Notes from Champ Car World Series in Mexico City 2006

Notes taken during the SPEED broadcast of Champ Car World Series Grand Premio Telmex presented by Banmex, Mexico City on 11/12/06.

pressdog's muy frio beer of the race is race sponsor Tecate. Una cerveza muy excelente.

Sebastien Bourdais montage. First guy since 1948 to win three points championships in a row.

Welcome to Mexico City. 14th and final race. Wet weekend off and on. Rookie of the Year running down to Will Power and Speedy Dan Clarke. Power leads ROY by 15. $50,000 to the ROY. Noticeable cash.

Rick Benjamin and Derek Daly on camera. Talking about AJ Allmendinger bailing for NASCAR and Paul Tracy rolling his golf cart (or ATV or whatever) in Vegas. Both are out. So 2004 Indy 500 champion Buddy Rice (right) gets AJ's ride and David Martinez fills in for Evel Knievel Tracy. Buddy's ride is widely considered to be a tryout for a full season next year. Buddy got no sponsor love and therefore wasn't re-signed by the IRL's Rahal Letterman.

Speedy Dan and Power get air. ROY candidates. Power says has to finish to get it, so may be a bit cautious. Speedy Dan sucking on his water bottle says he's going for the win. Season-end video montage.

Wilson has a broken wrist. Wearing a carbon-fiber brace. Gets the pole. With Cameron Steele. Wilson is getting taped. Is fatigue an issue? Wilson -- Don't know. Give it our best shot going for the win if he can, if not he'll drive for second in the championship.

Nation's Cup -- France has clinched. England second. Surfers Paradise recall. Nelson wins. AJ Allmendinger pit fire and then taking the wall. Bourdais smacking Will Power out of the way.

Nelson goes to an orphanage in Mexico City. Giving away some race tickets. Video of the kids and Philippe. Nelson wipes a manly tear.

Mazda Power Play. Cooper Tires will be the official tires of the Atlantics.

Pace laps. Three sweet Mustangs out in front pacing.

Starting lineup: Justin Wilson, Sebastien Bourdais, Bruno Junqueira, Will Power, Ryan Briscoe, Speedy Dan Clarke, Oriol Servia, Alex Tagliani, David Martinez, Nelson Philippe, Mario Dominguez, Charles Zwolsman, Katherine Legge, Buddy Rice, Antonio Pizzonia, Andrew Ranger, Jan Heylen, Andreas Wirth.

Cameras onboard with the pace car, Justin Wilson, Mario Dominguez, Andrew Ranger. Ranger is also sporting the Visor Cam.

DD - race track is long and fast. Turns 14-15-16 are a first-gear chicane and then 200 mph down to turn 1. Have the circus music ready. We're going 66 laps, 185 miles. Two pit stops. Pit windows right around Lap 18 and 40.

Yo tango cerveza! Let's light this candle. We are green-green-green.

Holy sideways! Katherine Legge is sideways. She's into the inside wall even before the start finish. She's noseless. Replays. Katherine Legge moving to the right side, Dominguez already there (in back fo her) and they touched. Legge into the wall. This is all before the line. What Dominguez, who started two in front of Katherine was doing back there, I have no idea. Either he fell back or Katherine moved up, obviously. Briscoe in to the pits to get a flat replaced. May have hit debris. Dominguez in. Left front suspension is trashed.

Replay of Katherine going end-over-end into the kink at Road America. Video of her coming out of the infield medical center afterwards like it was no big thing.

Jan -- Briscoe -- tire had gone down. Checked the suspension. No damage found.

Mario into the pit. Damaged toe link on the left front. Busting out the wrenches. Looks like a long repair. Katherine coming around sans nose. Checking suspension. Getting the new nose out. New nose on. Legge out. Lost at least a lap.

Bruno interview. He wants to win this year. My viewing is enhanced.

Restart while at commercial! I should have been watching Race Director -- no commercials!

Bourdais has a major run on Wilson right off the green. He's got him on the inside. Bourdais leads. Wilson let him go because he's not an idiot.

DD says Boudais was mad at DD for blaming Bourdais for going mental at Surfers and taking out Will Power. Something about telemetry showing Bourdais' car bottomed out worse than it ever had before, blah blah blah. I guess the car and telemetry decided to try the pass at that point on the track all by itself as well. DD "With that bit of information, if I was wrong, I apologize."

DD calls Wilson "the one-handed wonder."

Video of Bourdais talking about Wilson -- Be hard if his hand cramps up. Wish we could battle fair and square.

Speedy Dan pits. May have issues.

Dominguez back out. Dan back on pit road. Engine issues. Listening in on Dan's radio. Can't undersand a word he's saying. Many hand gestures as he talks from the cockpit.

DD gives Martinez a shout out. Briscoe is moving up.

Jan with Jeremy Dale -- Team president for RuSPORT and Justin Wilson. -- Restarts are tough here. Long straight away. Bourdais got a tow on the restart and passed us. Wrist is fine. He's done an exceptional job. So proud of him. Can't say enough about him.

Wilson is 1.5 seconds back. If he finishes seventh or better he gets second in the points.

Lap 10 -- Bourdais, Wilson, Junk, Power, Tag, Nelson, Martinez, Pizzonia.

Onboard with Ranger. Briscoe is right up on Rice's ass. Holy Battle of former IRL drivers.

DD- Rice is having issues with his brakes. Not used to them. Way different than his IRL Dallara. Briscoe passes Rice for 10th. Briscoe now around Ranger. He's on the move.

Briscoe interview -- Run within the limits of what the car can do we may get on the podium. Get experience on full tanks. Do as well as he can.

Dan Clarke is out. BLOWN UP, Sir! Differential is junk. Dan gives out hugs in the pits.

Lap 12 -- Briscoe passes Pizzonia.

Cameron with Speedy Dan. Sucking on the water bottle again. Doesn't know what was up with the car. After all the yellow the engine started braking on down shifts. Radio disconnected. Couldn't hear. Carmeron: Thanks. Dan: Is that it? Cameron: That's it. Dan: Thought I'd get to gripe a bit.

Ranger locks his right side tires coming into the bus stop about every time. Major lock ups. Pizzonia also locks them up here and there. Pizzonia is slow through the esses.

Lap 14 - Rice pitting. Going the old "alternate pit strategy" route. Clean stop. He's out. Buddy's coverage during this one CCWS race has now exceeded the race coverage he got all season in the IRL. Buddy has to get onto the whole red sidewall thing.

Briscoe pits early. Briscoe is running about .6 of a second slower than the front runners.

Double D points out that Wilson has a busted wrist. Screw in one of his bones. Ballsy/risky move to drive.

Ranger pits on Lap 17.

Wilson looking inside Bourdais. DD points out that Wilson has been the fastest car all weekend. Not surprised to see him catching Bourdais. Rick says maybe Wilson let Bourdais pass for the lead and is saving himself for the late fight.

Bourdais Bold Moves Moment montage! Come from behind at Houston. Wins on an oval at Milwaukee. Ran in the rain at Montreal. Won the title at Surfers.

In car with Mario. Replay of lap 1 wreck.

Lap 23 -- Wilson passes Bourdais for the lead at the end of the front stretch. What the? Bourdais passed on the track! Media alerted. He may be having rear tire issues. Bridgestone red sidewalls may be going away.

Bruno in. Complained of understeer. Bourdais will be in soon for black sidewalls. Wilson stretching out on Bourdais. Bourdais pits. Two crew members are changing tires with food poisoning.

Wilson comes in after running an extra lap than Bourdais. Gets out in front of Bourdais. But Bourdais is right on him. Everybody is pitting for the harder Bridgestone blacks. Team Australia cars are 1-2 briefly with Power in the lead as others pit, but they're coming in soon.

Lap 24 -- Holy flying rubber! Briscoe has shredded his right front. It's stuck with a gaping hole showing at the top. He's still going around the track so no full-course yellow.

Wirth and Power almost collide on pit lane. Wirth has his head out and swerved right into an empty pit box to avoid Power. Props to him for the evasive action.

Lap 25 -- Tag leads and then pits.

Jan reports rain drops. Looks like we got rain starting. Wilson three seconds ahead of Bourdais. Briscoe replay. Rick says the blow out has to be from drebris or flat-spotting.

Andy Ranger helmet came shows how bad it's raining. DD - "This (rain) will put the cat among the pigeons." He has to have a stockpile of Dalyisms that he just pulls out whenever.

Down to Bridgestone's Al Speyer with Jan. I think they have Bourdais' rear red tires, the ones he had on when he got passed by Wilson. Jan -- what up? No wear bars left at all. These are shot. Al -- That's why we come here to race. Next year come back with a better tire. Briscoe flat spotted it and finally let go coming down the main straight. Jan predicts people will becoming in soon for rain tires.

Lap 28 -- Drivers say it's raining in the back straight. Teams start preparing to get the rain tires out. Tell drivers to come in when they think they need them.

DD - Rain. What will this do to Buddy Rice? Buddy Rice montage! Atlantics in 1999 and 2000. Won title in 2000.

Lap 31 -- Massive pitting for rain tires. Raining harder now. Lap 33 -- Wilson pits for rain tires, Bourdais stays out. He's a death cheater, that Bourdais! DD is incredulous. Bourdais will pit next lap and hope he can get back out in front of Justin. DD thinks Bourdais has lost time to Wilson. Wilson just flew by.

Video of Bruno. Racing to hold onto his ride, according to Rick. Raining like crazy now. Bruno montage. This season he's had a pole and four top fives.

Ranger helmet cam. Much spray.

Half way. Recap. Katherine Legge into the fence on the restart. Katherine and Mario both smacked. Ranger gets major air. Former ice racer. Used to the slick conditions. More Ranger Helmet cam.

Lap 40 -- Wilson is now six seconds in front of Bourdais. But, Bourdais was a full second faster on lap 40. Will Power short cuts a chicane in the esses.

Cristiano da Matta is back in Brazil. Now can drive his regular passenger car. Doing very well.

Tag may be auditioning for a job next season. Team Australia may field two Australian drivers. Briscoe (an Australian) may end up there. Nelson Philippe goes through the grass in the esses.

Lap 43, Buddy passed by Oriol. Rice gets out of the throttle enough to fall in about eight inches behind Oriol. DD -- all engines have pop-off valves. Since 1979 had pop-offs. New Champ Car engine has none. Electronics do the same job.

Andreas Wirth is holding up people. Not sure what his issue is. Champ Car trying to get him out of the way. Wirth gets the blue flag.

Tracy mini-montage. Nine top 10s this season.

Katherine Legge is putting down some serious times with the rain tires. Last lap was 1:39.5, about what the leaders are posting.

Helmet cam! Mario's left front changer guy wearing the helmet cam. Fablous.

Lap 46 -- Wirth gets black flagged for failing to yield to faster leaders. Has to do a drive-through.

Lap 47 -- Power is working on Bruno for 3rd. Got it. Passed Bruno for P3.

Wilson is now pulling away from Bourdais. Adding seconds.

Lap 53 -- Bourdais is 6.67 seconds behind Wilson. Legge puts up a 1:39.2. Driving like she's enraged. Justin Wilson pitting. Final stop. Clean. Bourdais stays out to try to stretch it out and come out of his stop at least close to Wilson.

11 laps to go. Bourdais tells his pit that his tires will last to the end. Bourdais is the one-word answer guy on the radio. Will the tires last? Bourdais -- "Yes." Derek says that means Bourdais will come in for a splash and go at the end giving him a better chance of catching Wilson. "This is good stoof here."

Graham Rahal gets air! Gonna drive with some Champ Car team next year, just not sure which. Big talk that it may be Newman Haas. Third car or bye-bye Bruno?

10 to go. Bourdais, Wilson, Will Power, Tag, Bruno, Nelson, Oriol, Andy Ranger, Buddy Rice, Martinez.

Lap 57 -- Bourdais will pit. Gonna be a fist fight. Bourdais in. Splash and go. No tires. Wilson blows passed the pits and takes the lead just as Bourdais is coming out on cold tires.

Derek is on the Power to Pass himself -- "This is going to be a straight fight now."

8 to go. Can Bourdais catch Wilson? Bourdais is 4.5 back but gaining. Derek -- This good stoof here. Rice is 7th but still has to pit.

Lap 58 -- Derek gives his ode to the circa 1970 pop-off valve on the Cosworths again. You can see it on the rear view of an in-car camera. Gone after today since the new engine doesn't have a pop-off valve. Derek is going to miss it.

Down to Jan with the perpetually optimistic Craig Hampson. Hampson says not changing tires at the end was a coin toss. Boudais made the call. Justin done heck of a job. Thinks it will end Wilson-Bourdais.

Lap 61 -- Bourdais is on it. He's cut Wilson's lead down to 2.7 seconds.

Lap 62 -- Ranger (a lap down) goes wide. Let's Bourdais pass. Class move.

DD is on fire. "It's a dog fight. It is a straight fight. The decks are clear, go at it boys. Go at it boys."

Now Bourdais is just .926 seconds back. You can almost hear DD breathing into a bag in the booth. The moment calls out for a "hold onto your hollyhocks" but Derek won't give it to us. He's teasing us. Refusing to give us what we want.

Coming out of the 1st-gear at the chicane before the front straight. Bourdais goes for a pass on the outside. What the? Mashing the power to pass. How do you say "massive balls" in French? Both cars get a little fishy coming out of the Peraltada. Not going to work though. Justin holds tight and fends off Bourdais.

Two to go. Both are on the power to pass down the straight. Wilson is now .74 seconds ahead.

White flag. Boudais is on Wilson's ass, big time. Bourdais is out of power to pass.

Holy slide job! Bourdais tosses his car inside, bounces onto the curb and the ass gets squirrely hip checking Wilson out of the way. Body check city. Bourdais leads. DD -- "Looked like a bit of a Paul-Tracy-like move." Wilson locks up the brakes through the bus stop a few seconds later. He's toast.

Derek declares it a legit pass. Borderline. Replay. Banzai! Dirt-track slide job. Up over the curb, the ass of Bourdais' car slides out, hip checks Wilson out of the way. Stewards may take a look. Don't hold your breath on them taking a victory away on such a close call.

Finish -- Bourdais, Wilson, Power, Junk, Tag, Servia, Nelson, Andy Ranger, Martinez and Rice.

Bourdais is a 7-time winner. Batting .500 for the year (7 wins out of 14 races). Props to Wilson the One-Hand Wonder for putting up a major battle with AJ gone to NASCAR and Tracy recovering from his stunt driving.

Cameron with Hampson after the victory. Hampson says he doesn't think Bourdais has enough to win it (kidding). Really says he thinks Wilson was struggling at the end. Maybe the wrist. He was off the pace a bit.

Will Power is third. First-ever podium for him. Recalling Power going ass-first into the barrier at Edmonton and almost killing a camera guy (who, by the way, hung in there to get the video before finally bailing out at the last second. Major cajones on the camera guy).

Justin (pictured left) -- I was just hanging on the last 10 to 12 laps. Just couldn't hang on for the last lap. Wasn't surprised that Bourdais went for the pass. Quite a bit of contact. "I didn't think it was completely on, but, you know, I'll give it to him." Steering wheel snapped around a bit. (Wilson declines to call it a wanker move. Says it was right on the line between legit and punk-like. Doesn't seem pissy about it at all. Huge shout out for his post-race interview conduct.)

Jan with Bourdais. Says hi to wife Claire who is back home expecting a child. Bourdais -- That was a tought deal. But I didn't want to take Wilson out. Went side-by-side, touched a little. Pretty sure wheel-to-sidepod should be all right. I made up for a big mistake I made trying to catch him earier in the race (a spin-o-rama that TV didn't catch). When it started raining he started catching him.

Bourdais motage. Wins half the races on the year. Season's over. Tune in to see the DP01 make its big debut in April 8, 2007 at Viva Las Vegas. As a special race weekend event, Paul Tracy will jump some haulers with a golf cart! (Kidding.)