Champ Cars shatter Assen track record

UPDATE In pre-qualifying warm-up, Jan Heylen lowered the track record to 1m19.759s, a full 13 seconds per lap faster that the old record set by Jos Verstappen in an A1GP car in 2006. This led one regular at Assen to comment, "these cars are bloody fast man."

08/31/07 With the top 11 cars within one second of each other, Sebastien Bourdais turned the fastest lap in opening practice at Assen Friday morning. Bourdais' time of 1m20.234s was a full 12 seconds under the A1GP lap time and over 26 seconds faster than the MotoGP bikes get around Assen. Graham Rahal, Bourdais' NHLR teammate, was 2nd, marginally faster than Simon Pagenaud in third. The top three were separated by just 0.06 seconds. On a 2.83-mile long road course that is incredibly close.

Pos Driver # Team Lap Time Behind Leader
1 S. Bourdais 1 Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing 1:20.234
2 G. Rahal 2 Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing 1:20.268 0.034
3 S. Pagenaud 15 Team Australia 1:20.294 0.060
4 O. Servia 7 Forsythe Championship Racing 1:20.399 0.165
5 J. Wilson 9 RSPORTS 1:20.550 0.316
6 T. Gommendy 22 PKV Racing 1:20.566 0.332
7 W. Power 5 Team Australia 1:20.634 0.400
8 D. Clarke 4 Minardi Team USA 1:20.733 0.499
9 N. Jani 21 PKV Racing 1:20.813 0.579
10 J. Heylen 34 Conquest Racing 1:21.179 0.945
11 R. Doornbos 14 Minardi Team USA 1:21.309 1.075
12 B. Junqueira 19 Dale Coyne Racing 1:21.355 1.121
13 A. Tagliani 8 RSPORTS 1:21.403 1.169
14 P. Tracy 3 Forsythe Championship Racing 1:21.671 1.437
15 R. Dalziel 28 Pacific Coast Motorsports 1:21.889 1.655
16 K. Legge 11 Dale Coyne Racing 1:22.302 2.068
17 A. Figge 29 Pacific Coast Motorsports 1:22.760 2.526