San Jose Grand Prix postscript – 1
07/30/07 The engine shutdowns in San Jose on Sunday were not Cosworth engine related. In Bourdais' case it seems he inadvertently selected 7th gear coming out of the hairpin instead of 2nd and the engine bogged down and stalled. He realized his error, and with some quick thinking while the car was still rolling, got the car restarted on his own. As for Graham Rahal, he was using too much throttle on take off out of his pit stall and dumped the clutch when the boost was on the down side (against rev-limiter) and the small turbo engine has very little torque when the turbo is not pumping hard and hence died.
07/29/07 After winning for the 2nd time in four weeks, Dutchman Robert Doornbos went out of his way to say how happy he was to be racing here in America and the way he conducts himself and his mastery of the English language is winning him a lot of respect and fans in and out of the Champ Car paddock……..Harry Muermans, who backs Doornbos financially was ecstatic with the win by his driver and in the post-race interview room was even clapping……..Race promoter Dale Jantzen met the media after the event and said he was very happy with how well everything came off. He said the attendance appears to be close to last year's 120,000 3-day total but did not have final numbers yet. They built more grandstands this year and they were almost full to capacity as were the suites. He reiterated that he has a long-term contract with both the city and Champ Car and the race will definitely be back next year when they hope to finally break even on the event. Redback Networks stepped up their involvement with the event significantly this year and he appears confident they will be back next year, perhaps as a title sponsor, though he did not come right out and say that.