Bourdais stuns in IRL opener

Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

Sebastien Bourdais believed he could drive for tiny Dale Coyne Racing and really make a difference for a race team that has little chance against the big guns in IndyCar.

But he had a condition: Bourdais wanted to be reunited with the team players he was with when he was recognized as the top driver in open-wheel. So he brought with him engineer Craig Hampson, who led Bourdais to 31 victories, 31 poles and four consecutive titles from 2004 to 2007.

Bourdais also brought Olivier Boisson, who was the Frenchman’s engineer at KVSH Racing the last several seasons. Bourdais and Boisson teamed to win four races for KVSH.

This squad Sunday it has the potential to be a major player this season in IndyCar. Bourdais pulled off a major upset in the IndyCar season-opener, driving from last place to a victory on the streets of St. Petersburg that left him in tears.

Bourdais earned his 36th career victory, which broke a tie with Bobby Unser for sixth on IndyCar’s win list. It was the fifth career win for the Coyne team, first since Carlos Huertas won at Houston in 2014.

“We were hoping we could win a race or two this year. We’re halfway there. Maybe we can do better than that. We’ll see,” Coyne said. “The money we spent over the winter was starting to pay off.”

Bourdais led 69 of the 110 laps to give Honda a much-needed victory over Chevrolet. He beat reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud, a fellow Frenchman, to the finish line by 10.350 seconds.

“He was untouchable,” Pagenaud said.