race report 2006 San Jose Grand Prix/Round 9 of 14 - Targus

8.01.06
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2006 San Jose Grand Prix/Round 9 of 14
The 2006 Champ Car World Series made its second
visit to the Golden State as the streets of Downtown
San Jose came alive for a three day festival of speed.

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2006 San Jose Grand Prix
Round 9 of 14
As was the case in Edmonton, 2006 is the second
year for the San Jose Grand Prix. The 2005 version
of the event was extremely well-attended, but
certain issues with the
track’s layout caused some
concerns among the Champ
Car drivers and teams.
However, the promoters
of the race had spent a
tremendous amount of time
and effort improving the track, the facilities and
the overall experience not just for the participants,
but for the fans as well.
RuSPORT arrived in San Jose with mixed emotions.
Justin Wilson’s victory during the previous race in
Edmonton was certainly a boost for his CDW No.
9 car team, but Cristiano da Matta’s crash on lap
one in Edmonton was a reason for his RuSPORT No.
10 car team to re-focus their efforts and work to
get Cristiano onto the podium in San Jose.
Since the San Jose area is home to some of
RuSPORT’s partners and their customers, the
weekend was a busy one right from the start.
Justin began the weekend on Thursday morning
by visiting Plantronics, a partner on his No. 9 car, at
their offices in Santa Cruz. Justin had the privilege
of meeting with employees (many of whom are
avid race fans), taking a brief tour and signing
autographs. The event was well-attended, and
Justin enjoyed his time there.
The next item on the agenda was the pre-event
press conference, at the track in San Jose. As
usual, plenty of reporters and photographers were
on-hand to ask Justin and several other drivers
about their strategies for the race, their feelings on
the track improvements and their thoughts on the
Champ Car season, so far. From there, it was on
to preparations for Friday’s practice session and
Provisional Qualifying.
The sun rose in San Jose on Friday, and as the
drivers and teams arrived at the track, many fans
“San Jose proved again
today that the smartest
drivers come to the front.”
arrived in the grandstands. In addition, RuSPORT
Hospitality quickly became a hotbed of activity
as many guests arrived to kick the weekend
off. At total of nearly 600
guests were expected to
enjoy themselves at the best
hospitality center in Champ
Car throughout the weekend
in San Jose.
-Carl Russo
From the start of Friday morning’s practice session,
it was clear that the track had been dramatically
improved since 2005. The infamous railroad track
crossings were much smoother, the front straight
was much faster without the chicanes that were
present a year ago, and much of the track was
wider and more suitable for passing.
However, it became clear later that day that
RuSPORT had some work to do. In Friday
afternoon’s Provisional Qualifying session, Justin
took eighth place, recording a best lap time of
50.504 seconds. Cristiano posted a best lap time
of 50.734 seconds to qualify two spots behind
Justin in tenth. The challenges of the newlyimproved
track were apparent.
“I’m a little bit disappointed
with today,” said Justin. “The
car didn’t feel too bad, but we
ended up in eighth position.
So, we’ve got a little bit of
work to do to give ourselves an
opportunity on Sunday. We’ll
work on things tonight and get
it right tomorrow. On a track
like this, it’s critical to brake
well, get the power down and
turn in well in the corners. All
of the corners are very similar,
so if you fix the problem in one
corner, you’ll fix it in all of them
and pick up quite a bit of time.
Hopefully, it’s just a couple of
clicks away and we’ll be there.”

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2006 San Jose Grand Prix
Round 9 of 14
On Saturday, Cristiano and his car 10 team
showed some improvement, while Justin and his
CDW car 9 team concentrated on some technical
issues with the new circuit. In the afternoon, all
looked good as RuSPORT warmed up for Final
Qualifying, but for Justin, it suddenly went awry.
As he exited Turn 2 with just a few minutes to
go in the pre-qualifying warm-up session, Justin
unexpectedly slid into the outside tire barrier.
While he was unharmed in the incident, his
No. 9 CDW car sustained severe damage to its
front wing and right-front suspension. The Final
Qualifying session would start without Justin on
the track, but he would eventually qualify in 12th
place with a time of 50.341 seconds in his backup
car, which was prepared in a matter of minutes
thanks to some heroic effort by the CDW crew.
Meanwhile, Cristiano improved six spots on the
starting grid, jumping from tenth to fourth position
with a time of 49.549 seconds. He and his car 10
team seemed confident that things were coming
together nicely.
“I’m very pleased with fourth
place, especially coming from
where we were yesterday,”
said Cristiano. “We’ve made
some improvements on the
car, especially in this morning’s
practice session, and it looks
like we’ve found a good route
to pursue. We will try to see
if we can make it a little bit
better yet again, for the race
tomorrow. My engineers and
crew have been pushing very
hard, and we have definitely
improved. We found a couple
of small things on the car that
have helped make it better
suited to the way I like to drive,
so I’m happy overall.”
Race day arrived in San Jose, and the
grandstands were filled. The race started, and
almost immediately, the famous Turn One hairpin
produced some excitement. On the second
lap, Cristiano was able to take advantage of
some contact between A.J. Allmendinger and
Sebastien Bourdais, and move up to third place.
Justin didn’t waste any time in trying to improve
his position, and had already moved from 12th to
eighth by the second lap. A few laps later, Justin
passed Nelson Philippe for sixth place.
On lap 16, Paul Tracy spun in Turn Six, and once
again, Cristiano was able to capitalize and move
up a spot into second place. Justin continued
to work his way through the field, passing Charles
Zwolsman two laps later.
After the first round of pit stops, Justin and Cristiano
both found themselves in the middle of the
pack. However, thanks to some hard work and
great pit strategy by both RuSPORT pit crews,
both drivers were able to jump back towards the
front of the field. As the rest of the field cycled
through its necessary pit stops, Cristiano and Justin
found themselves in second and third place,
respectively.
The entire day was filled with spins, crashes, and
the occasional emotional outburst by other
Champ Car drivers, but when it was over, Cristiano
captured second place in the 2006 Grand Prix
of San Jose, his first podium finish of the 2006
Champ Car World Series season and the 20th of
his Champ Car career. Justin improved from 12th
on the starting grid to third place at the finish, and
captured his sixth podium finish of 2006 and the
ninth of his Champ Car career.
For Cristiano, the result allows him to move up
from tenth to seventh in the Champ Car Driver’s
Championship, while Justin’s finish keeps him in
second place behind points leader, Sebastien
Bourdais. Justin also earned an additional
championship point for improving the most places
in the race.

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2006 San Jose Grand Prix
Round 9 of 14
“I’m very happy with the result,” said Cristiano.
“It’s my first podium with RuSPORT, and I’m not
only happy with the result, but happy with how we
progressed throughout the weekend, and happy
how we found speed in the car. I hope we’re able
to apply the things we’ve learned here to some
other tracks, and enable us to be consistently
fast.”
“I’m very pleased with how today went, especially
since life was pretty difficult after qualifying,” said
Justin. “The CDW crew did a fantastic job, and I
managed to avoid all of the incidents and stay
out of trouble. I’m really pleased that we kept the
championship alive, and that we were able to
keep fighting.”
“San Jose proved again today that the smartest
drivers come to the front,” said RuSPORT owner
Carl Russo. “Just like last year, a mistake-free
run yielded a good result. After having a tough
qualifying session and qualifying fourth and 12th,
both gentlemen made great decisions and ended
up second and third on the podium. It was an
outstanding drive by both Cristiano and Justin.
For Cristiano, on his first podium with the team, a
double congratulations.”
The 2006 Champ Car World Series continues with
RuSPORT’s hometown race, the Grand Prix of
Denver, on Sunday, August 13th. The race will be
broadcast live on SPEED Channel, starting at 3:30
pm EDT.

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2006 San Jose Grand Prix
Round 9 of 14
r e s u lt s
2006 SAN JOSE GRAND PRIX
WEEKEND RESULTS
Position Qualifying Finish
01 Bourdais Bourdais
02 Tracy Da Matta
03 Allmendinger Wilson
04 Da Matta Philippe
05 Servia Dominguez
06 Power Power
07 Junqueira Allmendinger
08 Ranger Servia
09 Clarke Zwolsman
10 Dominguez Pastorelli
NEXT UP /
GRAND PRIX OF DENVER
Location Date Time TV Schedule
Denver, CO August 13 3:45 PM ET
SPEED (Live)
3:30 PM ET
For more information, please visit:
www.rusport.com, www.champcarworldseries.com
www.gpdenver.com
2005 Season Driver Time MPH
Defending
Champion
Defending
Polesitter
Bourdais 1:49:45.135 87.338
Tracy 59.432 100.370
12 Wilson
2006 SEASON AT A GLANCE
da MATTA #10 WILSON #9
Round Location Qualifying Finish Rank Qualifying Finish Rank
01 Long Beach 10* 5* 5* 2 2 2
02 Houston 14* 9* 6* 7 5 3
03 Monterey, MEXICO 12* 9* 7* 2 2 2
04 Milwaukee 17* 13* 9* 4 2 2
05 Portland 5 5 5 4 2 2
06 Cleveland 10 14 10 3 13 2
07 Toronto, CANADA 8 5 8 1 4 3
08 Edmonton, CANADA 14 18 10 3 1 2
09 San Jose 4 2 7 12 3 2
10 Denver
11 Montreal, CANADA
12 Elkhart Lake
13 Surfers Paradise, AUSTRALIA
14 Mexico City, MEXICO
*Dale Coyne Racing