The Race at Elkhart Lake

[Kicking-back]

A big "Thank-You" to marcus for...


STARTING GRID FOR ROAD AMERICA

1.Sebastien Bourdais 1.43.046 (9th Career Pole)
Newman/Haas Racing
26th Career start


2. Ryan Hunter-Reay 1.43.909 (set on friday)(2nd time starting 2nd)
Herdez Competition
26th career start


3. Jimmy Vasser 1:43.374 (13th time starting 3rd)
PKV Racing
212th Career start


4. Bruno Junqueira 1:43.606 (3rd time starting 4th)
Newman/Haas Racing
65th career start


5.Patrick Carpentier 1:43.753 (7th time starting 5th)
Forsythe Championship Racing
134th Career start


6.Paul Tracy 1:43.933 (13th time starting 6th)
Forsythe Championship Racing
218th Career start


7. A.J. Allmendinger 1:44.058 (1st time starting 7th)
RuSPORT
8th Career start


8. Oriol Servia 1:44.105 (5th time starting 8th)
Dayle Coyne Racing
79th Career start


9. Justin Wilson 1:44.463 (1st time starting 9th)
Mi-Jack Conquest Racing
8th Career start


10.Rodolfo Lavin 1:44.663 (1st time starting 10th)
Forsythe Championship Racing
26th Career start


11. Michel Jourdain Jr. 1:44.708 (4th time starting 11th)
RuSPORT
146th Career start


12. Mario Haberfeld 1:45.074 (5th time starting 12th)
Walker Racing
26th Career start


13. Alex Tagliani 1:45.172 (9th time starting 13th)
Rocketsports Racing
85th Career start


14. Roberto Gonzalez 1:45.361 (3rd time starting 14th)
PKV Racing
10th Career start


15.Mario Dominguez 1:45.496 (2nd time starting 15th)
Herdez Competition
45th Career start


16. Guy Smith 1:46.025 (1st time starting 16th)
Rocketsports Racing
DEBUT CHAMPCAR RACE


17. Alex Sperafico 1:46.321 (5th time starting 17th)
Mi-Jack Conquest Racing
10th Career start


18. Gaston Mazzacane 1:46.878 (3rd time starting 18th)
Dayle Coyne Racing
6th Career start



Snippets

Last years poleman was Bruno Junqueira with a time of 1:43.703 which was beaten this year by Sebastien Bourdais with a lap time of 1.43.046 (difference = 0.657)

The entire field is covered by 3.832 seconds

Find out more about Road America at www.roadamerica.com

The Track is a 4.048 Mile (thats 6.514 kilometres) Permanent Road Course , The race will be 52 laps long or 105 minutes whatever comes first.

Helmet graphics sourced from www.champcarworldseries.com

RESULTS OF ROAD AMERICA

1. Alex Tagliani (1st Champcar victory)


2. Rodolfo Lavin (Career best finish )


3. Sebastien Bourdais


4. Ryan Hunter-Reay


5. Mario Dominguez


6. Oriol Servia


7. Justin Wilson


8. Jimmy Vasser


9. Michel Jourdain Jnr


10. Guy Smith


11. Mario Haberfeld


12. Paul Tracy


13. AJ Allmendinger


14. Patrick Carpentier


15. Bruno Junqueira


16. Roberto Gonzalez


17.Alex Sperafico




DNF'S

Gaston Mazzacane Off Course



DID YOU KNOW?

Road America has to be simply one of the best tracks in the world

This was the 23rd Champcar event held at Road America

Alex Tagliani Took his first ever Champcar victory (in his 85th start) coming from the 13th starting position to take the win.

Rodolfo Lavin's 2nd place was his highest finish in Champcars to date

Bruno Junqueira set the fastest lap on lap 39 with a 1:45.504

The Average speed of the race was 110.9026mph





CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1. Sebastien Bourdais 213
2. Bruno Junqueira 166
3. Alex Tagliani 153
4. Paul Tracy 152
5. Patrick Carpentier 141
6. Ryan Hunter-Reay 139
7. Jimmy Vasser 127
8. Mario Dominguez 126
9. A.J. Allmendinger (R) 116
10. Michel Jourdain Jr. 107
11. Justin Wilson (R) 107
12. Oriol Servia 106
13. Mario Haberfeld 97
14. Rodolfo Lavin 90
15. Roberto Gonzalez (R) 78
16. Alex Sperafico (R) 47
17. Gaston Mazzacane (R) 44
18. Nelson Philippe (R) 43
19. Memo Gidley 15
20. Guy Smith 11
21. Tarso Marques 6




NATIONS CUP POINTS

1 Canada 190
2 France 184
3 Brazil 174
4 USA 157
5 Mexico 134
6 England 88
7 Catalonia 85
8 Argentina 44



CONSTRUCTORS CUP POINTS

1 Lola 264
2 Reynard 97


ROOKIE OF THE YEAR POINTS


1. AJ Allmendinger 116
2. Justin Wilson 107
3. Roberto Gonzalez 78
4. Alex Sperafico 47
5. Gaston Mazzacane 44
6. Nelson Phillipe 43

PREVIOUS ROUND RESULTS

Rnd 1 Long Beach
Rnd 2 Monterrey
Rnd 3 Milwaukee
Rnd 4 Portland
Rnd 5 Cleveland
Rnd 6 Toronto
Rnd 7 Vancouver


WHATS NEXT?

Rnd 9 Denver August 15

Official Champcar website

pictures sourced from www.motorsport.com

[Kicking-back]

Rough and ready race.

Alex Tagliani rides his luck for a first ever win.

Lavin keeps it together for second - which will please some on this forum!


Knockabout entertainment, if a messy race!

[Raven]

What happened to Bourdais, Vasser, Junqueira, tRacy?

[x_dt]

[Tweed]

Impressed with Bourdais hanging on round the outside of Junky at turn one.

Where did Guy Smith end up?

[jv#12]

i dont think anyone expected those results. how the heck was pt supposed to avoid contact with bruno,extremely dumb move on bruno's part

[f1manoz]

Funny old race, that one!

Well done to Tagliani. Yellow flag helped, but after all the bad luck and close calls, he deserved this one. It's been a hell of a long time coming.

[Raven]

Originally posted by jv#12
i dont think anyone expected those results. how the heck was pt supposed to avoid contact with bruno,extremely dumb move on bruno's part

Isn't it always

[Kicking-back]

1 Alex Tagliani
2 Rodolfo Lavin
3 Sebastien Bourdais
4 Ryan Hunter-Reay
5 Mario Dominguez
6 Oriol Servia
7 Justin Wilson
8 Jimmy Vasser
9 Michel Jourdain Jr.
10 Guy Smith



Solid result for Guy - kept his head when many didn't and brought it home in the top ten.

[Adam43]

Originally posted by f1manoz
Funny old race, that one!

Yes!

Quite good fun though, with some decent battles.

Wilson had a decent race, but there was obviously somehing wrong with his car - the sterring wheel wasn't straight on the straight-aways!

Tracy had an unlicky race, could time a pitstop. And then there was the slow stop and the unlucky coming together with Bruno. Which wasn't really a black flag offense. Bruno was silly to put himself at risk there, but I wouldn't be too harsh on him. He'd got past and was clear, but Tracy's cold tyres were his undoing. There was no need to take the risk of gaining the better line, but hindsight is wonderful.

Tagliani did well and so did Lavin. Lavin gave him an easy pass in the end, but you can't really fault him.

[Jordi]

Oriol 6th!

[carsten66]

A great race, thrilling, action packed and with a lot of overtaking... one of the best so far. I'm happy for Tag.

[esorniloc]

Bourdais should have been black flagged after he took out Bruno. What was that all about?

[Kicking-back]

I'd say it was very marginal and not a penalisable incident.

[Adam43]

I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say great. We lost a lot of contenders because of the yellow stops. Great is reserved for when you have a race with all the entertainment, but no one has been unlucky due to rules like that. Great races are, by definition, very rare. A little off topic, sorry.

[Kicking-back]

I can't help thinking the race would have been much better without these silly pit rules.

Pit when you want to I say.

And were all those yellows really necessary?

If you spin off and bog down in gravel, you're out! Don't crane the guy back on to the track and restart him!

[marcus]

I havent seen the race as yet but it sure sounds like it was a good one.

Congrats to Tagliani on his first victory ( I could have sworn he had won a race before ?) and I have also posted the race results and other information in the hot topiced thread

[Kicking-back]

Tagliani has come close a few times but I think part of the confused memory is because in my mind he and Carpentier kinda merge together in a blur!

[marcus]

I think Im the same KB

[MLM]

Originally posted by Raven
Isn't it always

EXCUSE ME!?
ditto, jv#12...I'm still VERY upset with SB punting Bruno!

[Flatspot]

It's not just you two. Most of the people in the room watching the race with me (myself included) thought Tags had at least one win under his belt.

If nothing else that race was entertaining. For me the road courses make for the best Champ Car racing. Always have, always will.

Does anybody know if PT was actually shown the black flag in the last couple of laps?

[Kicking-back]

Truth be told the only reason I knew AT didn't have a win before was Tracy's rant in Toronto about how he didn't respect him and he hadn't even won a race.

[MLM]

Well, I'm glad PT got a taste of his own medicine today from both Bruno and Tag!
Serves him right, IMO!

Congrats to Tag...a well deserved and long-deserved win!

[brightline]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
If you spin off and bog down in gravel, you're out! Don't crane the guy back on to the track and restart him!

I disagree, at least at a track like Road America where there are only 18 cars starting. a 4 mile track probably seems pretty empty with 18 or 20 cars running, give the fans there money's worth with cars on the track, not behind the wall. The way I see it if they have to pull out the crane to get guys out of the gravel anyways you might as well get him restarted.

[Kicking-back]

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

I just think CCWS makes too much time and effort to get cars running again, rather than getting them out of the way and racing continuing sooner.