Maximum effort

Mexico City, Mexico (November 11, 2007) – To the thousands of exuberant fans in the grandstands at today’s season-ending Tecate Grand Prix of Mexico, as well as viewers watching at home, it doubtless appeared that Minardi Team USA had a disastrous race. First, ‘Speedy’ Dan Clarke failed to complete the opening lap, and then Robert Doornbos cruised slowly back to the pits on lap 3, both cars suffering clutch problems. Sadly, that looked to be the end of the road for the Indianapolis-based squad. With Robert requiring only a single point to lock Will Power out of third place in the championship, however, the team made a bold decision to roll the No 14 car back to the garage, replace the clutch and send the driver back out. Robert would then have just one mission – to claim the fastest race lap, and with it, the single point that would secure third place. And that is exactly what happened.

To loud cheers from the crowd, the ‘Flying Dutchman’ rejoined the race on lap 38, and then proceeded to run what amounted to a pair of flat-out, three-lap qualifying runs. His best time was a scintillating 1 min 24.713 secs, putting the single point for fastest lap beyond the reach of his rivals. It had been a fantastic effort from Robert, but no less than from his mechanics. From the time the problem arose on the No 14 car to it rejoining the race, only 51 minutes elapsed. In that time, his crew had stripped the car of its bodywork, dropped the floor, split the engine and gearbox, replaced the clutch and then reassembled everything. Their reward was to see Robert become the highest finishing Champ Car rookie since Juan Pablo Montoya, in 1999.

ROBERT DOORNBOS: "It’s really not the way we wanted to finish the season. We worked hard all weekend for a mega result today, and judging on our lap times, we could have accomplished just that. We had one of the fastest cars out there, but it’s a mechanical sport, and these things happen. I have to give a big, big thank you to all the mechanics who got me back out on the track, just to make sure we didn’t lose third place (in the overall Championship). All in all, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this year – it’s a great group of people at Minardi Team USA, but third place isn’t good enough and we’ll have to do better next season.”

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