Dutchman Claims San Jose, Closes Gap On Point-Leader Bourdais

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In the week leading up to the Champ Car Grand Prix of San Jose, Robert Doornbos said he wasn’t surprised that few Americans had ever heard of him.
“I know fans have to look at our biographies to find out what we have done,” Doornbos told the San Jose Mercury News. “When I tell people that I raced Formula One, they look at me and say, ‘OK, whatever.’
“I just hope they enjoy the racing,” he added. “That’s the most important thing — putting on a good show.”
Doornbos will certainly no longer have to deal with anonymity in San Jose after winning the downtown street race Sunday by 6.144 seconds over fellow Champ Car rookie Neel Jani. And by claiming the victory in dramatic back-to-front style, the 25-year-old Dutchman definitely put on a good show for the large and enthusiastic crowd.
More importantly, from his own perspective, Doornbos moved within 10 points of series leader (and two-time San Jose winner) Sebastien Bourdais, who could manage no better than fifth.
Doornbos certainly made his second Champ Car triumph tougher than it had to be. Gearbox problems meant he qualified a dismal 15th, and he fell to last place after hitting Jan Heylen’s car at the hairpin on the first lap, necessitating a pit stop for a new front wing.
But the full-course caution periods fell exactly when Minardi Team USA needed them, allowing “Bobby D” to run flat out while his competition was focused on saving fuel. By the time the field had completed its first round of pit stops, Doornbos had moved all the way up to third. 
He cleanly passed Jani’s Red Bull/PKV Racing machine on the 96th of 107 laps and then drove away to a comfortable margin of victory. Oriol Servia took third for Forsythe Championship Racing ahead of Team Australia’s Will Power.
“Did you like that?” Doornbos exclaimed. “What a race! Thanks to the boys, because the car was great. We had so much bad luck all weekend, so I’m really, really happy now.”
The key to the victory was the race’s second full-course yellow, which came when Katherine Legge crashed on the 15th lap. Engineer Michael Cannon brought Doornbos in to top off his fuel, and when the leaders made their normal round of stops between laps 39 and 42, Doornbos assumed the lead and pulled out enough of a gap (21 seconds over Servia) that when he made his own fuel stop on lap 54, he only dropped to third.
“The yellows came exactly when we wanted,” confirmed Cannon, who engineered A.J. Allmendinger to five wins in 2006 with the Forsythe team before switching to the rejuvenated Minardi USA team this year. “We had two different game plans, and I have to say I’m very happy with how it all happened.”
As if on cue, another perfectly timed yellow flag waved on the 77th lap when Paul Tracy ran out of fuel at the pit entrance and had to be pushed in. Everyone, including Doornbos, pitted, and he resumed in the lead.
Still, it wasn’t over yet. In his bid to get back to the front, Doornbos used up almost all of his power to pass, and he was a sitting duck on the lap-84 restart, losing the lead to Jani.
No problem. PKV Racing’s tire strategy turned out to be wrong, and Jani’s car quickly began to lose grip on the red-sidewall Bridgestone alternate tires.
“I saw Jani was struggling, and I passed him,” Doornbos said. “After that, the race was mine. It’s a great way to finish two bad weekends.”
Jani wasn’t too disappointed after matching his career-best Champ Car result — his second runner-up finish in the last three races.
“For the last stint, we were on the Bridgestone red tires while the other guys were on blacks, and it looks like that decided the race,” he said. “I just suffered too much understeer, and I couldn’t hold off Doornbos anymore.”