Bourdais Wins In Mexico & Takes 2004 Champ Car Title
Written by Josh Katinger · November 7, 2004
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Photo: Champ Car
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MEXICO CITY - Sebastien Bourdais threw a knockout blow with his first punch in Sunday’s championship fight, taking a commanding lead in the first turn of today’s Gran Premio Telmex/Tecate Presented by Banamex and rolling away to a flag-to-flag win that clinched the 2004 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford championship.
Motorsport.com: Bourdais earns the title with victory in Mexico
Motorsport.com: 2004 Final Standings
GrandPrix.com: Bourdais is Champ Car champ
Sun-Sentinel.com: Bourdais spins but still wins
ITV-F1.com: BOURDAIS CLINCHES CHAMP CAR TITLE
SFGate.com: Former champ Da Matta looking at Champ Car return
The 25-year-old Frenchman led every lap around the 2.786-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on his way to capturing the Vanderbilt Cup, scoring his first Champ Car title and the fifth for his Newman/Haas Racing team. He scored his seventh win of the season and the 10th of his career, claiming the series title by 28 points over his teammate Bruno Junqueira. Junqueira gave a spirited chase all day in trying to wrest the championship away from his teammate, but in the end would settle for his 10th podium finish of the year by placing second.
Bourdais took the lead in the first turn and rolled away to a early two-second lead, only to have it erased when Paul Tracy and Roberto Gonzalez got together on the third lap. But the brief stop had no effect on Bourdais as he roared away on the restart and immediately started adding huge chunks of time to his lead over Junqueira and the third-place car of Justin Wilson. The lead was 4.6 seconds at Lap 16, 7.1 at Lap 18 and 12.9 seconds by Lap 20. Bourdais ran his fastest lap of the race on Lap 25 as he stretched his lead 16 seconds heading into the first round of pit stops.
Bourdais and Junqueira held their spots on the first round of stops while the big move of the race happened directly behind them. Roshfrans Rookie of the Year A.J. Allmendinger stretched his fuel two laps longer than the rest of the field, then short-filled his fuel tank on his first stop to leapfrog over Wilson and into third place, dropping Wilson and Jimmy Vasser back a spot.
Race Results
Pos Car Driver Nat Team Chassis Laps Lag Status
1. 2 Sebastien Bourdais F Newman/Haas Racing Lola 63
2. 6 Bruno Junqueira BR Newman/Haas Racing Lola 63 4.604 Active
3. 10 A.J. Allmendinger* USA RuSPORT Lola 63 6.780 Active
4. 34 Justin Wilson* GB Conquest Racing Lola 63 7.902 Active
5. 12 Jimmy Vasser USA PKV Racing Lola 63 17.081 Active
6. 7 Patrick Carpentier CDN Forsythe Racing Lola 63 57.788 Active
7. 11 Oriol Servia E Dale Coyne Racing Lola 63 1:21.101 Active
8. 55 Mario Dominguez MEX Herdez Competition Lola 63 1:22.727 Active
9. 9 Michel Jourdain Jr. MEX RuSPORT Lola 63 1:31.899 Active
10. 1 Paul Tracy CDN Forsythe Racing Lola 62 1 lap Active
11. 8 Alex Tagliani CDN Rocketsports Racing Lola 62 1 lap In Pit
12. 21 Roberto Gonzalez* MEX PKV Racing Lola 62 1 lap In Pit
13. 3 Rodolfo Lavin MEX Forsythe Racing Lola 62 1 lap In Pit
14. 15 Michael Valiante CDN Walker Racing Reynard 62 1 lap Active
15. 5 Mario Haberfeld BR Walker Racing Reynard 62 1 lap Active
16. 14 Nelson Philippe* F Conquest Racing Lola 62 1 lap Active
17. 17 Guy Smith GB Rocketsports Racing Lola 62 1 lap Active
18. 19 Tarso Marques BR Dale Coyne Racing Lola 60 3 laps Active
19. 4 Ryan Hunter-Reay USA Herdez Competition Lola 58 5 laps Active
* Series rookie
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3 Responses to “Bourdais Wins In Mexico & Takes 2004 Champ Car Title”
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If da Matta returns to Newman-Haas, I wonder if it will be to replace Bruno. It would be very difficult to toss out the guy who finished second in the championship, only to his teammate. Then again, can they field three cars? Why not have da Matta join another team for more competition? Newman-Haas will become the Ferrari of indy cars; too much domination by one team. IRL has the same problem with AGR.
I am curious as to why Bourdais hasn’t drawn any interest from F1 teams. Is his equipment so superior that it casts doubt on his talent?
Especially from Renault, who allegedly are desperate for a French driver in F1. Bourdais is reported to be chasing Frank Williams for a test. I think all the big teams are reluctant to sign unproven commodities, hence all the retreads.