did a move on him on turn three. I out-braked him. For sure I lifted a little bit between three and four. I thought that he was going to give me a move on turn four and do a better exit. Then I slowed down too much to Paul. I think Paul made a great maneuver to keep outside and get around me outside. I said, "Oh, there is one driver in the world that could do that, and that guy is Paul Tracy." 2-2-2-2 There was plenty of action behind the leaders to keep the large crowd occupied as well as Carpentier led a peloton of four cars that battled within a second of each other for the final half of the race. Michel Jourdain Jr. (#9 Gigante Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) came back from a first-lap spin to battle all the way back into the top five along with Oriol Servia (#20 Visteon/Patrick Racing Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and Mario Dominguez (#55 Herdez Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone). That quartet would swap positions a number of times in the waning laps with Dominguez getting good pit work from his Herdez team and making a pass of Jourdain to round out the top five. Servia would end up sixth with Jourdain settling for the seventh spot. For Dominguez it was the fourth top-five finish of the season, while Servia placed in the top six for the sixth consecutive event. Jourdain made a tremendous charge through the field to place seventh and would remain within 20 points of the series lead. Alex Tagliani (#33 Johnson Controls Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) placed eighth on the day while rookies Ryan Hunter-Reay (#31 American Spirit Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) and Darren Manning (#15 RAC/Walker Racing Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone) rounded out the top 10. Fernandez survived the late-race contact to place 11th while Max Papis (#27 PK Racing Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) would score his first point since taking over the PK Racing ride. The series will head across the border next week for Round 10 of the 19-race series for the Molson Indy Toronto, which takes place in the streets of Exhibition Place in the Canadian city. TOP THREE DRIVER QUOTES SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: "I was so tired in the car. I didn't know where Paul was, but I knew how I was. I thought it was going to be difficult to be very concentrated to get the checkered. And I got a bit of a rest, and I've been able to do it, put it together for the very last lap. I went away from PT and Bruno's fight, and I didn't see what happened, but I'm pretty glad of that." PAUL TRACY: "His (Bourdais') previous lap was a little bit slower, so maybe I could attack. But, you know, he made a good restart and jumped it pretty good, pretty far back on a straightaway. That was that. I mean, you know, then I had my hands full with Bruno, so there was no challenge." BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: "But the end was good. I think I lost four points because -- I lost two points to a good car and two points to Tracy's car. It's important to keep consistent. I think the PacifiCare-Newman/Haas team gave me consistent car. The car was good. I mean, I had so much understeer compared with Tracy and Sebastien. I couldn't keep up the pace that they had. But it was okay, I'm quite happy with the result." NOTEWORTHY: " Sebastien Bourdais and Paul Tracy have made up the front row in four of the year's nine races - including Cleveland - and one of those two drivers have won the event in each four instances. " In leading Lap 3 Saturday night, Paul Tracy led the 3,000th lap of his Champ Car career. He upped his career total to 3,064 which ties him for fifth on the all-time list with Mario Andretti. " Tiago Monteiro did not start the U.S. Bank Presents The Cleveland Grand Prix after an accident in the afternoon warmup left him with a mild concussion. Monteiro will be evaluated again before next week's race in Toronto. " Sebastien Bourdais widened his advantage in the rookie championship to 29 over Darren Manning and 33 over Mario Haberfeld. " American Spirit's Ryan Hunter-Reay led the Reynard contingent with a ninth-place finish, earning the second top-10 finish of his young career. " PK Racing's Max Papis scored his first championship point since joining the team two races ago, becoming the 21st driver to score points in the series this year.
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