Mexico City Starting grid

[marcus]

STARTING GRID FOR MEXICO CITY



1. Sebastien Bourdais 1.25.919 (13th career Pole)
Newman/Haas Racing
32nd Career start


2. Bruno Junqueira 1.26.545 (13th time starting 2nd)
Newman/Haas Racing
71st career start


3. Justin Wilson 1.27.016 (2nd time starting 3rd)
Mi-Jack Conquest Racing
14th Career start


4. Jimmy Vasser 1.27.038 (6th time starting 4th)
PKV Racing
218th Career start


5. Oriol Servia 1.27.114 (1st time starting 5th)
Dale Coyne Racing
86th Career start


6. Paul Tracy 1.27.172 (14th time starting 6th)
Forsythe Championship Racing
223rd Career start


7. A.J. Allmendinger 1.27.205 (4th time starting 7th)
RuSPORT
14th Career start


8. Patrick Carpentier 1.27.338 (5th time starting 8th)
Forsythe Championship Racing
140th Career start


9. Ryan Hunter-Reay 1.27.432 (4th time starting 9th)
Herdez Competition
32nd career start


10.Michel Jourdain Jr. 1.27.537 (6th time starting 10th)
RuSPORT
152nd Career start


11.Roberto Gonzalez 1.27.610 (2nd time starting 11th)
PKV Racing
16th Career start


12.Michael Valiante 1.27.642 (1st time starting 12th)
Walker Racing
Debut Champcar Race


13.Alex Tagliani 1.27.841 (10th time starting 13th)
Rocketsports Racing
91st Career start


14.Rodolfo Lavin 1.27.886 (4th time starting 14th)
Forsythe Championship Racing
32nd Career start


15.Mario Dominguez 1.27.892 (3rd time starting 15th)
Herdez Competition
51st Career start


16.Tarso Marques 1.27.976 (1st time starting 16th)
Dale Coyne Racing
26th Career Start


17.Mario Haberfeld 1.28.200 (3rd time starting 17th)
Walker Racing
32nd Career start


18.Guy Smith 1.28.804 (2nd time starting 18th)
Rocketsports Racing
7th Career start


19.Nelson Phillipe 1.31.531 (1st time starting 19th)
Mi-Jack Conquest Racing
11th Career start



FAST FACTS

Michael Valiante will make his Champcar debut this weekend.

This is the 3rd event to be held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City Mexico

Previous Winners

2002: Kenny Brack
2003: Paul Tracy

The track is 2.786 Miles (4.457kms) in length. The original track wich was used for fomula One was 3.107 Miles long (4.971 kms) from 1962-1972 and then changed to 2.747 miles long (4.395 kms) in 1986 - 1992.

1992 was the last time the circuit was used for Formula One.

[marcus]

Qualifying has been run and won , I will add times and the like ASAP

[luke]

So we are 3 seconds quicker!! anyways Justin Wilson 3rd!! and also good luck to Michael Valiante on his first race.

[StickShift]

Way to go Valiante!!

[marcus]

amazing how we have 14 of the 19 drivers in the 1.27 minute bracket , despite Bourdais running away at the front and bruno doing his best to follow what an increddibly close field.

should be a cracker of the race we should have

[luke]

Any gueses on who shall win?

[Kicking-back]

A lot depends on the championship situation - Bourdais can afford to be more conservative.

[Omega99]

What a great strating grid! Guys like Allmendinger, Wilson, and Servia are back up to the top, and
Jourdain, who's been Mr. Invisible this year manages to crack the top ten. And Valiante seems to have learned that car pretty quickly. He beat Haberfeld's time by almost 6 thenths, and Haberfeld is no slouch! He even beat out my boy, Tagliani.... Rocketsports seems to really be struggling of late.

Should be one Grand Finale!

[luke]

Originally posted by Omega99
Should be one Grand Finale!

I'm excited already!!

[marcus]

Originally posted by Omega99
and Jourdain, who's been Mr. Invisible this year manages to crack the top ten.

its actually the 7th time this year Michel Jourdain has qualified in the top 10 , allthough like you say you wouldnt know due to 04 being his stealth year.

but certainly some good performances this event.

allthough i did expect more of Mario Dominguez on home soil.

[jjspierx]

I am very excited about the finale. It is one of my favourite tracks on the calendar, really top notch. I think Mexico City and Road America are really the only two tracks that really let the cars stretch their legs.

Way to go Valiente, spectacular qualifying effort. 12th in his first champcar start is awesome. The Reynard's aren't at such a disadvantage to the Lola's in Mexico City, probably because of the elevation and subsequent loss of downforce to all the cars.

I think Bourdais will take T1 very easy and if Bruno even hints at a pass Bourdais will just let him go by. If that happens he'll probably just follow him around for the whole race. My guess is the Newman Haas duo will pull ahead of everbody right quickly, maybe Wilson will tag along for a few laps. However if Bourdais keeps the lead for the first lap he might be able to pull a gap on Bruno and be able to maintain the lead. Heres hoping

[BootsOntheSide]

I'd prefer to see Seb seal the title win a win, or Justin or AJ to end their seasons on a high, but the most likely outrcome is probably for Bruno to win with Seb cruising to the title in second. I can't see him doing what Rossi did in the MotoGP, by twice taking the lead from Seté on the last lap when he needed second for the title, for example.

Nice to see Wilson up there, especially with Philippe dead last. Valiente can be very pleased with his efforts, as can Seriva - it's nice to se ehim up the grid after his Surfer's misfortune.

[esorniloc]

So all Bourdais needs to do to be champion is slide off line at the start and take Bruno out.

[Kicking-back]

Very cynical, esorniloc.

I don't think he'd want to win it like that.

[Snrub]

Sooo...Anyone want to argue that NH doesn't have a better setup for Mexico?

3-16th within .960s. Very tight and some different names up there. As people are fond of saying, it's a weak field.

PKVR is certainly starting to improve recently. Nice to see Wilson back at the front.

Valiante put in a VERY nice time. Given the close times, lack of testing, lesser setup and chasis disadvantage, this is one of the most impressive rookie debuts we've seen. Did he even race in 2004 until now? Dare I say it, relative to Bourdais and JPM's first qualifyings, this is pretty darn good! This guy had better be in CC for 2005.

[Dov]

Originally posted by esorniloc
So all Bourdais needs to do to be champion is slide off line at the start and take Bruno out.

Do you mean like last year in Surfers Paradise when Sebastien tried taking PT out of the race so Junqueira could win the championship?!

[Snrub]

Originally posted by Dov
Do you mean like last year in Surfers Paradise when Sebastien tried taking PT out of the race so Junqueira could win the championship?!

Despite what PT thinks, I don't think that incident was intentional by Bourdais.

[Dov]

^ I probably should have put a 'rolling eyes' smiley face at the end of my thread since I was trying to be sarcastic. Truth be told, i'm getting a bit tired of 'esorniloc' insinuating that SeaBass will take out Junky tomorrow.

[enemy-ace]

I don't expect to see much from PT today. In qualifying he was complaining that his car was all over the place. Understeering and oversteering, locking up the fronts in fast corners and locking the rears in slow corners. It was cold in Mexico City yesterday so maybe that had something to do with it.
The NH duo are certianly the class of the field. I'm sure Bourdais would like to win but I wouldn't expect him to fight Bruno too much.
Wilson and Almendinger are really two great additions to the field. Though I expect Wilson to drop back. They don't seem able to set the car up for long runs. Too positive a setup I think. I think it would be wiser for them to go for something a little more neutral and let the races come to them. Will be interesting to see how Valientes race turns out in that respect.
What are the pit rules for this race? I haven't seen anything in regards to pit windows. I know the push to pass has increased. But if there are no pit windows people will be less likely to use it, which would be a shame.

[Dov]

Originally posted by enemy-ace
I haven't seen anything in regards to pit windows. I know the push to pass has increased. But if there are no pit windows people will be less likely to use it, which would be a shame.

I'm not sure what the rules are re: the pit windows today, but hypothetically speaking, let's say that there's no mandatory pit windows (just like Surfers), is it possible that OWRS increased the push-2-pass from 75 sec. up to three minutes on purpose so the fans can enjoy more passing, more battles and at the same time keep the fans guessing as to what strategies the different teams might use with no pit windows!?!?

[enemy-ace]

Push to pass equals more fuel use though, and with no pit windows everybody ends up running around trying to save fuel. P2P and no pit windows don't compliment each other.

[Dov]

I understand that, enemy-ace. That's why i'm suggesting that they purposely increased the push to pass from 75 seconds up to a full three minutes so the drivers wouldn't have to save fuel or at least not that much.

[StickShift]

the extra fuel boost this weekend should fix the fuel conservation problem. Drivers will be constantly using the button on the very long front and backstraights to set fast laps, and help drafting/defending.