Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Junqueira still has shot at Champ Car crown

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Bruno Junqueira kept himself in the championship hunt by winning Sunday's Champ Car World Series race in Australia, but will need a little luck to overtake Newman/Haas Racing teammate Sebastien Bourdais for the title.

Going into the Nov. 7 season finale in Mexico City, Junqueira trails Bourdais by 22 points. If Junqueira wins in Mexico City and accumulates all possible bonus points, Bourdais needs only to finish ninth or better to clinch his first series championship.

"I'm going to work very hard in Mexico City to try to fight for the championship," Junqueira said after his second victory of the season. "I know it won't come down to my race alone; Sebastien has to have a problem but if he does, I want to be right there so I can fight for it."

Overtaking Bourdais in the final race of the season will be a tall order for Junqueira, who has finished second in the championship each of the past two seasons. Bourdais has scored five of his six victories this season on road or street courses and has finished worse than eighth only two times in 13 races this season.

Bourdais finished second last year, his rookie season, on the 2.786-mile permanent road course at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City while Junqueira struggled to a seventh-place finish.

Bourdais finished second to Junqueira in Australia -- the fifth time this season the teammates have finished 1-2 in a race. Bourdais has been on the winning end of four of those finishes.

Bourdais and Junqueira are the only two drivers mathematically eligible to win the championship.

Janis, who came to Champ Car from the F3000 championship, qualified 16th in the 19-car field Sunday but dropped out of the race after 28 laps due to mechanical problems.

Janis will also pilot the car in the season-ending race in Mexico City, but team owner Dale Coyne said that Mazzacane would return to the team in 2005.

Oriol Servia, Coyne's other driver in the series, is ninth in points and is attempting to give Coyne Racing its first-ever top-10 points finish in 21 years in Champ Car.

Dixon and Manning will share driving duties in the 89-lap race on the speedway's 2.8-mile infield road course.

"In the past few weeks, excitement over the CompUSA Team's successes this year has been shared with our IndyCar team, with whom they work along side at the race shop in Indianapolis," Ganassi said.

"There's also been a lot of talk and excitement over the IRL going road racing next year. That combination led to talks of adding a third CompUSA entry with Scott and Darren that would allow them to get a little taste of the competitive world of Rolex Grand Am racing and also get a little tune-up for their return to road racing."

ABC will televise seven events, including the 2005 Indianapolis 500 on May 29, 2005. ESPN will carry nine races and ESPN2 will televise the race from Richmond International Raceway in June.