San Jose Grand Prix (July 29, 2007)
story by Dale J Bosowski

Following qualifying frustrations and a disastrous opening lap, Robert Dornboos (#14 Minardi Team USA) somehow managed to right the ship and pull off an improbable victory in Sunday’s 3^rd Annual Champ Car World Series Grand Prix of San Jose held on a 1.443-mile street course in the heart of the downtown district.

Being at the back of the grid is always a dubious proposition on a street circuit and Doornbos struggled on both Friday and Saturday in qualifying with setup and mechanical problems, ending up well back in the 15^th spot out of 17 cars starting Sunday’s race.

In the Turn 1 hairpin of the first lap of the race, Doornbos made contact with the back of the car driven by Jan Heylen resulting in the Doornbos' car losing its front wing. He was forced into the pits for repairs and re-emerged in last place, but without losing a lap.

"Normally it's like the weekend's over on a street circuit when you don’t qualify well," said Doornbos, a native of the Netherlands. "Going into the hairpin with 14 cars in front of you, I almost stalled the car. I was driving so slow and I was still able to break my nose so I don't know what happened there."

Out of pit sequence and with his crew chief telling him over the radio drive as hard as possible and not worry about saving fuel, Doornbos quickly made up ground. Thanks to some timely yellow cautions he was back amongst the leaders before the halfway point of the 1 hour and 45 minute timed race.

"That's a lot of fun for a driver to do because sometimes fuel saving is a bit boring," said Doornbos, who also posted a win at Mont-Tremblant Quebec on July1. "When he said to push it, you get a big smile on your face and you just drive to the limits."

Doornbos fought for the top spot with Alex Tagliani, Oriol Servia and Neel Jani through much of the second half of the race. Doornbos took the lead from Servia on lap 78, Jani grabbed it on lap 84 and Doornbos reclaimed it for good coming out of the Turn 1 hairpin on lap 96.

The race concluded after 107 laps with Doornbos 6.145 seconds ahead of Jani while Servia was forced to settle for third despite having led the most laps with 42.

"It looked like at the end we had the wrong tires. I was struggling a little bit there and it was hard to keep up with Robert," said Jani. "I'm disappointed after leading so many laps. I was hoping to finish it off and get my first win, but I'm quite happy to be at least up on the podium."

Jani’s struggles paled in comparison to those of pole sitter Justin Wilson who sustained rear end suspension damage when he was banged hard from behind by "Speedy" Dan Clarke while the race was under a full course yellow caution!

Wilson agonized in the cockpit for over ten minutes as his crew made repairs. The Englishman would finally return to record the fastest lap of the race, but he finished in 13^th place, 20 laps behind the leaders.

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais, the three-time defending series champion and two-time San Jose winner, was never a factor in the race. He started second and led briefly, but stalled the car early on which forced him to spend most of the race playing catch up behind the leaders and finished fifth.

Bourdais now leads Doornbos by just 10 points (216-206) in the 2007 championship standings. Team Australia’s Will Power, who finished fourth at San Jose, gained two points on the leader and now trails with 192 while Wilson remains in fourth with 175 points.

"We did make it difficult for ourselves today," smiled Doornbos. " I hope in the future we can start at the front and finish at the front because this was hard work."