2007 CCWS Rd. 12--TT Assen Grand Prix

[mlittle]

For decades, motorcycling fans have called the TT Assen Circuit in the Drenthe province of Holland "the Cathedral of Motorcycling", this weekend adds a new chapter as "the Cathedral" will be greeted by the 750-hp behemoths of the ChampCar series; going into this weekend's race, the question is the paddock seems to be........can 3-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais, fresh off a victory in Zolder this past weekend, do the "European Double" and sweep the two European races as he did his rookie year of 2003, when the Frenchman won on the Indy Circuit at Brands Hatch, then backed it up with a thrilling win on the oval at EuroSpeedway-Lausitz.

Event schedule for the TT Assen Grand Prix presented by Bavaria Beer........................
note....all times listed are local for the Assen area/+6 hrs. forward of US EDT
Practice Session #1, 10:05 am, 31 August 2007
Practice Session #2, 2 pm, 31 August 2007
Qualifying Session #1, 2:20 pm, 31 August 2007
Practice Session #3, 10:15 am, 1 September 2007
Practice Session #4, 2 pm, 1 September 2007
Qualfiying Session #2, 2:20 pm, 1 September 2007
Warm-Up, 9 am, 2 September 2007
Race, 1 pm, 2 September 2007

[GhoGho]

Bob has home town advantage

[mlittle]

Event: TT Assen Grand prix presented by Bavaria Beer
Where: TT Assen Circuit, Assen, Holland
When: 1pm(local time), 2 September 2007(7am US EDT)

Track length: 2.83 miles
Race Distance: timed event, 1 hr., 45 minutes

Entry List.........................................
Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's
(R)Graham Rahal, #2 Medi/Zone
Paul Tracy, #3 Indeck/Monster Energy Drink
Dan Clarke, #4 Ticketmaster/Synapse Power
Will Power, #5 Aussie Vineyards
Oriol Servia, #7 Indeck/Forsythe
Alex Tagliani, #8 Lexington Energy Services
Justin Wilson, #9 CDW/Plantronics
Katherine Legge, #11 AMR/F1-Air
(R)Robert Doornbos, #14 Trust
(R)Simon Pagenaud, #15 Aussie Vineyards
Bruno Junquiera, #19 Sonny's Real Pit BBQ
(R)Neel Jani, #21 Red Bull/Gulfstream
(R)Tristan Gommendy, #22 Pay-by-Touch
(R)Ryan Dalziel, #28 Plain Jane Couture
(R)Alex Figge, #29 Plain Jane Couture
Jan Heylen, #34 Grafiprint Digital Services

[mlittle]

Bob has home town advantage

That's what I was thinking; Bobby D's got the home track advantage this round...........

[mlittle]

Assen Track Map(from the ChampCar site.............)

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/CONT ... R_0002.pdf

(click on the above link for the track map...........the above-linked map is the official timing/scoring map Race Control is using during the event weekend)

[cmlean]

SeeBas is clearly the dominant driver in this series. With his move to F1 next season, watch his dust as he grinds the opposition into the ground.

[mlittle]

SeeBas is clearly the dominant driver in this series. With his move to F1 next season, watch his dust as he grinds the opposition into the ground.

I think he's already doing just that......

[mlittle]

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

1st} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing..................................1:20.234 sec
2nd}(R)Graham Rahal, NHL Racing....................................1:20.268 sec
3rd}(R)Simon Pagenaud, Team Australia............................1:20.294 sec
4th} Oriol Servia, Forsythe Champ. Racing.........................1:20.399 sec
5th} Justin Wilson, RuSport Racing.....................................1:20.550 sec

[mlittle]

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

1st} Jan Heylen, Conquest Racing...............................1:19.759 sec
2nd}(R)Graham Rahal, NHL Racing..............................1:19.997 sec
3rd}(R)Neel Jani, PKV Racing......................................1:20.496 sec
4th} Oriol Servia, Forsythe Champ. Racing...................1:20.747 sec
5th}(R)Robert Doornbos, Minardi Team USA.................1:20.752 sec

[mlittle]

Assen QS-1 provisional top-5......................................

1st} Justin Wilson, RuSport.........................................1:30.656 sec
2nd}(R)Simon Pagenaud, Team Australia.....................1:31.550 sec
3rd}(R)Graham Rahal, NHL Racing...............................1:31.858 sec
4th}(R)Tristan Gommendy, PKV Racing........................1:31.874 sec
5th} Oriol Servia, Forsythe Champ. Racing...................1:31.900 sec

~~notes on the above................(1)conditions during QS-1 went from rain to a partially-drying track and back to rain; (2)by setting the fastest time in the QS-1 session, Wilson earned 1 championship point and will start no worse than 2nd

[mlittle]

With the weekend upon us, here's the Friday notebook from an alternating wet and dry TT Assen Circuit......................

~~Rave reviews............Up and down the ChampCar paddock, there were rave reviews of the circuit, with its' tight technical sections(turns 1-5) through to the very fast-flowing back half; Assen is somewhat unique amongst European roadcourses in that the turns are slightly banked both on-and-off camber, meaning that drivers have to guesstimate to a degree their entry/exit points, where the best braking zones are and where the overtaking/passing/braking zones are......now all that's needed is a little rain........

~~Changing conditions...............QS-1 Friday was a mixed bag of weather conditions--first rain, then drying weather and finally more rain. In the end, though, it was the lanky Brit, Justin Wilson, who drew the first shots of the weekend, capturing the provisional pole and the front-row starting spot come racetime.

Friday photos.....................

[mlittle]

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

1st}(R)Neel Jani, PKV Racing........................................1:19.797 sec
2nd}(R)Graham Rahal, NHL Racing................................1:19.816 sec
3rd} Paul Tracy, Forsythe Champ. Racing.......................1:20.058 sec
4th}(R)Tristan Gommendy, PKV Racing..........................1:20.197 sec
5th} Will Power, Team Australia.....................................1:20.282 sec

[mlittle]

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

1st} Sebastien Bourdais, NHL Racing...............................1:19.724 sec
2nd}(R)Graham Rahal, NHL Racing.................................1:20.259 sec
3rd} Jan Heylen, Conquest Racing..................................1:20.490 sec
4th} Dan Clarke, Minardi Team USA...............................1:20.945 sec
5th}(R)Tristan Gommendy, PKV Racing...........................1:21.048 sec

[mlittle]

TT Assen Grand Prix presented by Bavaria Beer starting grid........................
note.....all times listed were set in QS-2; by virtue of being fastest in QS-1, Justin Wilson will start in 2nd irrespective of his QS-2 time

1st} Sebastien Bourdais, #1 McDonald's...............................1:18.765 sec
2nd} Justin Wilson, #9 CDW/Plantronics...............................1:19.710 sec

3rd}(R)Tristan Gommendy, #22 Pay-by-Touch......................1:19.025 sec
4th}(R)Neel Jani, #21 Red Bull/Gulfstream...........................1:19.302 sec

5th}(R)Simon Pagenaud, #15 Aussie Vineyards....................1:19.353 sec
6th}(R)Graham Rahal, #2 Medi/Zone...................................1:19.373 sec

7th} Jan Heylen, #34 Grafiprint Digital Services....................1:19.412 sec
8th} Will Power, #5 Aussie Vineyards...................................1:19.415 sec

9th}(R)Robert Doornbos, #14 Trust.....................................1:19.612 sec
10th} Dan Clarke, #4 Ticketmaster/Synapse Power..............1:19.718 sec

11th} Bruno Junquiera, #19 Sonny's Real Pit BBQ.................1:19.813 sec
12th} Alex Tagliani, #8 Lexington Energy Services................1:19.934 sec

13th} Oriol Servia, #7 Indeck/Forsythe................................1:20.033 sec
14th} Katherine Legge, #11 AMR/F1-Air...............................1:20.548 sec

15th}(R)Ryan Dalziel, #28 Plain Jane Couture......................1:20.744 sec
16th}(R)Alex Figge, #29 Plain Jane Couture.........................1:21.039 sec

17th} Paul Tracy, #3 Indeck/Monster Energy Drink...............1:22.936 sec

[mlittle]

Saturday & Sunday Photos....................................





--in the first photo is Conquest Racing principle Eric Bachelart with Michel Perrdion, Trust president(Trust is a company specializing in computers and computer components IIRC)
--in the second photo, Australian V8 Supercar boss Tony Cochran is talking to Team Australia co-owners Craig Gore and Derrick Walker