Surprise Finish...and Departure!

Doornbos Wins Upside-Down SJGP

By Bill Moore   Photos by Butch Noble and Jorge Briones

Normally, the speed limit through the streets of San Jose, Northern California's biggest city, is no more than 45. But once a year concrete barriers go up in midtown . . . and the streets are closed to allow the running of the San Jose Grand Prix.

But this just in . . . the San Jose Grand Prix has run its last race through the streets. Downtown business development has forced the event off the streets and back to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in 2008 . . . but no date has been set for the event. Stay tuned and we'll get you that info as soon as we know it.

In any case, the event drew a fascinated crowd every year for the past three years, after leaving the Monterey Peninsula back in 2003.

At this year's Champ Car World Series event -- taking place on the last weekend of July and in a venue where having the pole, or at least being on the front row, was supposedly mandatory if you wanted a chance to win (due to limited passing room) -- something extraordinary happened.

Robert Doornbos, a Dutch driver more familiar with dikes than street courses, crashed into the back of Jan Heylen at the first hairpin turn and had to pit to replace the nose of his racecar. So, the rookie Champ Car driver had to actually start from the end of the line in 17th place. His chances of winning were zilch, zed, nada and none -- except for one other thing . . . everyone else was having trouble in that tight U-turn known as Turn One where speeds drop from 175 mph to virtually nothing. And, in the end, it was Doornbos taking the victory 6.145 seconds ahead of runner-up Neel Jani, while Oriol Servia -- who led for 42 laps -- wound up third.

As the race took shape, for the third year in a row, all eyes were on Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais, the three-time defending series champion, and the guy who had won the first two races here. He started the race in second place, next to pole-winner Justin Wilson . . . and, ho-hum, he would soon be in the lead and on his way to another victory, right?

Wrong! Remember, racing is a worldwide enterprise -- so maybe Bourdais was distracted. He had tested with the Toro Rosso Red Bull team, and American Scott Speed was in a public dispute there. Would Bourdais, who deserves a chance in F1, get the call? (Yes, at this writing Bourdais will be racing for Toro Rosso in 2008) Distracted by events in Europe or not, he roared through the hairpin and -- inadvertently for sure (caught up in an expensive bumper car sequence) -- had his engine die. When he got the power back on, he was just another guy in a racecar running in the middle of the pack, not a potential winner.

Incidentally, on the following Tuesday, Speed was handed his walking papers and a young German, Sebastian Vettell, got one of the two Toro Rosso rides. Bourdais is going to replace Speed's teammate for the past two years, Vitantonio Liuzzi. And, to keep things interesting, there's talk of Speed racing NASCAR stockers next year!

But, back in San Jose, Bourdais finished fifth, right behind Australian Will Power, while the only American in Champ Car, Graham Rahal -- son of Indy 500 winner Bobby -- finished sixth.

Commenting on the race, after he had been told to run the race as though each circuit was a qualifying lap, Doornbos said, ``You can never give up!''

And, in a day and age where fuel economy and strategy so often determine who wins a race, getting the nod to run flat out for most of the one hour and 45-minute race (which amounted to 107 laps) was a delight.

``That's a lot of fun for a driver to do,'' said Doornbos. ``Sometimes it is pretty boring, and you can tend to fall asleep, but when he says push like it's qualifying, you've got a big power up there and you can go up to the limit."

Thankfully, it was a long race and Doornbos had time to climb back up the ladder for the victory. ``The race is so long. An hour and 45 (minutes) is the longest race I've ever driven. Anything can happen. It is physically very demanding. You can wait for other people to make mistakes. I just felt very comfortable, the team believes in me and I believe in the team, and that we can make it happen.''

Driving for Minardi Team USA, Doornbos took the lead for the first time on lap 42 as the race leader, Alex Tagliani and several of the other front-runners, made a pit stop. Doornbos lost the lead back to Jani, who led for 30 laps, and then Servia battled for the lead over several laps.

On lap 78, and again on 84, Doornbos managed to nose in front only to surrender the lead each time. Then, once again at the hairpin, he shot in front of Dani on lap 96 and widened his lead right through to the checkered flag. Overall, he averaged 88.123 mph and had a best lap during the race of 49.909 seconds -- just a tick slower than his qualifying time of 49.654 at 104.620 mph.

So, yeah, Robert Doornbos had hustled himself through adversity to victory.

And that other guy that everyone had been watching, the guy who still held the 2007 Champ Car series lead after the San Jose race? Bourdais said, "I just make a mistake."

Without the mistake it would have been a different race, but shoulda, coulda and woulda don't count in racing.

In the most significant of the support races, Jonathan Bomarito (from Monterey, Calif.) won the Formula Atlantic race ahead of Frank Perera and Robert Wickens. Finishing fourth was good enough to give Raphael Matos the series championship, though.