Skip to Main Content

News & Multimedia

Open-Wheel Champion Bourdais To Drive In GRAND-AM Race At IMS
Open-Wheel Champion Bourdais To Drive In GRAND-AM Race At IMS

Sebastien Bourdais has become the sixth Indianapolis 500 veteran to join the field for the Brickyard Grand Prix sports car race Friday, July 26 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Bourdais will team with Emilio DiGuida in the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype fielded by 8Star Motorsports on the 13-turn, 2.534-mile IMS Grand Prix road circuit. The three-hour GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race starts at 5:30 p.m. (ET).

Four-time Champ Car World Series champion Bourdais won the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix last year teamed with Alex Popow in a Starworks entry. He joins fellow Indianapolis 500 starters Tony Kanaan, AJ Allmendinger, Max Papis, Christian Fittipaldi and Scott Pruett in this year’s field.

“There are a lot of very good and talented people at 8Star, and I’m happy to be involved,” Bourdais said. “I’m very much looking forward to racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, obviously, having won last year’s inaugural GRAND-AM race there. Indy is a pretty cool event and a cool track.

“I’m thankful to Jay Penske for allowing me to combine this with my IndyCar program with Dragon Racing. I’m a Chevrolet driver in the IndyCar Series, so it’s great to be driving a Corvette DP in the GRAND-AM series.”

Bourdais and DiGuida will race as teammates to 8Star’s No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette driven by Stephane Sarrazin, Michael Valiante and Enzo Potolicchio. That team is sixth in the 2013 Daytona Prototype team standings, with runner-up finishes at the last two races.

“The No. 3 car has been pretty racy the last couple of races and the No. 4 is pretty much the same car, so I’m pretty excited about the prospects to drive for a new team that’s sorting itself out pretty quickly,” Bourdais said. “Emilio is a good gentleman driver and given the format of the series, it’s always an opening for a good result for an amateur and a pro.

“Stephane and I were teammates at Le Mans in 2007 and 2009 and in different team cars after that, so I know him pretty well. He’s a very quick driver, so it will be good to reunite with him on the team.”

Bourdais, from Le Mans, France, has one of the most impressive resumes among active drivers in global motorsports. He won 31 races and four championships in Champ Car from 2003-07 and has finished runner-up in the Le Mans 24 Hours three times. He also drove for Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula One in 2008-09.

He finished second and third, respectively, on July 13-14 for Dragon Racing in the IZOD IndyCar Series double-header at Toronto. Bourdais also has raced in the Indianapolis 500 in 2005, 2012 and 2013.


***


2013 Kroger Super Weekend tickets: Ticket orders for the 2013 Kroger Super Weekend at the Brickyard can be made at www.ims.com/tickets and through the IMS Ticket Office at (317) 492-6700, or (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area, or by visiting the ticket office at the IMS Administration Building at the corner of Georgetown Road and 16th Street between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (ET) Monday-Friday.

General admission tickets will cost $10 for Thursday, July 25, $30 for Friday, July 26, $25 for Saturday, July 27 and $30 for Sunday, July 28. A four-day Kroger Super Weekend general admission ticket is $80, a great value for the ultimate race weekend. A three-day general admission ticket (Thursday-Saturday) is $65.

Children ages 12 and under will be admitted free any of the four days of the Super Weekend at the Brickyard when accompanied by an adult with a general admission ticket.

Reserved tickets for the Saturday and Sunday action also will be available at various price ranges.
 

Show More Show Less