A FIRST IN CART / CHAMP CAR ERA; HOLE IN THE WALL CAMPS DRIVER JUNQUEIRA AIMS TO BRING HIS FINISH AVERAGE CLOSER TO HIS QUALIFYING AVERAGE OF 2.8 source: champcarworldseries.com McDonald's® driver Sebastien Bourdais is in the midst of one of the best starts to a season unmatched in most forms of racing today. He won the first four rounds of the Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford championship to date and a win in this weekend's G.I. Joe's Presents the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland would earn him the distinction of being the first to do so in CART / Champ Car series history (1979-present). In the 98 year history of Championship Car racing overall, only two other drivers, A.J. Foyt (1964) and Al Unser (1970), won five straight Champ Car races. The sport was sanctioned by the United States Auto Club (USAC) during those runs. "First and most important, it would be great to win in Portland to build a little larger gap in the point standings because it's still pretty close," said Bourdais who leads the series standings with 136 points to RuSport driver Justin Wilson's 131. "And to win five in a row and do something that hasn't been done since before Newman/Haas was even a team, or I was born, would be a great reward for all the hard work the McDonald's team has put in to get us these results." Bourdais has had both success and disappointment on the 1.96-mile Portland International Raceway road course. In his first event here in 2003 he started fourth but a tire pressure problem dropped him to 18th place. He fought back into third before his rear wing failed and ended his day. Redemption came in 2004 when he started on pole, led 85 laps and won the event in dominating fashion. Last year he lost his fastest lap times in Friday and Saturday's qualifying sessions after the series ruled that he held up a qualifier when he exited the pits ahead of a car on a qualifying lap on Friday and a track-wide power loss that shutdown the series' timing system during qualifying on Saturday negated his fast lap that would have put him in pole contention. He started the race from fifth place, led seven laps and finished second but is optimistic that Newman/Haas Racing (NHR) learned valuable information from a test here in April that could make them more competitive.
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