Bourdais cruises to third straight victory

He beat second place Justin Wilson by more than 13
seconds.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Sebastien Bourdais passed polesitter Justin Wilson to start the 56th lap Sunday and cruised to his third straight victory, and the Grand Prix of Portland introduced Champ Car’s first standing start without a hitch.

The three-time defending series champion beat second-place Wilson by 13.537 seconds on the 1.964-mile road course at Portland International Raceway.

Rookie Robert Doornbos finished third in the caution-free race.

Bourdais, who also won at Houston and Long Beach, also won at Portland in 2004. He has won 26 races during his career.

100th team victory

It was the 100th victory for the Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing team. The team was founded in 1982 by actor Paul Newman and entrepreneur Carl Haas.

Their first win came in 1983 at Road America with driver Mario Andretti.

“This race unfolded like a dream,” Bourdais said.

Wilson said his car’s power leveled off and Bourdais was able to catch him.

“It was just frustrating we couldn’t go any faster,” he said. “We were already at the maximum.

It was Champ Car’s first use of a standing start, where drivers take off from a dead stop like in Formula One. Champ Car has traditionally used rolling starts.

Concerned about start

Bourdais had expressed concerns about the start, fearing that if some cars stalled when drivers dropped their clutches, there could be accidents.

But the start, with cars set up in a graduated grid on the straightaway, went off smoothly.

A bank of lights positioned over the starting line signaled the drivers — when the last of the red lights went out, the cars burst forward with a deafening roar.

Australian driver Will Power’s team cheered the start.

“I’m pretty happy that my bad visions didn’t happen,” Bourdais said.

There was talk that Champ Car might scrap the standing start if it was raining.

In pouring rain Saturday for practice and qualifying, drivers complained that there was so much spray that they couldn’t see anything.

But the rain, except for a few drizzles, stayed away Sunday.

Bourdais started in the third spot and went on to lead 48 laps.

“That kid is quite a phenomenon,” Newman said of the French driver. “And he has a great crew, too.”