Monday, July 30, 2007

Sweet dreams of a double top-three effort in San Jose for RSPORTS turn out to be nightmares

Press Release

San Jose Grand Prix

SAN JOSE, California (July 29, 2007) – As the spirits were high in the RSPORTS pits at the start of the race, those were dampened quickly as the pole sitter and then current race leader Justin Wilson was hit from behind sending him into the pits for a lengthy repair. Teammate Alex Tagliani was on track for a top three finish, he was running strong until a problem in the pits, followed by a mechanical failure, ended his day. RSPORTS finished 13th and 15th with their respective issues.

The 30-minute warm up session finished with both RSPORTS teammates in the top five. Wilson topped the charts with a time of 49.716 (104.490 mph), while Tagliani rounded out the top five with the fifth quickest time of 49.993 (103.911 mph). The team and drivers were feeling pretty confident with their racecars and ready for a race that was anticipated to see both drivers finish on the podium.

After the sixth standing start in Champ Car history took the green flag without a glitch, Sebastien Bourdais beat pole sitter Wilson into Turn 1, but Wilson took the lead from him in Turn 2. For the next three laps, Wilson paced the field, which was under caution after a first-lap melee brought out the yellow flag on Lap 2. Just as the field was preparing for a restart on Lap 5, Wilson was leading the field to the green flag up until he entered Turn 6. That is when his day went downhill, as he was hit from behind by the second-place runner, Dan Clarke. The Englishman entered the pit lane very slowly, with apparent suspension damage. Once the #9 CDW crew was able to take a look at the car, they witnessed a broken drive shaft and toe link. The crew went hard to work to repair the damages, sending Wilson back out 20 laps down. The team radioed to him to see how the #9 CDW car was feeling, and he said it was good. That it was, on Lap 28 Wilson recorded the fastest lap of the race up to that point with a time of 50.779. He would continue to lower the quickest lap of the race and on Lap 35 he recorded the fastest lap of the race with a 49.584.

Demonstrating he had a winning car this afternoon by setting a new Champ Car record for the fastest race lap on the streets of San Jose, Wilson stayed patient and brought the #9 CDW car home to salvage a 13th place finish. He earned one point for posting the fastest race lap, along with 10 points for finishing the race. He remains fourth in the championship standings with a total of 175 points, 17 points out of third.

Tagliani’s day was just as disappointing. After starting seventh on the San Jose Grand Prix grid, he made his way up into the top five by Lap 4. On Lap 30, Tagliani made a nice move at the exit of Turn 1 to get past Graham Rahal to pick up the fourth position. As the first round of pit stops began, Tagliani picked up the lead on Lap 41 before making his first stop of the day on Lap 42. Then the problems began. During the pit stop, the engine stopped running, costing the team valuable time in the pits and a few positions. Once he got going again, he was sitting tenth. He gained one spot on track before falling to the 12th spot after he made a small mistake. But there was no mistake that he was still in the running to have a solid race, as he was doing an excellent job conserving fuel, therefore being able to run longer then most of the 17-car field this afternoon. Then on Lap 85 he was ordered back into the pits because he was experience shifting problems.

Ultimately, the #8 RSPORTS car had a valve block failure in the semi-automatic shifter system. The valve block controls the actuation of the up and down shift system and the throttle blipper. The valve block began to leak, therefore the compressor turned on to try and replenish the system pressure. When it could not do that any longer, the compressor failed. The #8 RSPORTS crew changed the valve block, but just could not get back out on time.

Tagliani earned his second DNF (Did Not Finish) in nine race this season, finishing 15th overall. He drops down from sixth to ninth in the championship standings with a total of 140 points, but is only 16 points out of being back in the top five.

The RSPORTS team will have a week off, before the next round of Champ Car racing action returns to road course racing at the famed Road America course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 10-12.