Underdogs Junqueira and Coyne opening eyes

Underdogs Bruno Junqueira and the Dale Coyne Racing team are slowly creeping up on the front of the Champ Car grid. After struggled for several races, the team has shown more promise recently.

In the last two races Junqueira qualified 4th and 5th and today in San Jose he was again 4th on the provisional grid – not bad for the low budget team against the "big boys."

We had the chance to sit down and ask Bruno why the recent surge in performance?

"We started out fairly strong the first three races, which were street races," said Junqueira. Then we had the break in the schedule and we did not test on the road courses while the other teams did, so when we started back again on the road courses we struggled.

"Between Toronto and Edmonton we had a really good road course test at Putnam Park where we were really able to try different things with the car. We (he and his Engineer Adam Schaechter) learned a lot from that test and now we think we have a good setup for the road courses too. And it showed – we ran well in Edmonton, which is not a street circuit. We still need to do a better job on the pit stops but that will come with time."

On a side note, did you know that Bruno is engaged to be married? Yes indeed. His fiancée’s name is Luciana and she is also from Brazil. Mark C. reporting from San Jose