source:
lola-group.com
Sebastien
Bourdais secured the 2004 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series
Powered by Ford championship yesterday on the 2.786-mile Autodromo Hermanos
Rodriguez Mexico City road circuit. From pole position the Frenchman utterly
dominated proceedings, setting the fastest lap en route to a convincing win.
His title success added the 2004 Vanderbilt Cup to the 2002 FIA Formula 3000
championship he won, also driving a Lola. It was the fifth title for the
Newman/Haas Racing team after Mario Andretti in 1984, Michael Andretti in 1991,
Nigel Mansell in 1993 and Cristiano Da Matta in 2002.
"I think it cannot be better, to celebrate the championship by winning the race,
having done the pole position and set the fastest lap of the race. It's just
been a dominating weekend," said Bourdais. "I was so scared about, you know, not
being able to give it a clear shot with an incident at the start or mechanical
failure. It was really a well-deserved championship for the whole McDonald's
team and a fantastic achievement from the Newman/Haas Racing team. Really just a
perfect day for us." he declared.
Despite nearly throwing away a 17-second advantage when he spun mid-race, the
cool Frenchman recovered to take a 4.604-second advantage over teammate and
three-time series runner-up Bruno Junqueira's similar Lola. The Brazilian drove
a mileage race and said his Lola worked best with the standard, not the option
Bridgestone tyre.
The Mexico City race was the first in the Champ Car Modern Era (1979-Present) in
which every car that started the race, was running at the end. That record
covers an amazing 416 Champ Car races.