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After what seems like a long break, the teams and drivers of the Champ Car World Series return to the track, heading out to the Pacific Northwest and "the City of Roses", Portland, Oregon and the 24th running of the Grand Prix of Portland. The 1.964-mile natural terrain road course will give drivers the chance to stretch their legs and the legs of the Panoz DP01 without any concrete-canyon walls to worry about. Past winners here include some of NA motorsports' greats, from Mario and Michael Andretti, to Bobby Rahal, Alex Zanardi, "Little" Al Unser, Jr., Gil de Ferran, Cristiano da Matta and current series champion Sebastien Bourdais. A little history could be made here, as rumor has it the series will utilize standing starts for the first time in the modern era(........ .............); hopefully, no one will take anyone out or stall themselves on the frontstraight.

Here is the weekend event schedule.....................
Practice Session #1, 1:15 pm, 8 June 2007
Practice Session #2, 5 pm, 8 June 2007
Qualifying Session #1, 5:20 pm, 8 June 2007
Practice Session #3, 1:15 pm, 9 June 2007
Practice Session #4, 5 pm, 9 June 2007
Qualifying Session #2, 5:20 pm, 9 June 2007
Final Practice, 1 pm, 10 June 2007
Grand Prix of Portland, 4 pm, 10 June 2007(live broadcast on ABC Sports)

As always, I'll have commentaries, observations, news and info during the weekend.....who knows, I could bring back some roses for the Idiots Bar; after all, the race is in "the City of Roses".....

Portland, for a road course, is somewhat tricky.........................

Coming off the final corner, you can feel the Cosworth turbo V8 kickin' as you head down the pitstraight towards the Festival Curves(turns 1A-1B-1C), a quick right-left-right that has seen many a driver's race end on the first lap(hopefully, that won't happen now that the series has gone F1 and adopted standing starts...... ); before 2005, that would've likely meant getting caught in the kitty litter(a/k/a gravel trap) inside the Curves. Getting through the Curves, it's a quick jolt to turns 2, 3 and 4, in reality one long, triple-apex corner(think "Bloody Big Bend" at Istanbul Park, but to the right... ); you're still on the throttle, but the great drivers are likely playin' with the throttle n'brake, finding a balance btwn. speed and traction(no traction control in ChampCar......unlike F1!). Before one can catch their breath, it's a quick turn to the left at turn 5, then a quick jaunt to turns 6 and 7.....and then it's time to release the hounds as you fly down the long, curved backstraight down to turn 8, where you have to rapidly brake(from 7th gear and 180+ down to 2nd and about 50+ mph) and setup for turn 9, which takes you around a short carousel to the start/finish line.

And that's a lap at Portland.............

Portland Practice Session #1 top-5...................

1st} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing............................58.494 sec
2nd} (R)Graham Rahal, NHL Racing..............................58.508 sec
3rd} Justin Wilson, RuSport Racing...............................58.529 sec
4th} (R)Neel Jani, PKV Racing......................................58.704 sec
5th} Will Power, Team Australia...................................58.806 sec

Portland Practice Session #2 top-5.....................

1st} Will Power, Team Australia....................................58.797 sec
2nd} Justin Wilson, RuSport Racing...............................59.073 sec
3rd} (R)Simon Pagenaud, Team Australia......................59.111 sec
4th} Dan Clarke, Minardi Team USA.............................59.208 sec
5th} (R)Tristan Gommendy, PKV Racing........................59.368 sec

In recent years, Brit Justin Wilson has seemingly dominated Friday qualifying at Portland.....and today it was no exception as he reeled off three fast flyers midway through the session to capture the provisional pole(and the guaranteed front-row starting spot), along with the one championship point that goes with it. After the session ended, Wilson was asked about the session..............

Justin Wilson, #9 CDW, RuSport Racing.........................

Everything went quite well; we're pleased with the performance. I'm very happy with the way the whole team has been working and improving. We're just getting stronger and stronger and learning all the time. The laps themselves (were) quite good. We kept working away at it. I got a little bit of traffic, but managed to put (them) together and it felt good. The (Bridgestone) option tires just added more grip. We didn't touch the setup; we just put the tires on. It worked very well; we're quite pleased. We feel like we've got some more in reserve; other than that, we're quite happy.

Top-5 from qualifying session #1.....................
1st} Justin Wilson, RuSport Racing....................................58.000 sec/121.903 mph*
2nd} (R)Robert Doornbos, Minardi Team USA.....................58.214 sec/121.455 mph
3rd} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing.................................58.308 sec/121.260 mph
4th} Alex Tagliani, Rocketsports Racing..............................58.363 sec/121.145 mph
5th} (R)Tristan Gommendy, PKV Racing..............................58.399 sec/121.071 mph

Portland Practice Session #3 top-5.................

1st} Justin Wilson, RuSport Racing.......................1:11.065 sec
2nd} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing...................1:11.210 sec
3rd} (R)Neel Jani, PKV Racing..............................1:11.398 sec
4th} (R)Tristan Gommendy, PKV Racing................1:11.619 sec
5th} (R)Graham Rahal, NHL Racing.......................1:11.877 sec

Portland Practice Session #4 top-5...................

1st} (R)Robert Doornbos, Minardi Team USA...............1:12.441 sec
2nd} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing..........................1:13.000 sec
3rd} Bruno Junquiera, Dale Coyne Racing....................1:13.770 sec
4th} Will Power, Team Australia..................................1:14.475 sec
5th} Katherine Legge, Dale Coyne Racing....................1:14.573 sec

Mazda Grand Prix of Portland Starting Grid...............
note....grid set based on QS-1 times from Friday; Robert Doornbos was the fastest in a wet QS-2 this afternoon with a time of 1:11.629 sec


1st} Justin Wilson, #9 CDW...........................................58.000 sec/121.903 mph
2nd} (R)Robert Doornbos, #14 Muermans/OzJet..............58.214 sec/121.455 mph

3rd} Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's..........................58.308 sec/121.260 mph
4th} Alex Tagliani, #8 Lexington Energy Svcs...................58.363 sec/121.145 mph

5th} (R)Tristan Gommendy, #22 Pay by Touch.................58.399 sec/121.071 mph
6th} (R)Simon Pagenaud, #15 Aussie Vineyards...............58.448 sec/120.969 mph

7th} Will Power, #5 Aussie Vineyards...............................58.469 sec/120.926 mph
8th} (R)Graham Rahal, #2 Medi/Zone..............................58.639 sec/120.575 mph

9th} Dan Clarke, #4 Ticketmaster/Synapse Below............58.692 sec/120.466 mph
10th} (R)Neel Jani, #21 Red Bull/Gulfstream....................58.805 sec/120.235 mph

11th} Oriol Servia, #7 Telmex/Indeck.............................58.926 sec/119.988 mph
12th} Jan Heylen, #34 Zolder Grand Prix 2007.................59.181 sec/119.471 mph

13th} Paul Tracy, #3 Indeck/Forsythe..............................59.418 sec/118.994 mph
14th} Bruno Junquiera, #19 Sonny's Real Pit BBQ.............59.696 sec/118.440 mph

15th} (R)Alex Figge, #29 Molecule Labs............................59.708 sec/118.416 mph
16th} Katherine Legge, #11 AMR/i-Rise............................1:00.421 sec/117.019 mph

17th} (R)Ryan Dalziel, #28 Ironclad/Molecule Labs............1:04.275 sec/110.002 mph

In case anyone's forgotten, standing starts(...... ..........) will be used for the first time in the modern era of NA open-wheel(in terms of top-level competition)........the procedures are as follows.............

--the pre-grid will occur on the pit straightaway
--the 'clear the grid' call will occur at the 3 min. mark
--the 'drivers, start your engines' call will occur at the 1 min. mark
--the drivers will roll off the grid for one formation lap, returning to their marks on the pitstraight
--once the last driver on the grid comes to a stop, the 15 sec. board will be displayed by the flagstand
--after 15 seconds, the standing start light sequence will begin(five lights, one after the other).....once the fifth light comes on, the lights will go dark and away they'll go.........


Hopefully, everything will work.............

mlittle wrote:In case anyone's forgotten, standing starts(...... ..........) will be used for the first time in the modern era of NA open-wheel(in terms of top-level competition)........the procedures are as follows.............

--the pre-grid will occur on the pit straightaway
--the 'clear the grid' call will occur at the 3 min. mark
--the 'drivers, start your engines' call will occur at the 1 min. mark
--the drivers will roll off the grid for one formation lap, returning to their marks on the pitstraight
--once the last driver on the grid comes to a stop, the 15 sec. board will be displayed by the flagstand
--after 15 seconds, the standing start light sequence will begin(five lights, one after the other).....once the fifth light comes on, the lights will go dark and away they'll go.........


Hopefully, everything will work.............

"

What is the third pedal for, Boss

Julian Mayo wrote:

mlittle wrote:In case anyone's forgotten, standing starts(...... ..........) will be used for the first time in the modern era of NA open-wheel(in terms of top-level competition)........the procedures are as follows.............

--the pre-grid will occur on the pit straightaway
--the 'clear the grid' call will occur at the 3 min. mark
--the 'drivers, start your engines' call will occur at the 1 min. mark
--the drivers will roll off the grid for one formation lap, returning to their marks on the pitstraight
--once the last driver on the grid comes to a stop, the 15 sec. board will be displayed by the flagstand
--after 15 seconds, the standing start light sequence will begin(five lights, one after the other).....once the fifth light comes on, the lights will go dark and away they'll go.........


Hopefully, everything will work.............

"

What is the third pedal for, Boss

Let's see....there's the throttle, then there's the brake.......launch assist?

In the 20+ years that Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing has been competing in the Champ Car World Series, the team has won 99 races in ChampCar competition with some of the sport's top drivers(Ma. and Mi. Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Cristiano da Matta, Paul Tracy)...........and they got win 100 Sunday afternoon with 3-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais providing the victory...........



As the lights went out on ChampCar's first standing start(.....anyone want any crow; I didn't think they'd actually pull off a standing start...... ), however, it wasn't SeaBass who got the drop on the field but RuSport's Justin Wilson who got the lead entering turn 1......a lead that would stretch to about 12 seconds; meanwhile, SeaBass looked like he was human after all, dropping back to 5th following an opportunistic pass by Wilson's "teammate", Rocketsports' Alex Tagliani*......but appearance, as they can say, can be deceiving.

*--technically, Wilson and Tagliani drive for different teams(RuSport and Rocketsports) but their respective teams have merged engineering staffs(collectively named R-Sports), hence they are, technically, teammates.

After the first round of stops, however, the SeaBass that has effectively put a stranglehold on the series returned to form, with the help of his pitcrew, who short-filled Bourdais hoping to jump ahead of Tagliani, Robert Doornbos and Will Power........it worked; once ahead, he set his sights on Wilson and steadily reeled him in, eventually passing him on lap 54 at the Festival Curves......and it was lights out afterwards; Bourdais was never seriously challenged the rest of the day.

Top-10 from Portland......................
1st} #1 Sebastien Bourdais.................................103 laps
2nd} #9 Justin Wilson..........................................-13.537 sec
3rd} (R)#14 Robert Doornbos..............................-35.151 sec
4th} #5 Will Power..............................................-43.338 sec
5th} #8 Alex Tagliani..........................................-1:01.396 sec
6th} #4 Dan Clarke............................................-1:02.044 sec
7th} (R)#22 Tristan Gommendy...........................-1 lap
8th} (R)#15 Simon Pagenaud..............................-1 lap
9th} (R)#2 Graham Rahal...................................-1 lap
10th} #3 Paul Tracy............................................-1 lap