With 36 laps to go Sunday, Sebastien Bourdais was running 13 seconds behind leader Paul Tracy. But the fabulous Frenchman produced another improbable victory at the Grand Prix of Denver.
“We’d like to make it a tradition,” said car owner Paul Newman, the actor who won for the third consecutive time, and second straight with Bourdais, on the 1.65-mile street course around the Pepsi Center.
Bourdais, 26, didn’t rally from worst to first as he did a year ago in Denver. But thanks to a gigantic mistake when Tracy took himself out of contention with a single-car crash on lap 62 of the 97-lap race, Bourdais’ third consecutive Champ Car victory was as dominant as his 2004 beauty in the Mile High City.
Despite battling a cold and thinking he was destined to finish no better than second behind Tracy, Bourdais remained patient and seized his opportunity. He later benefited when Mexico’s Mario Dominguez, who was one of Bourdais’ closest pursuers, made an error that temporarily left him unable to see.
Bourdais, who started second, took the checkered flag in 1 hour, 49 minutes, 45.135 seconds.
He was more than 15 seconds ahead of runner-up Dominguez, who passed A.J. Allmendinger of Thornton with less than 2 miles to go. Allmendinger, who drives for Loveland-based RuSport, held on for third, 17.2 seconds behind Bourdais.
Centrix executive Rick Bolton estimated Sunday’s crowd at 75,000.
“When I saw P.T. (Paul Tracy) in the wall, I was very surprised because P.T. makes very few mistakes and that’s not the kind of mistake he makes when he’s up front like that,” Bourdais said of Tracy’s headfirst run into the turn-four wall. The crash was caused by a broken suspension when Tracy smacked the turn-three wall a split second earlier.
“I just benefited from his mistake,” Bourdais said. “I had to push him all day, and I abused the tires. He was a bit faster, and I didn’t expect to pass him.”
Tracy, who qualified No. 1 in both weekend sessions, left for the airport before Bourdais claimed his 14th career Champ Car victory in 41 starts. Tracy refused the mandatory post-crash medical check and ran away from a safety crewman trying to escort him off the track.
Tracy entered the race in second place in the standings, 26 points behind Bourdais. He trails by 53 points (249-196).
“I brushed the inside wall, barely touched it, and it threw me across the track, right into the wall,” Tracy told a television reporter before leaving the track. “I basically just handed the championship to Sebastien. It’s devastating for the whole team. We’ll just try to come back in Montreal (Aug. 28) and win that. It’s all we can do.”
Tracy outran Bourdais off the start line and easily led lap one, his 4,000th career Champ Car lap led. Bourdais fell to third behind Allmendinger on the first circuit but passed him on lap 18, beating Allmendinger to the inside heading into the tight turn nine.
In the closing laps on the same turn, Dominguez also used an inside move to overtake Allmendinger, last year’s Champ Car rookie of the year.
“It was a struggle today,” Allmendinger said. “The car was pretty good on the first 10 laps of the stints, but then it would really go off. The car hasn’t been great all weekend, and so I was just looking for a top-five finish, really, so I’m pretty pleased to be back on track and bring home a podium finish for Western Union and RuSport in our home town.”
Dominguez, who is Tracy’s Forsythe Championship Racing teammate, said he made a costly cockpit mistake when trying to overtake Bourdais.
“I hit the drink button by mistake when I tried to talk on the radio, and it squirted water all over the inside of my helmet,” said Dominguez, who had his mouth closed when the water was released from a tube that feeds into his helmet. “My visor started fogging up really badly. During a caution flag I actually took my glove off and was driving with my knee while I wiped off the inside of my visor, but it fogged up again.”
Just one more element that helped Bourdais breeze to victory and continue his domination of the Champ Car circuit.
Staff writer Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
