This Rookie’s on Fast Track

Nine rookies, nearly half the starting field of 19, will be in the spotlight Sunday when they get their first taste of racing through the streets of Long Beach in the 29th annual Toyota Grand Prix.

One of them, Sebastien Bourdais, a bespectacled Frenchman who grew up in the legendary racing town of LeMans, has already captured the imagination of racing fans with his immediate display of speed in CART.

Having won the European Formula 3000 series, Bourdais joined the Newman-Haas team as a replacement for Christian Fittipaldi, who moved to NASCAR, and startled onlookers by being the fastest driver in CART’s spring practice, then winning the pole for the season’s first two races, in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Monterrey, Mexico.

Bourdais’ finishes have not matched his qualifying, however. He was eight laps down, in 17th place, in the opener after tagging the wall, and 11th in Mexico after a radio failure led to a mix-up in the pits.

“I’ve watched Long Beach races on TV and have been studying tapes of last year’s in order to learn as much as I can before I get there,” the 24-year-old said from his home in Miami. “As soon as I arrive, I will walk the course and hope I am ready for Friday when the track opens.

“I think it compares to Monaco. As I had the pole and won in Monaco, I would enjoy to do again.”

Unlike a few years ago, when it seemed every newcomer to CART was from Brazil, this year’s record-sized class reads like a United Nations roster.

Patrick Lemarie, like Bourdais, is from France, and at 35 is the oldest of the group. Others are Rodolfo Lavin, 25, from Mexico; Tiago Monteiro, 26, from Portugal; Darren Manning, 28, from England; Joel Camathias, 22, from Switzerland; Mario Haberfeld, 26, from Brazil; Alex Yoong, 26, from Malaysia, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, 22, the lone U.S. newcomer.

Haberfeld leads the rookies with 12 points after finishing fourth in Florida and 16th in Mexico, where his suspension collapsed while he was running sixth. Like Bourdais, the Brazilian comes from the F3000 series.

Manning, who drove in one CART race last year, was seventh in Mexico, the highest-finishing rookie.

But it is Bourdais who has leaped into the spotlight through his unbridled speed.

Chris Pook, CART president and founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix, has gone so far as to call him “a better prospect” than Juan Pablo Montoya, who won the CART championship as a rookie in 1999 and the Indianapolis 500 the following year.

No driver since Formula One champion Nigel Mansell in 1993 has won poles in the first two CART races. Bourdais’ 101.076 mph qualifying speed was a record in Mexico.

“He’s shown he’s fast, no doubt about it, but he makes mistakes, rookie mistakes,” said former CART champion Jimmy Vasser.

“He’s got to settle down a little bit. Then we’ll see just how good he is.”

Bourdais would not be in CART had the Arrows Formula One team not folded before this season.

“I drove for Arrows last summer and had a contract for 2003 until they dropped out with financial troubles,” said the young Frenchman. “My manager had some contacts with Newman-Haas so he got me a test with them at Sebring.”

Bourdais was testing with Renault for an F1 ride the day Newman-Haas began testing with John Fogarty and Aaron Justus, so he arrived a day late. Bourdais was much quicker, but the team felt it might have been because the others had left more rubber on the racing surface and improved his speed.

When they brought Bourdais back for a second test, though, he was even faster. This time, Newman-Haas signed him to drive as a teammate of Bruno Junqueira, who had come over from Chip Ganassi’s team to replace series champion Cristiano da Matta.

“It has been a good relationship for me,” Bourdais said. “I knew Bruno in Formula 3000. I was a rookie the year he won the championship. He has been very good to me. He found me a place to live in Miami, in the same building where Cristiano lived last year.”

Bourdais was living a spartan existence with nothing but a mattress and a computer in the apartment until Claire, his girlfriend, arrived from LeMans.

“I had never been away from my parents’ home before,” he explained. “When Claire got here, she made it feel more like home.”

Like most foreign drivers, he got his start in karting, winning the 24 Hours of LeMans karting race in 1996 at 17. Later, he drove in three LeMans marathons, finishing fourth in 2000.

“Racing at LeMans was like racing in my backyard,” he said. “My home is only about 200 meters from a corner of the track.”

He also won the 24 Hours of Spa for Team Labre last year between his Formula 3000 races. Driving for the Super Nova team, Bourdais won races at Imola, Italy; Monaco and Nurburgring, Luxembourg and had six pole positions.

“There is much difference between the F3000 and the champ car,” he noted. “The downforce is twice as much and the CART Lola is much more powerful, but I have adapted and I don’t see it as a problem.”