SEBRING, Fla. - Sebastien Bourdais has had one heck of a week, and one heck of a three-month period to kick off 2017.
The French driver who now lives in St. Petersburg has a chance at two separate triple crown sweeps in the same weekend with this weekend’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in the No. 66 Ford GT for the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team.
From a sports car standpoint, Bourdais partners with Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller for a shot at completing the sweep of holding the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring titles simultaneously.
And from a Florida standpoint, Bourdais has the opportunity to have won Daytona, the Verizon IndyCar Series opener at St. Petersburg and Sebring within a 49-day, seven-week period - in two entirely different types of machinery.
Not bad for a guy who is still perhaps criminally underrated, will admit to you he doesn’t care much for statistics, doesn’t care what you think of him, and just wants to win.
“You know me, I don’t race for stats,” Bourdais told NBC Sports on Thursday. “But obviously you look back and anecdotically, it’s fun. All these big events mean a bit more than the others. I only get to do the big ones (for Ford) so it makes it easier! It’s a great honor to be racing the works car and have the chance to contend for wins.”
Bourdais’ week since his surprise but welcome victory at St. Petersburg in the No. 18 Sonny’s BBQ Honda for Dale Coyne Racing has brought with it a mix of local media attention in his adopted hometown and the additional IndyCar media work.
He also said it’s validated his switch to Dale Coyne Racing, even if the haters/doubters still questioned the wisdom of his moving there as KVSH Racing’s future was uncertain before it ended.
“It was pretty special for sure. You wonder if there’s a sympathy factor for not winning there before,” Bourdais laughed.
“Then there’s the flow of interviews and interest… it was pretty big. Some people were like, ‘Bourdais going to Coyne, is he crazy?’ And then some people are intrigued. And some were like, ‘He knows what he’s doing with the people there. Man, that could be good!’
“So it was all these mixed expectations of crazy, and maybe potential, or maybe overestimating the potential. We have to remember it’s still a small team. There’s mixed expectations to our win, but everyone had the same feel. It was cool to see the little one win in front of the big guys.”
Bourdais acknowledged the luck that played into his victory. But he had good weekend practice pace - he ended fifth on Friday, and that was an impressive position that could well have made him a Firestone Fast Six participant had he not had his accident on Saturday. Bourdais said his result was more that justified because of the sustained pace and great work from his pit crew, which also included his old crew chief at Newman/Haas and Coyne team veteran, Todd Phillips.
“It wasn’t completely a straight-up win, as we had to have things our way, but the pace was there all weekend,” he said. “Once we got there we had to make the pass on Simon and everything. That’s when you gauge how many people like you.
“When you win, they’re always there to congratulate you.”