Rnd 3 Houston Event Thread (Race Spoilers)

[marcus]

Round 3 of the Champcar World series heads to Houston this week.



1.69 miles in length the Houston tracks appears on the Champcar calendar for the second time.

Last years winner was Sebastien Bourdais and proved to be an exciting race weekend , lets hope this years is the same

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

and dont forget your Predictions for the race in the Fantasy Forum.

Lets go racing

[marcus]

STARTING GRID

1. Will Power 57.405 (3rd Career Pole)
Team Australia Racing
19th Career Start


2. Sebastien Bourdais 57.242 (12th time starting 2nd)
Newman/Haas/Laningan Racing
62nd Career Start


3. Justin Wilson 57.533 (10th time starting 3rd)
RSPORTS
43rd Career Start


4. Neel Jani 57.753 (1st time starting 4th)
PKV Racing CAREER BEST QUALIFYING
3rd Career Start


5. Oriol Servia 57.790 (6th time starting 5th)
Forsythe Championship Racing
115th Career Start



6. Graham Rahal 57.896 (1st time starting 6th)
Newman/Haas/Laningan Racing
3rd Career Start


7. Simon Pagenaud 57.929 (1st time starting 7th)
Team Australia Racing
3rd Career Start


8. Tristan Gommendy 58.026 (1st time starting 8th)
PKV Racing CAREER BEST QUALIFYING
3rd Career Start


9. Mario Dominguez 58.079 (5th time starting 9th)
Forsythe Championship Racing
81st Career Start


10. Bruno Junquiera 58.181 (6th time starting 10th)
Dale Coyne Racing
90th Career Start


11. Alex Tagliani 58.198 (11th time starting 11th)
RSPORTS
120th Career Start


12. Dan Clarke 58.355 (3rd time starting 12th)
Minardi Team USA
17th Career Start


13. Robert Doornbos 58.569 (1st time starting 13th)
Minardi Team USA
3rd Career Start


14. Matt Halliday 58.577 (2nd time starting 14th)
Conquest Racing
3rd Career Start


15. Ryan Dalziel 58.835 (3rd time starting 15th)
Pacific Coast Motorsports EQUAL CAREER BEST QUALIFYING
4th Career Start


16. Roberto Moreno 59.231 (7th time starting 16th)
Pacific Coast Motorsports
119th Career Start


17. Katherine Legge 59.257 (4th time starting 17th)
Dale Coyne Racing
17th Career Start

[marcus]

RACE RESULTS

1.Sebastien Bourdais (24th Career Victory)


2.Graham Rahal (1st time finishing 2nd)
CAREER BEST FINISH

3.Robert Doornbos (1st time Finishing 3rd)


4.Oriol Servia (8th time Finishing 4th)


5.Simon Pagenaud (2nd time Finishing 5th)


6.Mario Dominguez (4th time Finishing 6th)


7.Bruno Junqueira (5th time finishing 7th)


8.Ryan Dalziel (1st time Finishing 8th)
CAREER BEST FINISH

9.Alex Tagliani (7th time Finishing 9th)


10.Justin Wilson (1st time Finishing 10th)


11.Will Power (2nd time Finishing 11th)


12.Roberto Moreno (6th time Finishing 12th)


Matt Halliday below was classified 14th 16 laps down , while Tristan Gommendy was classified 13th with a DNF

14.Matt Halliday (1st time Finishing 14th)


DID NOT FINISH

Dan Clarke (7th Career DNF)

Neel Jani (2nd Career DNF)

Katherine Legge (4th Career DNF)

Tristan Gommendy (1st Career DNF)

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS TABLE

1 Sebastien Bourdais    74 
2 Will Power            69 
3 Robert Doornbos (R)   61 
4 Alex Tagliani         57 
5 Bruno Junqueira       53 
6 Oriol Servia          51 
7 Graham Rahal (R)      46 
8 Justin Wilson         41 
9 Tristan Gommendy (R)  39 
10 Simon Pagenaud (R)   38 
11 Ryan Dalziel (R)     38 
12 Mario Dominguez      36 
13 Katherine Legge      35 
14 Neel Jani (R)        34 
15 Paul Tracy           26 
16 Alex Figge (R)       21 
17 Dan Clarke           19 
18 Matt Halliday (R)    18 
19 Roberto Moreno        9

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

1 Robert Doornbos (R)    61 
2 Graham Rahal (R)       46 
3 Tristan Gommendy (R)   39 
4 Ryan Dalziel (R)       38 
5 Simon Pagenaud (R)     38 
6 Neel Jani (R)          34 
7 Alex Figge (R)         21 
8 Matt Halliday (R)      18

[yamato]

Hi Folks. I have posted my new Champ Car spotter's guide over at The Last Turn Clubhouse. Any of you familiar with my ALMS spotter's guide will know what to expect. If you haven't seen those; you can check them out as well in the ALMS section.

This is my first run at the CCWS version; so please give me you feedback. What do you like? What would you like to see added. I will be tweaking the pictures a little for the next version so that the colors show up a little bit better; but until then, please let me know what you think of the guide.

You can view, download, and print the guide here:

CCWS Houston 2007 Spotter's Guide

[icemachine]

Team Aussie on top at P1
Driver # Team Lap Time
W. Power 5 Team Australia 59.417
S. Pagenaud 15 Team Australia 59.515
S. Bourdais 1 Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing 59.723

http://champcarworldseries.com/Resul...ts.asp?ID=1690

[Whitestar]

And Justin Wilson P4. Go Justin!

[cos]

Figge's out for the weekend, concerns about his back after that LB accident.

[Snrub]

Qualifying #1
1 Bourdais 58.376
2 Power 58.89
3 Rahal 58.998
4 Wilson 59.216
5 Tagliani 59.269
6 Servia 59.338
7 Jani 59.354
8 Pagenaud 59.446
9 Junqueira 59.575
10 Dalziel 59.747
11 Halliday 59.747
12 Dominguez 59.788
13 Doornbos 59.94
14 Gommendy 01:00.3
15 Clarke 01:00.4
16 Legge 01:00.6

Bourdais half a second up on Power. Let's hope power has plenty left, otherwise it may be another Bourdais show...

Interesting to see Rahal getting a lot closer to Bourdais.

Not a whole lot of surprises other than Pagenaud being a tad slow. Minardi really needs to get their act together, the team is no where close to last year's pace.

[marcus]

thats a shame for Figge , what he really needs at the moment is seat time.

Im really hopinh Power can take it right up to Bourdais this week , other than that I dont see anyone else really challenging , they are the 2 form drivers right now and it should be a great battle between them

[mountainstar]

Looks like Roberto Moreno will be sitting in for the weekend.

[marcus]

I have just done the time conversions for Australian Race Director viewers.


Practice 3 1.00am Sunday Morning
Practice 4 4.30am Sunday Morning
Qualifying 4.50am Sunday Morning

Race day
Warm Up 1.00am Monday Morning
Atlantic Race 2.30am Monday Morning
Champcar Race 5.00am Monday Morning

[marcus]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Looks like Roberto Moreno will be sitting in for the weekend.

OMG , is that serious ??

I really hope so , Go Roberto

Gonna get my lucky Moreno replica helmet out and place it on my comp for the weekend

[Peter Ford]

If things keep going like this then this year's championship will be between newman\haas and team australia.

[Snrub]

Moreno, really? That's a shock to me. I think that makes him the 3rd oldest to compete in CC next to Unser Sr. and Mario (?). While I don't think he should be a regular in the series again, I would love to see him kick some butt in a one off.

I don't mind if its TA vs. NHL all year, as long as TA wins.

Another comment on Q1: Dominguez is really struggling this year. I have to wonder what will happen after this race. Keep in mind that Dominguez's sponsorship is up after Houston, unless it's extended.

[mountainstar]

It does appear to be Moreno.

Makes sense. He is the PCM driving coach and has dp01 experience.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Snrub

Moreno, really? That's a shock to me. I think that makes him the 3rd oldest to compete in CC next to Unser Sr. and Mario (?).

There have been plenty of old timers that ran CART till their 50's, Foyt and Fittipaldi are 2 I can think of. There are others. It is something that we just haven't seen in a while that's all.

Certainly would not mind more of it. There seems to be this attitude these days that once you hit 25 YOU'RE OLD I say if you have the talent and the physical ability then I don't care how old you are.

[Snrub]

Just for interesting comparison purposes, David Brabham's Acura (LMP2 class) pole time was 1:01.824 and Matos' Atlantics time was 1:05.394. Those LMP2 cars are very quick on a single laps with street circuits.

[marcus]

Go the Aussies

wow what a weekend One I would be in heaven with if I was there.

Brabham on pole , Will power doing great and Moreno makes a return

[marcus]

PRACTICE 4 RESULTS

1 S. Bourdais 1 Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing 57.276
2 W. Power 5 Team Australia 57.934
3 G. Rahal 2 Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing 58.175
4 R. Doornbos 14 Minardi Team USA 58.331
5 T. Gommendy 22 PKV Racing 58.387
6 J. Wilson 9 RSPORTS 58.408
7 B. Junqueira 19 Dale Coyne Racing 58.457
8 M. Dominguez 7 Forsythe Championship Racing 58.503
9 N. Jani 21 PKV Racing 58.529
10 D. Clarke 4 Minardi Team USA 58.716
11 A. Tagliani 8 RSPORTS 58.983
12 S. Pagenaud 15 Team Australia 59.164
13 K. Legge 11 Dale Coyne Racing 59.270
14 O. Servia 3 Forsythe Championship Racing 59.307
15 R. Dalziel 28 Pacific Coast Motorsports 59.406
16 R. Moreno 29 Pacific Coast Motorsports 1:00.231
17 M. Halliday 42 Conquest Racing 1:00.998

[marcus]

Qualifying has just started

[marcus]

Qualifying has been run and won

You can find the grid on the 2nd post of this thread.

P.S There maybe some debate over the starting grid (due to some red flags and rules infringements) if it changes I will fix it up later today.

Red Flag incident = Bruno Junquiera spun and closed the session , im not sure what his fastest time will be

Rule Infringement = Roberto Moreno sacrificed his qualifying run to get more seat time and did over the 15 lap maximum and will loose his fastest time

[Tenoch]

Originally Posted by marcus

Qualifying has been run and won

You can find the grid on the 2nd post of this thread.

P.S There maybe some debate over the starting grid (due to some red flags and rules infringements) if it changes I will fix it up later today.

Red Flag incident = Bruno Junquiera spun and closed the session , im not sure what his fastest time will be

Rule Infringement = Roberto Moreno sacrificed his qualifying run to get more seat time and did over the 15 lap maximum and will loose his fastest time

Better start changing it Bourdais just got his pole position taken away.

[marcus]

Thanks Tenoch

Seems Junquiera is fine to stay where he is , Im still unsure about Moreno but he is at the back and probably wont be a factor in the race

[Snrub]

Apparently Moreno's best lap was a 58.9 which is just a tick off of Dalziel. While Moreno is likely quiet rusty and he questioned his own fitness, I suspect that we will see him finish in the top 10. It would be really neat if he pulled off something like what Servia did at Long Beach. So now I'm rooting for Power and Moreno. Power caught a break with Bourdais being penalized, but let us hope that TA has a good race setup.

Legge is in a pretty difficult situation. She's at DCR which makes it tough to do well and in almost every session this year she's been at the back or 1-2 up. I hope things improve for her.

[Tenoch]

Originally Posted by Snrub

Apparently Moreno's best lap was a 58.9 which is just a tick off of Dalziel. While Moreno is likely quiet rusty and he questioned his own fitness, I suspect that we will see him finish in the top 10. It would be really neat if he pulled off something like what Servia did at Long Beach. So now I'm rooting for Power and Moreno. Power caught a break with Bourdais being penalized, but let us hope that TA has a good race setup.

Legge is in a pretty difficult situation. She's at DCR which makes it tough to do well and in almost every session this year she's been at the back or 1-2 up. I hope things improve for her.

I'm surprised about Moreno's performance, if I remember correctly wasnt he did one who did most of the testing for the dp01. Maybe they should of put some other driver in that car, like a certain Nelson.