Order was restored in Champ Car racing at Long Beach last weekend as
Sebastien Bourdais dominated the race, winning convincingly from the pole.
It was Bourdais’s third win in a row at Long Beach, equalling a feat achieved by Al Unser Jr. between 1989-’91. Despite hopes for a different scenario with the Panoz spec car, Bourdais and Newman/Haas remain the class of the Champ Car field.
Meanwhile, everyone was delighted to see Oriol Servia turn in a great performance to finish a close second. Servia drove in place of Paul Tracy who broke a vertebra in his lower back in an accident on Saturday morning and will be out of action for between two and three months.
That Servia is one of Champ Car’s top drivers is without question and he proved it again as he jumped into Tracy’s car and got right with the programme. Servia will drive for Forsythe again in Houston next weekend but with Tracy sidelined and Mario Dominguez signed for only Champ Car’s first three races, the amiable Oriol may turn out to be Jerry Forsythe’s best bet for this year’s championship.
In the post-race press conference Bourdais was asked what he thought about Servia not having a ride this year. “It pisses me off,” Bourdais responded. “I’m a good friend of Oriol. He deserves a ride and I’ve been trying to help all winter, but I’m not going to put a million dollars on the table to get him a ride either. A professional series should have professional drivers and when you hear people asking drivers for a million dollars for a ride, it’s not right.”
Las Vegas winner Will Power drove another strong race in Long Beach, eventually finishing third after outbraking Alex Tagliani on the last lap. Power ran second in the opening laps and kept the pressure on Bourdas until he had trouble finding first gear on the race’s first restart and lost a place to Tagliani. But Power continues to lead the championship and looks entirely capable with Derrick Walker’s Team Australia of fighting for the championship with Bourdais and Newman/Haas.
