Champ Car World Series: Lexmark Indy 300

Topics:  Lexmark Indy 300

Sebastien Bourdais
Mario Dominguez
Oriol Servia
October 22, 2005

GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND

ERIC MAUK: All right, Ladies and Gentlemen, we'll go ahead and get started with our post qualifying press conference for the Lexmark Indy 300, round 12 of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford we are joined by our top three qualifiers for tomorrow's event. Before we get started, I'd like to invite Al Speyer, executive director of Bridgestone motorsports to the podium. He will award the Bridgestone Pole Award to Oriol Servia. (Presentation) The Bridgestone Pole Award is a $10,000 award given at every Champ Car race. $5,000 of that goes to the driver. $2,500 of that goes to the Hole in the Wall Camp, and other $2,500 goes to a local charity. This weekend, that goes to the Surf Life Saving Foundation of Queensland. Al Speyer, come up here and tell us a little about the Bridgestones. Very hot day, very slick day, very tricky day. Tell us how they held up for you.

AL SPEYER: We're very pleased, Eric. I guess yesterday we got a really good test of the rain tires. Today we got a really good test of the dry tires. This is a new tire we brought down here this year, modified the compound. Part of what we're trying to do at Champ Car is always makes improvements to our tires. We're pretty pleased because I believe the top seven drivers in today's qualifying session ran faster than last year's pole time. That gives us great confidence for tomorrow, but I'm sure you can hear from these guys what they really think.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Good afternoon, everybody. Good day. We did a lot of changes on the car, improved it every time. At the end, I thought we had the pole there, then Oriol got it from us. With one corner to go, I guess you always say that, people always say that, but I was a 10th and a half up on my time, then I ran into Rodolfo at the very last corner and I lost it. Still good effort, but happy with the way the car is handling. It's a good starting position. Tomorrow we should be good for the race. Hopefully we can be quick.

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Well, it was about as chaotic as it could have been really. We had a lot of incidents during the session, one with Mario that was a little surprising to me because then we got penalized for shortcutting the chicane when trying to avoid a contact on the pit-out. I was a little upset. But, you know, in the first run, was it. The second run was going pretty well, then I caught Justin. I had to back off. I had a pretty good lap going on. I thought I had a last lap. Apparently, I crossed the start/finish line as the checkered flag came out. I didn't know it. When I came into the pits, I was like, got to be pole. 32.5, got to be called. It wasn't. I was very happy for Oriol. That's a very good result for the team. He starts pole. Well done, my friend.

ORIOL SERVIA: Great. I had some provisionals before, but it feels much better to have this one, I can tell you that. I was very happy in the morning. I was P1. Car felt great. I love this place, so everything was looking good. But in qualifying, we were like seven minutes remaining, I was P8 or P9. One of those sessions, either you do a mistake, you find traffic. I just couldn't put a lap together. I shortcut the chicane once, drive through, one of those things that you see the session going on and you fall back in the middle of the field. I think was three laps to go that I did that lap. I was happy. I still thought -- you know, there was still two laps. I thought I was going to be able to improve. One I didn't and the last one I ran out of fuel. So one of those pit strategies like Elkhart Lake, a lot of corners, hard to put all your (indiscernible) together in one lap. Mistakes, traffic, there's something always going on out there. I'm just happy was good enough to be P1. Definitely starting in a better place tomorrow. I'm just very pleased for PacifiCare, to give them the first pole that I do for them this year. Very pleased. You know, I had to be on pole to delay Sebastien's championship. It's much better to celebrate on a Sunday than a Saturday. Plus David has a great idea. Sebastien, next year you're going to start with some other team the first two races, then you're going to join Newman/Haas (laughter). So, I'm very happy.

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: How about you stay with us and we'll try to make this straight?

ORIOL SERVIA: The good thing is as soon as I felt it, sometimes you feel it and you kind of pray, are you going to be able to finish the lap. Then you end up with the engine with no fuel in the middle of a corner that you can do nothing. As soon as I felt I was not going to finish the lap, I just tried to find a place, safe place, hoping it was safe enough they were not going to call the red. Especially, there were three seconds on my clock. I was hoping. Plus I had two laps I think in the same lap time, so I was hoping I was going to keep it anyway.

ORIOL SERVIA: Not as much. It's a physical racetrack. I think we'll be okay. It's always hard here. That's no surprise. You see me a little more wet than usual because they throw a cold basket of water. That's maybe why you see me that wet. I never sweat much (laughter).

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: It's more the adrenaline really because you're pushing so hard. You know, it's like you always braking facing a wall pretty much for this chicane. Your level of concentration is really high. You've got so much energy, that it just perspires a lot.

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: A better lap, for sure. I was (indiscernible) three corners, and he was trying to make a gap. I think I was something like 4/10ths. Probably would have not been good enough for pole anyway. But the last one was good enough. And, as I said, just wasn't our qualifying session. One of these days.

ORIOL SERVIA: Very much. Not much for the championship because honestly, I mean, already coming into this race, championship is not even a thing I'm thinking of. I don't see it possible. No, you know, one more enjoyable day being part of Newman/Haas. All year I just had great times since day one that I joined them. It's true, you know, every day I am with them, I feel better. You know, it's just a great experience. Really enjoying. That's the attitude I have. I came to Surfers thinking that I love this place in general. I love the racetrack. I was trying to do my best. Yesterday I was extremely pissed off with myself because I did one of my worst qualifyings ever. I think in 15 laps in qualifying, I was only able to do two, because all the others I was just making mistakes and going through the chicane straight, then driving through. I wasn't happy with myself yesterday. I'm pleased that today I was able to be here.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: It's going to be hard to be faster in qualifying just because of the fuel tanks. But I think the track is just going to get better and better, that's for sure. Wouldn't be surprised if lap times are faster than last year.

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Yeah, I think it's typically a racetrack where the lap times (indiscernible) to start the race. I wouldn't be surprised actually if we end up matching these qualifying laps. As Al Speyer said from Bridgestone, we are significantly faster than last year. In 2003, I think the pole position lap without the tire matts on the chicanes was like 107, something like that. Getting really close. It was pretty fast today.

ORIOL SERVIA: Well, I think the race pace is definitely different than qualifying. But my car is good. The track is getting grippier all the time. Tomorrow, with all the cars running, it's going to be very, very grippy. So I'm very happy the sun came out. It seems like it's great also for all the race fans. Happy about that.

ERIC MAUK: Last year's pole winning time, 1:33.559, almost a full second faster this time around. We go racing tomorrow. 57 laps. Thank you all very much.