Rnd 1 Las Vegas Event Thread (RACE SPOILERS)

[marcus]

The Long wait is almost finally over.

Round 1 of the 2007 Champcar World Series kicks off next weekend in Las Vegas.



This is the first year of Champcar at the track so its all new for 2007.

Track Length = 2.44 Miles (3.90 kms)



Check out the tracks website at http://www.vegasgrandprix.com

Thats pretty Much it for Round 1 , so lets get the ball rolling on what sould be an exciting year of Champcar racing

also check out the official series website at http://www.champcarworldseries.com/FrontPage.asp

TEN TENTHS FANTASY FORUMS

get you team in before the start of the year.

Check out http://tentenths.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=69 this forum and remember to post your fantasy team in THIS Thread or read the Fantasy team Rule book in THIS Thread. (Proudly hosted by Woodbine )

We also have a Predictions Competition Going for 2007 and you can read up on the rules of the game in THIS Thread and then post your Rnd 1 Predictions in THIS Thread (Hosted by Me )

[marcus]

STARTING GRID

1. Will Power 1.17.629 (2nd Career Pole)
Team Australia Racing
17th Career Start



2. Paul Tracy 1.19.625 (29th time starting 2nd)
Forsythe Championship Racing
250th Career Start


3. Robert Doornbos 1.18.515 (1st time starting 3rd)
Minardi Team USA
DEBUT RACE


4. Alex Tagliani 1.18.850 (9th time starting 4th)
RSPORTS
118th Career Start


5. Simon Pagenaud 1.18.961 (1st time starting 5th)
Team Australia Racing
DEBUT RACE



6. Bruno Junquiera 1.19.102 (8th time starting 6th)
Dale Coyne Racing
88th Career Start


7. Mario Dominguez 1.19.156 (4th time starting 7th)
Forsythe Championship Racing
79th Career Start


8. Justin Wilson 1.19.269 (2nd time starting 8th)
RSPORTS
41st Career Start


9. Neel Jani 1.19.360 (1st time starting 9th)
PKV Racing
DEBUT RACE


10. Graham Rahal 1.19.710 (1st time starting 10th)
Newman/Haas/Laningan Racing
DEBUT RACE


11. Tristan Gommendy 1.19.784 (1st time starting 11th)
PKV Racing
DEBUT RACE


12. Dan Clarke 1.19.814 (2nd time starting 12th)
Minardi Team USA
15th Career Start


13. Katherine Legge 1.20.104 (2nd time starting 13th)
Dale Coyne Racing
15th Career Start


14. Matt Halliday 1.20.122 (1st time starting 14th)
Conquest Racing
DEBUT RACE


15. Ryan Dalziel 1.20.128 (1st time starting 15th) CAREER BEST QUALIFYING
Pacific Coast Motorsports
2nd Career Start


16. Sebastien Bourdais 1.20.197 (1st time starting 16th)
Newman/Haas/Laningan Racing
60th Career Start


17. Alex Figge 1.20.313 (1st time starting 17th)
Pacific Coast Motorsports
DEBUT RACE

[marcus]

RACE RESULTS

1.Will Power 1ST CAREER WIN


2.Robert Doornbos (1st time finishing 2nd)


3.Paul Tracy (22nd time finishing 3rd)


4.Alex Tagliani (5th time finishing 4th)


5.Tristan Gommendy (1st time finishing 5th)


6.Katherine Legge (2nd time finishing 6th) EQUAL CAREER BEST FINISH


7.Bruno Junqueira (4th time finishing 7th)
1 lap down

8.Alex Figge (1st time finishing 8th)
5 laps down

9.Mario Dominguez (1st time finishing 9th)
11 laps down

10.Neel Jani (classified 10th but Did Not Finish)


11.Ryan Dalziel (1st time finishing 11th)
16 laps down


DID NOT FINISH

Neel Jani (1st Career DNF)
Simon Pagenaud (1st Career DNF)
Sebastien Bourdais (12th Career DNF)
Justin Wilson (8th Career DNF)
Dan Clarke (6th Career DNF)
Matt Halliday (1st Career DNF)
Graham Rahal (1st Career DNF)


CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Will Power              34 
2 Robert Doornbos (R)     27 
3 Paul Tracy              27 
4 Alex Tagliani           24 
5 Tristan Gommendy (R)    21 
6 Katherine Legge         20 
7 Bruno Junqueira         18 
8 Alex Figge (R)          15 
9 Mario Dominguez         13  
10 Neel Jani (R)          11 
11 Ryan Dalziel (R)       10 
12 Simon Pagenaud (R)      9 
13 Sebastien Bourdais      8 
14 Justin Wilson           7 
15 Dan Clarke              6 
16 Matt Halliday (R)       5 
17 Graham Rahal (R)        4

Personally I think its wrong that people who didnt finish score points


ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

1 Robert Doornbos (R)     27 
2 Tristan Gommendy (R)    21 
3 Alex Figge (R)          15 
4 Neel Jani (R)           11 
5 Ryan Dalziel (R)        10 
6 Simon Pagenaud (R)       9 
7 Matt Halliday (R)        5 
8 Graham Rahal (R)         4

NATIONS CUP

1 Australia        33  
2 Netherlands      27 
3 Canada           25 
4 France           21 
5 England          19 
6 Brazil           17 
7 USA              15 
8 Mexico           13 
9 Switzerland      11 
10 Scotland        10 
11 United Kingdom   7 
12 New Zealand      5

[marcus]

well not long to go until the green flag drops

What do you guys expect from this weekends racing ?

Do you think the teams will take it step by step with the new cars and try and learn as much as possible without over extending themselves ?

or do you think that it will be on straight away and Bourdais and Tracy will be at it as usual and it will be like last year never finished ?

[Snrub]

Pfft... I can't make a good prediction. I'm reluctant to even do the fantasy thing. Testing is testing and even that was pretty variable. Obviously Bourdais will be near or at the front. I think Power will be strong, but that's about all I can guess at.

I hope PCM has a decent season but the other bottom teams like Conquest and DCR are scrappy and punch above their weight.

[D.R.T.]

Not sure why but I have kind of adopted PCM as my team from now on so I hope they go well.

Biggest intrigue will be to see how DCR go with Junky and Legge

[icemachine]

I expect many teams will use this as an extended test, especially the practise sessions. I can see that NHL and Forsythe will likely be the two teams (drivers?) pushing the most.

[Born Racer]

I was pondering this last night, finding myself instinctively considering whether it will be a case of the long-standing top teams stealing a march right from the start due to resources and/or a huge data bank of knowledge, or the most open competition through the field in the series for years.

Of course it could be somewhere in between!

So, I literally don´t know. May seem a pointless post then, but I thought it was worth me joining in the thread even just to say that I haven´t got a clue.

Eager to see what happens on Sunday then. Roll on the race

[Tenoch]

Humm no qualifying coverage on tv what a let down. i really dont feel like buying race director again, i barely used when i had it. Does anyone know if there will be tv for qualifying this year?

[enemy-ace]

Some pics to wet your whistles.

http://www.champweb.net/index.php?op...g2_itemId=1323

I am interested to see how Doornbos and Jani do.

[marcus]

First Practice has just finished

1 S. Bourdais 1 Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing 1:24.384
2 P. Tracy 3 Forsythe Championship Racing 1:24.460
3 J. Wilson 9 RSPORTS 1:24.768
4 S. Pagenaud 15 Team Australia 1:24.999
5 N. Jani 21 PKV Racing 1:25.463
6 A. Tagliani 8 RSPORTS 1:25.559
7 G. Rahal 2 Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing 1:25.682
8 W. Power 5 Team Australia 1:26.064
9 M. Halliday 42 Conquest Racing 1:26.161
10 B. Junqueira 19 Dale Coyne Racing 1:26.230
11 A. Figge 29 Pacific Coast Motorsports 1:26.402
12 T. Gommendy 22 PKV Racing 1:26.494
13 M. Dominguez 7 Forsythe Championship Racing 1:27.099
14 R. Doornbos 14 Minardi Team USA 1:27.542
15 R. Dalziel 28 Pacific Coast Motorsports 1:28.629
16 K. Legge 11 Dale Coyne Racing 1:29.121
17 D. Clarke 4 Minardi Team USA 1:29.180

[Tenoch]

Pagenaud in fourth place very interesting. Looks like Minardi couldn't quite figuere out what to do.

[Snrub]

While it's only P1, there are is a second gap between 1st and 5th and two seconds betweeen 1st and 10th.

Pagenaud and Halliday are my two surprises. That's pretty impressive for both of them.

Clarke and Dominguez obviously had issues that had to have nothing to do with their pace.

As Tenoch said, Minardi didn't do so well. Hopefully that changes over the weekend. I think after their 2006 performance we were all hoping that HVM + money would equal a consistant contender at the front.

There are only 17 cars, who's missing?

[Tenoch]

Originally Posted by Snrub

There are only 17 cars, who's missing?

I don't think anyone is missing, the 17 cars is from Conquest only running one car, Rusport and Rocketsports merging, and PCM making two entries.

[Snrub]

P2:
1 Pagenaud 01:22.2
2 Power 01:22.6
3 Tracy 01:23.2
4 Junqueira 01:23.3
5 Jani 01:23.3
6 Doornbos 01:23.4
7 Legge 01:23.5
8 Tagliani 01:24.2
9 Dalziel 01:24.3
10 Gommendy 01:24.4
11 Figge 01:24.4
12 Clarke 01:24.5
13 Wilson 103.628
14 Bourdais 01:24.8
15 Halliday 01:26.9
16 Rahal 01:27.6
17 Dominguez -

Wierd eh? They're much faster than P1 and the order is completely different.

[Snrub]

Q1
1 Tracy 01:19.8
2 Pagenaud 01:20.0
3 Bourdais 01:20.2
4 Wilson 01:20.3
5 Tagliani 01:20.4
6 Doornbos 01:21.0
7 Power 01:21.0
8 Gommendy 01:21.6
9 Jani 01:21.6
10 Clarke 01:22.1
11 Dalziel 01:22.2
12 Dominguez 01:22.4
13 Legge 01:22.4
14 Figge 01:22.8
15 Rahal 01:23.3
16 Halliday
17 Junqueira

Thoughts?

Given the lap times the practices must have been heavily interupted or effected by track conditions.
Pagenaud was incredible. I really did not expect that of him.
Dominguez is 2.8s off PT. Obviously he had major issues or didn't really run.
In general the times are not any closer than in previous years.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Doesn't being fastest in atleast one quailying session give you a point? If so, Tracy leads the championship!

[Purist]

I believe that is correct.

I thought this would be a fast course, so I was a bit put off by the first session. times. I was starting to think 110-mph average wasn't in the cards, but geez, the times are dropping FAST.

JM, you wouldn't by chance be related to Jan Magnussen, would you?

[marcus]

Great effort by Simon Paggenaud , very impressive first time out.
Good mention for Tristan Gommendy as well , he seemed to cop alot of stick on here when he was announced to drive but has done very well so far.

anyone know why Halliday or Junqueira didnt set times in qualifying ?

[mp356a]

This gives Tracy a front row spot, right? I forget.

[cos]

Originally Posted by marcus

Great effort by Simon Paggenaud , very impressive first time out.
Good mention for Tristan Gommendy as well , he seemed to cop alot of stick on here when he was announced to drive but has done very well so far.

anyone know why Halliday or Junqueira didnt set times in qualifying ?

Gommendy shunted Bruno's car as he was on his out lap.

[nciko1]

Originally Posted by Snrub

Q1

Dominguez is 2.8s off PT. Obviously he had major issues or didn't really run.
In general the times are not any closer than in previous years.

Dominguez had gearbox issues early in the session and needed to have the ECU replaced costing him some time on the track so it was really a little bit of both.

[Snrub]

Grommendy certainly performed better than expected in terms of his position, but I would be very surprised if Rahal, Junquiera and Dominguez aren't faster in Q2, which would be the equivilant of 11th.

[MikeH]

Should manage to get back from the track in time to watch this on Eurosport tonight - gooooo Dalziel!

[Knowlesy]

Go PT!