Sebastien Bourdais will be taking what amounts to 70 victory laps around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez this weekend for the final round of the Champ Car World Series season, having clinched the 2005 title two weeks ago in Australia.
However the fact that the title is now won won't stop Bourdais and the rest of his drivers from going all out for victory in the final race of the year as a season-high 20 car field prepares to line-up to do battle on the Mexico City road course.
Bourdais is the defending Mexico City race winner, having led from start-to-finish last season in the race that clinched him his first series title. A victory on Sunday would give match his career-high of seven victories and give him 14 Champ Car wins over the last two seasons, the most wins over a two-year span since Al Unser Sr won 15 events in 1970-71. Bourdais also has nine consecutive top-five finishes and another this weekend would mark just the sixth time in series history that a driver has earned as many as ten consecutive top-fives.
"The goal for the season-finale for the McDonald's team will be just like in Surfer's; go for the win," the Frenchman said. "There is no pressure anymore championship-wise and we just want to have fun and try to keep winning races. That's the fun part of racing. There are not many times during the season that you can put the championship-thinking mode away and we are going to enjoy ourselves in Mexico City.
"The track in Mexico City is a very neat road course. There is a big diversity of corners between slow, medium and high speed and there are some chicanes and esses. You've got it all in Mexico City. It's quite fast and really enjoyable. There are also big crowds so it can barely be better than it is. It's the biggest crowd we have all season so it's hard to improve on that."
Series champions have finished on the podium in Mexico City on their way to the title in each of the three previous seasons since the Champ Cars have returned to the fabled Mexico City road course, including victories by the last two title-winners.
Paul Tracy won from pole in 2003 to all but clinch the championship, and returns looking to join Rick Mears as the only two-time winner in Mexico City. Tracy has seen five DNFs end his championship hopes in 2005, but the Canadian star still has been able to put together a strong campaign and his 512 laps led are the best in the series this year, marking the fourth time in his career that he has led as many as 500 laps in a season.
Oriol Servia has all but completed his best-ever Champ Car season as he needs just one point to secure a career-best second-place season finish, giving Newman Haas Racing a second consecutive one-two placing in the end-of-year standings. Servia picked up the first pole position of his Champ Car career two weeks ago in Australia and showed his skill by battling back from a first-turn crash to take a fifth-place finish. The six-year veteran has pair of top-ten placings to his credit in Mexico City, including a seventh-place run one year ago.
"The last race of the season is very important because everyone wants to end the season on a high note," Servia explained. "But for us especially because we are in a position to finish one-two in the championship and that would be great. In the history of the team they have only done it once before so it would be a great achievement and I would be proud to help them earn it by putting the PacifiCare car up there."
