SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Winning half the races in a season can make a driver a little greedy.
Sebastien Bourdais did just that in 2004, winning seven of 14 races on the way to beating out teammate Bruno Junqueira for the Champ Car World Series title.
Now, at the halfway point in the 2005 season, Bourdais is having what for most people would be considered a very good season. Bourdais, who will start from the pole in Sunday's inaugural San Jose Grand Prix, has three poles and two victories in seven races and is leading 2003 series champion Paul Tracy by 22 points.
But two measly wins isn't what the 26-year-old Frenchman had in mind when the season began.
"Yeah, last year was much more trouble-free," Bourdais said Saturday after leading the weekend's only session of qualifying on the bumpy, tight 1.448-mile downtown street circuit.
"This year, we already had our share of incidents. We had a car equally as good as last year and couldn't get the best out of it. But, I think it's always the same. When you have a winning season, the next year is always harder because you have these memories where you say, `Oh, we won there, so we should win again.' It's just making your life a bit harder because you are kind of sometimes overdemanding of yourself."
It looked like 2005 would be a repeat of his championship year when Bourdais won the season opener on the streets of Long Beach. But he then went five races without another trip to Victory Lane before finally breaking through again, earning his 12th win in 2 1/2 seasons of Champ Car racing.
To get that win two weeks ago at Edmonton, Alberta, though, took some serious luck.
RuSport drivers A.J. Allmendinger and Justin Wilson dominated the race until Wilson spun himself out and Allmendinger bounced off a wall, giving the lead and the win to Bourdais.
"Now we have something to build on," Bourdais said. "We always have good equipment at Newman/Haas Racing, but it's also good to have luck. When the luck is with you, you win races. When it isn't ... "
Even with his struggles to win this year, the only drivers able to really stay with Bourdais have been 2003 champion Tracy and Bourdais' teammates -- first, last year's runner-up Junqueira, who won the second race of the season, and then, after Junqueira was injured in a crash during the Indianapolis 500 in May, replacement Oriol Servia.
Bourdais picked up one point with his pole on Saturday and now leads Tracy by 22 going into Sunday's race. Servia will start second and Tracy third in the 18-car lineup.
Going into the race, Servia, despite running only five of seven events this season, is fourth, 48 points behind his teammate and just 17 behind third-place Wilson.
With seven races left, Servia, who has finished second in the last two races, hasn't given up on catching his teammate.
"My relationship with the team couldn't be better," the Spaniard said. "From the first minute I joined the team, I got a huge amount of support from everyone. The good thing is that every session we go out, it's better, better, better.
"Four podiums in five races for our team, with the past two being second place, is pretty good and we are hoping to continue this Sunday. We're really working to get our car to P1 [position one], which is what the team deserves."
But Bourdais has other ideas.
"Our season has been kind of difficult so far but our team is leading the championship and maybe after the win in Edmonton things have begun to turn around," he said. "Hopefully, we can keep the lead leaving here and move forward for the rest of the races.
"We have had some frustrations in many of the events and definitely we would like to see the luck turn around as it did in Edmonton and start some momentum."
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
Sebastien Bourdais did just that in 2004, winning seven of 14 races on the way to beating out teammate Bruno Junqueira for the Champ Car World Series title.
Now, at the halfway point in the 2005 season, Bourdais is having what for most people would be considered a very good season. Bourdais, who will start from the pole in Sunday's inaugural San Jose Grand Prix, has three poles and two victories in seven races and is leading 2003 series champion Paul Tracy by 22 points.
But two measly wins isn't what the 26-year-old Frenchman had in mind when the season began.
"Yeah, last year was much more trouble-free," Bourdais said Saturday after leading the weekend's only session of qualifying on the bumpy, tight 1.448-mile downtown street circuit.
"This year, we already had our share of incidents. We had a car equally as good as last year and couldn't get the best out of it. But, I think it's always the same. When you have a winning season, the next year is always harder because you have these memories where you say, `Oh, we won there, so we should win again.' It's just making your life a bit harder because you are kind of sometimes overdemanding of yourself."
It looked like 2005 would be a repeat of his championship year when Bourdais won the season opener on the streets of Long Beach. But he then went five races without another trip to Victory Lane before finally breaking through again, earning his 12th win in 2 1/2 seasons of Champ Car racing.
To get that win two weeks ago at Edmonton, Alberta, though, took some serious luck.
RuSport drivers A.J. Allmendinger and Justin Wilson dominated the race until Wilson spun himself out and Allmendinger bounced off a wall, giving the lead and the win to Bourdais.
"Now we have something to build on," Bourdais said. "We always have good equipment at Newman/Haas Racing, but it's also good to have luck. When the luck is with you, you win races. When it isn't ... "
Even with his struggles to win this year, the only drivers able to really stay with Bourdais have been 2003 champion Tracy and Bourdais' teammates -- first, last year's runner-up Junqueira, who won the second race of the season, and then, after Junqueira was injured in a crash during the Indianapolis 500 in May, replacement Oriol Servia.
Bourdais picked up one point with his pole on Saturday and now leads Tracy by 22 going into Sunday's race. Servia will start second and Tracy third in the 18-car lineup.
Going into the race, Servia, despite running only five of seven events this season, is fourth, 48 points behind his teammate and just 17 behind third-place Wilson.
With seven races left, Servia, who has finished second in the last two races, hasn't given up on catching his teammate.
"My relationship with the team couldn't be better," the Spaniard said. "From the first minute I joined the team, I got a huge amount of support from everyone. The good thing is that every session we go out, it's better, better, better.
"Four podiums in five races for our team, with the past two being second place, is pretty good and we are hoping to continue this Sunday. We're really working to get our car to P1 [position one], which is what the team deserves."
But Bourdais has other ideas.
"Our season has been kind of difficult so far but our team is leading the championship and maybe after the win in Edmonton things have begun to turn around," he said. "Hopefully, we can keep the lead leaving here and move forward for the rest of the races.
"We have had some frustrations in many of the events and definitely we would like to see the luck turn around as it did in Edmonton and start some momentum."
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
