Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Bourdais a strong favorite to win race

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005 | 9:07 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.

Defending race winner Sebastien Bourdais has been tabbed by Station Casinos oddsmaker Micah Roberts as the favorite to win Saturday night's Champ Car World Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Roberts also installed Dennis Setzer and Mike Skinner as co-favorites to win Saturday's Las Vegas 350 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

Bourdais is listed as a 7-5 favorite to repeat as champion of the Hurricane Relief 400. Last year, Bourdais led 100 of 166 laps en route to his sixth victory of the season.

Local drivers Paul Tracy (3-1) and Jimmy Vasser (7-1) also are considered strong contenders to win the Champ Car race, as is Bourdais' Newman/Haas Racing teammate, Oriol Servia (5-1).

In the Truck Series race, Skinner and Setzer, the series points leader, are co-favorites at 5-1 although neither driver has won in the previous nine eight races at LVMS. Ted Musgrave, who won the 2001 race here, is listed at 7-1 and Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan, who won in 2003, is at 12-1.

A LITTLE BOOST: Champ Car World Series officials have elected to utilize its "push-to-pass" feature, which gives drivers an additional 50 horsepower at the push of a button, for Saturday night's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The feature, which is used on street and road courses, was not used during last year's race at LVMS.

Each push of the button will give a driver 10 seconds of added power -- something Newman/Haas Racing's Oriol Servia said will be reserved for the closing laps of the race as drivers jockey for position.

"I think it's a little strange but if everybody has it, I'm sure it will be fun," Servia said. "Everybody will probably wait to use at the end of the race because you don't want to use it too early then not have it for the last lap, which is when it counts.

"It's a new factor and the good thing is that I'm in the best team and they'll tell me what to do; I don't have to think, just drive."

GOOD CAUSE: Proceeds from the Hurricane Relief 400 Champ Car race will be donated to the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund. In addition, Champ Car is conducting an online auction of numerous one-of-a-kind racing-related items on its Web site, www.champcar.ws.

BRIEFLY: Sebastien Bourdais is the only Champ Car driver who has been running at the end of every race this season. ... Las Vegas resident Jimmy Vasser, who is in his 14th Champ Car season, will be making his 229th career Champ Car start and record 208th consecutive start in Saturday's race. Vasser, 39, has 10 career Champ Car victories and won the series championship in 1996. ... Newman/Haas Racing has made itself at home in Las Vegas in the three times CART/Champ Car has visited the city. The team won the 1983 CART race, which was held in the parking lot of Caesars Palace, with driver Mario Andretti and finished second a year later. Bourdais won last year's inaugural event at LVMS for NHR, which is in its 23rd year of existence.