MONTEREY, Calif. (March 10, 2007) - The Champ Car World Series is known around the world as the American interpretation of Formula 1-style racing, but today a Champ Car driver in the brand-new Panoz DP01 chassis raised the bar on anything a F1 car had ever done at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Three-time and defending Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais (#1 McDonald's Cosworth/Panoz/Bridgestone) demolished the existing track record at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with 10 minutes left in today's final test session, with his time of 1:05.880 (122.295 mph) breaking the mark set in 2006 by Ricardo Zonta in the Toyota F1 machine when it came over to turn some laps as part of the Monterey Historics Festival.
Bourdais not only broke the record but became the first driver ever to run a lap around the fabled California layout in less than 66 seconds. For his efforts, Bourdais and his Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing squad were awarded $5,000 by Champ Car for breaking the F1 record. Source - Fast-Autos
Toyota's old record: 1:07.587
I'm sure a F2007 could beat that but this should be a wake up call for the FIA. Champ car should be alot more than ~1 year behind F1 in technology and speed. Maybe it's about time the regulations are changed to increase the speed
