Champcar Beats Zontas Laguna Seca record :D

The Champ Car World Series is claiming a victory over Formula One after defending champion Sebastien Bourdais broke a Formula One record during testing at the Laguna Seca track.

Whilst testing the open wheeler series' new Panoz single seater at the venue near Monterey, in California, the Frenchman beat the lap time set by Toyota's Ricardo Zonta last year. Bourdais' lap of 1.05.880 compared with Zonta's 1.06.309.

"Bourdais was given a cheque for $5,000 by the series for breaking the mark, as Champ Car posted an Old West-style bounty on the record."

Last August, Brazilian test driver Zonta - in a 2005-spec car - was doing demonstration runs as part of the 'Monterey Historic Automobile Races' when he set the record.

Cool.

In Europe if you get a lap record do you get a prize too ?

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

yes chet you do....

Its all REALLY stupid and REALLY funny.

Zonta, an F1 teams TEST DRIVER, went out in a midfield car, done a slow lap on rock hard tyres and beat the lap record.

Champ Car had to offer the $5000 in advance to get people to try and beat it and Bourdias went out on Bridgestone reds and a low fuel run and only beat it by half a second. So now Champ Car are going on about how they beat an F1 car.

Im sorry, but put Alonso or Schumacher round there in an F1 car on soft tyres on low fuel load and they'd blow the Champ Car away. The DP01 is "@#$%&" (coming from a team member), and this is Champ Cars way of talking it up, whilst ignoring that half the grid are pay drivers, the top teams are out of money, and theres only 14-17 cars on this years grid.

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Actually, I would like to see BMW doing it just for @#$%& and giggles, cause their one-lap pace last year was quite good, and this year, it's looking as good, if not better. Vettel, given about 10 laps to get the car and circuit up to speed, will probably beat Zonta's time by about 2 seconds, and Bourdais by 1.5.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

Watching some footage of that, I seem to remember Zonta had never visited the track either, and only did a handful of laps. I can't substaniate that myself, and can't be bothered to research, but that's what the footage said.

NeilPearson Wrote:
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> yes chet you do....


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That new champ car chassis is ugly too.

so dave, was this just a thing to make champ car look better??

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer



and yeah chet, it was all to make champcar look good, they are struggling alot at present.

so dave, was this just a thing to make champ car look better??

Pretty much. they turned up and found the DP01 was lapping just a second or so off the lap record. So they offered $5000 to the first person to beat it, and Bourdais went out and done a qualifying run and got the record. Now CCWS are just using it as a publicity thing.

Doesnt make up for what a poor state the series is in to real world motorsport fans.

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Well just look at the montreal times, Alonso's 1'14 to the champs 1'21ish? Both pole times from 2006?

Even with the new champ car it would still be around 5 secs slower.

Cant Champcar sort itself out ?
Or is it on the road to being at an end ??

Sad really, to think some of F1's most exciting prospects have gone/come from there, well recently.

JPM,JV,Salo went for a while did he not??? And Tiago ???

And cant forget Wilson!! From what ive seen/heard, he has had a great few seasons in Champcar, but because of its @#$%& state will he ever get considered for F1 ??

He's another Brit that should be on the F1 grid imo.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

What all the Champ Car fans (all 50 of them left) crowing about this seem to be overlooking is that Formula 1 is a formula; the teams don't spend 200 million dollars designing the fastest car they possibly can, it's the fastest car within the regulations.