Dale Coyne Racing Sonoma qualifying report

BOURDAIS CONTINUES FIRESTONE FAST TWELVE STREAK

Sébastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing

Photo by: IndyCar Series

Sonoma, California (August 27, 2011)--- For the fifth consecutive race this season, Sebastien Bourdais has driven the #19 Boy Scouts of America car into the Firestone Fast Twelve of qualifying. In tomorrow’s Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, Bourdais will start eighth a field of 28. James Jakes, driver of the #18 Acorn Stairlifts car, will start tomorrow’s race in 17th.

Both Dale Coyne Racing drivers displayed impressive times over the past few practice sessions. Friday’s practice session ended with the Dale Coyne Racing cars filling two of the top-ten spots. Bourdais finished in sixth position while rookie Jakes held on to tenth position throughout the session. In today’s morning practice, Bourdais was able to reach as high as second position. Ultimately, however, he finished the session in 14th, so the crew decided to make a few changes.

“We tried to anticipate some things with the car that ended up not happening,” Bourdais said. “The changes we made in anticipation were not what we needed for what the track was actually like. We should have known better, but it was my fault. Starting eighth is not bad when you think you have a top-15 car, but I know this car is top-five material and I guess you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see that.”

After testing at Infineon Raceway last week, Jakes came back this weekend very confident. He displayed true talent today when he finished morning practice 5th out of the almost thirty car field.

“This whole weekend we’ve been fast,” Jakes said. “This weekend has been great because I think people can finally see how much I’m learning in my first season in IndyCar, and we’re improving all the time. We would have liked to qualify in the top-ten because I know we could have, but we were very close and I know tomorrow will be a great race.”