Bourdais wins pole at Zolder

Zolder, Belgium (Sports Network) - Sebastien Bourdais captured the pole for Sunday's Champ Car Grand Prix of Belgium at the Zolder Circuit. The No.1 Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver circled the 2.622-mile road course in one minute, 12.821 seconds (123.195 m.p.h.) to take the top spot.
The time was quicker than the pole-winning time set in 1984 by Michele Alboreto of Ferrari (1:14.846) when Formula One last raced on the track.
The pole victory earned Bourdais one championship point and gives him a 38- point lead over Robert Doornbos entering tomorrow's race.
"Obviously it would be awesome to go back to Europe with the McDonald's team and get another couple of wins, but those tracks are a big unknown for us," said Bourdais. "I have never been to Zolder or Assen."
That hasn't seemed to bother the Frenchman in the past. Over the last four years, seven new venues have been used by the Champ Car circuit and Bourdais won five times.
Starting on the front row with Bourdais will be Will Power who was third fastest on Saturday, but won Friday's provisional qualifying session.
The second row will consist of Doornbos (1:13.067) and Bruno Junqueira (1:13.313).
"For Champ Car, it's their first time at Zolder, but not for me -- I raced there seven years ago, in 2000," said Doornbos. "It's just great to drive in front of your home crowd, and for sure it gives you an extra boost that you need."
Mario Dominguez drove the No.4 Dan Clarke car after the latter was suspended for the weekend following an accident in Friday practice. He qualified 12th quickest.
The race is set to drop the green flag on Sunday at 8 a.m. (et).

Bourdais wins pole at Road America

Elkhart Lake, WI (Sports Network) - Sebastien Bourdais captured the pole for Sunday's Generac Grand Prix at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. The No.1 Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver circled the historic 4.048-mile road course in one minute, 41.535 seconds to take the top spot. The lap was more than 1.5 seconds faster than his nearest competitor.
The pole victory added one championship point to Bourdais' total his second of the weekend.
Starting alongside Bourdais will be Will Power who put up a time of 1:43.116.
Robert Doornbos (1:43.134) and Graham Rahal (1:43.162) will make up row two.
"Road America is a high-speed track, more what I'm used to in Europe," said former Formula One driver Doornbos. "You sort of have to shift your mind set, just as you'd change the setup on your car after racing on a street course. For one thing, there is so much more speed around the turns compared with the street circuits that you have to be much more delicate and precise with the car. We did well at the test earlier this year, and I can't wait to get back there."
With seven races left in the series, Bourdais, who just announced that he would leave the series to drive for Formula One's Toro Rosso in 2008, is on track to win his fourth consecutive series championship. The Frenchman used a win at Edmonton to reclaim the top spot and a fifth-place two weeks ago to maintain his lead. It is where Bourdais always expects to be. In 68 races, Bourdais has been the points leader for 42 of them.
However, Bourdais will bring just a 12-point lead over "rookie" Doornbos into this week's race at Road America. Doornbos cut the lead in half with a win at San Jose.
The race is scheduled to drop the green flag on Sunday at 3 p.m.

Bourdais take another provisional pole

San Jose, CA (Sports Network) - Sebastien Bourdais won Friday's provisional qualifying session for the San Jose Grand Prix. The No.1 Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver circled the 1.448-mile, 11-turn, temporary circuit in 49.509 seconds (104.926 m.p.h.).
The provisional pole win, his fifth of the season, earned Bourdais one championship point and a guaranteed position on the front row.
Justin Wilson was second quickest at 49.747 seconds. Will Power (49.822), Bruno Junqueira (49.852) and Alex Tagliani (49.852) completed the top-five.
Bourdais, the three-time series champion, has a 20-points lead on "rookie" Robert Doornbos. Doornbos is a former F1 driver for Minardi (2005) and Red Bull (2006) which were not really competitive against the giant teams of F1 like Ferrari and McLaren. But the team came to that realization and made the move across the Atlantic Ocean to Champ Cars.
Doornbos is finally getting to show what he can do when he gets in a competitive car. He opened his rookie Champ Car Series campaign with a second place finish at Las Vegas. Following his only bad outing at Long Beach (13th), Doornbos put himself on the podium four consecutive times including a win at Mont-Tremblant. He was on his way to another top-10 result last week when Alex Tagliani took him out in a late-race incident. Doornbos has earned six top-10s in eight starts.
Behind Doornbos is Power (-25) and Wilson (-29). Both are still very much in the championship race.
The final qualifying session is set for Saturday at 5 p.m. (et) with the race set to drop the green flag on Sunday at 6 p.m.

Gommendy wins pole in Mont-Tremblant

Mont-Tremblant, QC (Sports Network) - Will Power won Saturday's Champ Car qualifying on a partially wet track at the Mont-Tremblant road course, but his time wasn't good enough to unseat Friday's provisional pole winner Tristan Gommendy.
The No.5 Team Australia driver circled the 2.621-mile circuit in one minute, 20.943 seconds (116.571 m.p.h.). However, the time was not better than Gommendy's 1:16.776 which was done in a dry Friday session.
The pole win, the first of Gommendy's Champ Car career, earned the Frenchman one championship point.
Starting in row two will be three-time defending series champion Sebastien Bourdais and Justin Wilson.
The race is set to drop the green flag on Sunday at 2 p.m. (et).

Gommendy grabs provisional pole

Mont-Tremblant, QC (Sports Network) - Frenchman Tristan Gommendy topped Champ Car provisional qualifying in Friday's first of two sessions at the Mont- Tremblant road course. The No.22 PKV Racing driver circled the 2.621-mile circuit in one minute, 16.776 seconds (122.898 m.p.h.).
The provisional pole win earned Gommendy one championship point and a guaranteed position on the front row. His previous best start was a fifth in Portland. The rookie driver's best finish to date was a fifth-place in the season opener at Las Vegas.
Second best on Friday was the more well-known French driver Sebastien Bourdais (1:16.783) followed by Will Power (1:16.841), Justin Wilson (1:16.843) and Robert Doornbos (1:16.850).
Alex Figge led the early going, but admittedly the "big guns" waited almost 10 minutes before starting their runs. With still 15 minutes to run, Bourdais went to the top of the charts. Power and then Gommendy posted better laps than the three-time series champion as the clock marked just 10 minutes to go.
Gommendy and Power still led a very close top-seven as the drivers prepared for their final runs. All 17 drivers were on the track with five minutes remaining, but none could match Gommendy's time.
Less than two-tenths of-a-second separated first and seventh place.
Final qualifying is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. (et) with the race set to drop the green flag on Sunday at 2 p.m. (et).