Mexico City — Sébastien Bourdais (No. 1 McDonalds Ford-Cosworth) will be looking to cap his 2005 championship season off in winning style after clinching the title in Australia. In Surfers Paradise, Bourdais scored his sixth victory of the season and has a streak of nine consecutive top-five finishes. In 2005, the Frenchman has been the face of consistency finishing all but one lap this season. Last year in this event, he started on the pole and led from start to finish, clinching the series title.

A.J. Allmendinger (No. 10 Intel Ford-Cosworth) scored his fourth podium this season and matched his career-best finish when he passed under the checkered flag in the second spot on the Gold Coast. Last year, Allmendinger qualified seventh, and scored a third place finish in his first race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Jimmy Vasser (No. 12 Gulfstream Ford-Cosworth) posted his 33rd career podium finish in Australia and scored back-to-back podium finishes for the first time since the 2000 season. To this point, Vasser has recorded a series-record 209-consecutive starts. Last year in Mexico City, he scored his best start and finish on the course beginning the race in the fourth position before concluding in the top five.

Oriol Servia (No. 2 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth) earned his first career pole on the streets of Surfers Paradise. After being caught up in a first lap incident, the Spaniard battled back to take a fifth-place finish. Coming into Mexico City, Servia has two top-10 finishes and one top-five start to his credit at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

ON THE RIGHT TRACK
In the three previous events at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mario Dominguez (No. 7 Roshfrans Ford-Cosworth) is the only Mexican driver to score a podium finish. He accomplished this feat in 2003 when he drove his mount to a third-place finish.

Paul Tracy (No. 3 Indeck Ford-Cosworth) is the 2003 champion of the Gran Premio Telmex/Tecate. Tracy won from pole in 2003, leading 64 laps.

Justin Wilson (No. 9 SanDisk Ford-Cosworth) holds a 10-point lead over Paul Tracy for the third spot in the season standings. Last year at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, in his rookie start, Wilson qualified third and brought his ride home in the fourth spot.

Five of the drivers in this year’s lineup have Mexico City podiums to their credit. Additionally, each of the last three series champions (Bourdais, Tracy, da Matta) have finished on the podium in the year that they have won their championships.

DID YOU KNOW?
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is named for the famous Mexican brothers Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez and was modeled after Italy's Formula One Monza track. It was built in a park in 1962, after the success of Ricardo Rodriguez in Formula one motivated the Mexico City authorities to invest in the construction the racing circuit. The track got its name shortly after it opened when Ricardo Rodriguez tragically lost his life here in a non-title event (Ricardo's brother Pedro would also lose his life behind the wheel two years later). The circuit hosted its first Formula One Mexican Grand Prix one year later and remained part of the F-1 calendar through 1970, when the track suffered serious crowd control problems and after the 1970 event the FIA refused to give the Mexicans a new World Championship date because they were unable to guarantee that the crowd would not invade the track. The circuit was rebuilt, and in 1986, F-1 returned. The track was bumpy mostly due to Mexico City's location on a geologically active region and with an elevation of 7,500 feet, the thin air makes breathing more difficult for both the drivers and their cars. But it was agreed the new circuit was a great challenge, particularly the final curling banked 180-degree corner called the Peraltada. Champ Car made its first appearance on the circuit in 1980 and 1981, but did not return again until 2002. After the last F-1 Mexican Grand Prix in 1992, a baseball stadium was built on part of the circuit, so when Champ Car series began coming to the track in 2002, it was partially bypassed by a series of sharp turns entering and exiting the baseball field, re-entering Peralta halfway through. So in essence the outfield is home on race weekends to guys who make their living driving twice as fast as a Nolan Ryan fastball.

NOTEWORTHY
When Bourdais took the green flag in Australia he became the third driver to record back-to-back championships in his second and third years of competition, joining the ranks of Champ Car Champions Mario Andretti and Alex Zanardi.

In 1980 when Champ Car traveled to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, it became the first Champ Car sanctioned race to be held in Mexico.

Alex Tagliani (No. 15 Aussie Vineyards Ford-Cosworth) made his 103rd-consecutive Champ Car start in Surfers Paradise, passing Max Papis for 12th on the all-time list.

Even with the championship clinched, there are still some valuable points up for grabs going into Mexico City. Currently, only 10 points separates the third and fourth positions held by Wilson and Tracy. The chase for the fifth position is also going strong with only 10 points separating fifth through eighth place in the standings.

BY THE NUMBERS
7,500 – The elevation in feet of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
1962 – The year the first race was ran at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
19 – The age at which Ricardo Rodriguez took his first checkered flag on the F-1 circuit, at the time he was the youngest Grand Prix driver to make at least a dozen laps in a race.
16 – The number of turns on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez course.
3 - The highest a Mexican born driver has placed in Champ Car competition in Mexico City (Mario Dominguez in 2004).
3.1 – Miles, the original length around the Autodromo Hermanos, before it was reconfigured.
2.79 – The current length of the Mexico City course.
2 – How many times the Mexico City race has been won from the pole position (2003 and 2004).

Contributed by Champ Car World Series news bureau