2007 Grand Prix of Cleveland

The 2007 Grand Prix of Cleveland is the fifth round of the 2007 Champ Car World Series Season. It was held on June 24 at the Burke Lakefront Airport, in Cleveland, Ohio. As of 2024 this is the last race held in the city.

United States 2007 Grand Prix of Cleveland
Race details
Race 5 of 14 in the 2007 Champ Car season
Burke Lakefront Airport Track Layout
DateJune 24, 2007
Official nameGrand Prix of Cleveland Presented by LaSalle Bank
LocationBurke Lakefront Airport
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
CourseTemporary Airport Course
2.106 mi / 3.389 km
Distance89 laps
187.434 mi / 301.621 km
WeatherSunny/Cloudy
Pole position
DriverSébastien Bourdais (N/H/L Racing)
Time56.363
Fastest lap
DriverSébastien Bourdais (N/H/L Racing)
Time57.601 (on lap 56 of 89)
Podium
FirstPaul Tracy (Forsythe Racing)
SecondRobert Doornbos (Minardi Team USA)
ThirdNeel Jani (PKV Racing)

Qualifying results

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Pos Nat Name Team Qual 1 Qual 2 Best
1   Sébastien Bourdais N/H/L Racing 56.961 56.363 56.363
2   Simon Pagenaud Team Australia 57.338 56.388 56.388
3   Will Power Team Australia 57.301 56.473 56.473
4   Graham Rahal N/H/L Racing 57.658 56.588 56.588
5   Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA 57.745 56.751 56.751
6   Dan Clarke Minardi Team USA 57.855 57.001 57.001
7   Paul Tracy Forsythe Racing 57.782 57.065 57.065
8   Justin Wilson RSPORTS 57.427 57.079 57.079
9   Alex Tagliani RSPORTS 57.652 57.199 57.199
10   Oriol Servia Forsythe Racing 57.722 57.380 57.380
11   Neel Jani PKV Racing 57.535 57.400 57.400
12   Tristan Gommendy PKV Racing 57.978 57.516 57.516
13   Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports 59.117 57.626 57.626
14   Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing 57.811 57.758 57.758
15   Katherine Legge Dale Coyne Racing 58.681 57.811 57.811
16   Ryan Dalziel Pacific Coast Motorsports 58.238 57.928 57.928
17   Jan Heylen Conquest Racing 58.259 58.116 58.116

Sébastien Bourdais lead both Friday and Saturday's qualification sessions. Rookie Simon Pagenaud missed the pole by .025 of a second to score his first Champ Car front row starting position next to Bourdais. Bourdais chose to start from the left side of the track, opposite the traditional inside position leading to Cleveland's often frantic first turn.

Race

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Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 7   Paul Tracy Forsythe Racing 89 1:45:10.860 7 31
2 14   Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA 89 +0.5 secs 5 27
3 21   Neel Jani PKV Racing 89 +5.4 secs 11 26
4 9   Justin Wilson RSPORTS 89 +5.9 secs 8 23
5 15   Simon Pagenaud Team Australia 89 +6.3 secs 2 21
6 8   Alex Tagliani RSPORTS 89 +17.8 secs 9 19
7 3   Oriol Servia Forsythe Racing 89 +23.7 secs 10 17
8 2   Graham Rahal N/H/L Racing 89 +24.7 secs 4 15
9 28   Ryan Dalziel Pacific Coast Motorsports 89 +27.8 secs 16 13
10 5   Will Power Team Australia 89 +55.2 secs 3 11
11 4   Dan Clarke Minardi Team USA 88 + 1 Lap 6 10
12 1   Sébastien Bourdais N/H/L Racing 67 Mechanical 1 12
13 22   Tristan Gommendy PKV Racing 34 Contact 12 8
14 42   Jan Heylen Conquest Racing 34 Contact 17 7
15 11   Katherine Legge Dale Coyne Racing 32 Mechanical 15 6
16 19   Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing 6 Contact 14 5
17 29   Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports 3 Mechanical 13 4

An incident-filled race ended with a surprise winner in Paul Tracy, his first victory since the 2005 Cleveland Grand Prix and 31st overall. Despite two early crashes which forced him to pit and have his crew replace his nose cone twice, Tracy managed to stay on the lead lap. Tracy found himself in lead on lap 70 during the last yellow flag period. The extra fuel he gained by his two early pit stops allowed him to gamble on fuel strategy. Robert Doornbos, recovering from an early setback of his own after he was black-flagged for blocking, was catching up to him quickly in the final laps but was unable to pass Tracy before the checkered flag after 89 laps.

Early in the race it looked as if the race would come down to a showdown between Will Power and Sébastien Bourdais as they raced nose to tail, with Bourdais leading from the standing start. Power, following the script Bourdais ran to in the Portland race, passed Bourdais after the first round of pit stops by staying out an extra lap. But the battle was aborted when Bourdais' car broke down on lap 67. Not long later, Power was forced to pit under green on lap 75 to change a tire that failed because of a broken valve.

Caution flags

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Laps Cause
4-6 Rahal/Tracy crash
7-10 Junqueira/Tracy crash
36-41 Heylen/Gommendy crash
68-72 Bourdais/Clarke off course

Notes

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Laps Leader
1-27 Sébastien Bourdais
28-29 Will Power
30-33 Graham Rahal
34 Paul Tracy
35-57 Will Power
58-62 Paul Tracy
63-69 Will Power
70-89 Paul Tracy
 
Driver Laps led
Will Power 32
Sébastien Bourdais 27
Paul Tracy 26
Graham Rahal 4

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included.

Attendance

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Attendance at the 3 day race weekend was 151,426 people with over 65,000 fans attending the Champ Car raceday main event. This represented a 28% increase over 2006.[1]

References

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  1. ^ "2008 Grand Prix of Cleveland :: Media: News". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
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Previous race:
2007 Mazda Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland
Champ Car World Series
2007 season
Next race:
Champ Car Mont-Tremblant 07

Previous race:
2006 Grand Prix of Cleveland
Grand Prix of Cleveland Next race:
2008 Grand Prix of Cleveland
canceled by IndyCar/Champ Car merger

41°31′2.3″N 81°40′58.5″W / 41.517306°N 81.682917°W / 41.517306; -81.682917