Plainfield, IL (September 13, 2017) – Dale Coyne Racing drivers Sebastien Bourdais and Ed Jones are looking to turn their luck around this weekend and finish the season on a high as they head to Sonoma Raceway for the final round of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season.
Bourdais will be making his seventh appearance at the 2.385-mile, 12-turn road course this weekend. The Frenchman has a best finish of sixth at Sonoma Raceway, scored in 2011 in his first visit to the track aboard a Dale Coyne Racing car. His best start at the track was a third place on the grid for the 2012 round.
The 2017 IndyCar Rookie of the Year Ed Jones will be making his first official on track appearance at the northern California track. However, the driver of the #19 Boys Scouts of America car is no stranger to the Sonoma layout. Both he and Bourdais completed a test there with the team earlier this season.
All drivers will get six hours of testing on Thursday, September 14 during a Verizon IndyCar Series open test before official on-track activities begin Friday, September 15. Teams will have two 45-minute practice sessions on Friday, with Practice 2 being broadcast live on NBCSN from 5pm ET.
Qualifying for the final round of the 2017 season will take place on Saturday, September 16 at 3:30pm local time (6:30pm ET) and will be broadcast live on NBCSN.
The 85-lap GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma will also be broadcast live on NBCSN from 6:30pm ET on Sunday, September 17.
All non-televised sessions will be streamed live on racecontrol.indycar.com.
What they had to say:
Sebastien Bourdais – #18 UNIFIN Honda
“We’re hoping for some better luck at Sonoma this weekend. At Watkins we were looking good but ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m definitely looking forward to Sonoma. It’s a place where I’ve regularly been fast at. It’s a tough technical place which gets really slick when it gets hot. Not so long ago it was 111 degrees so we can expect some heat over there and hope for a good day. It’s going to be our last race so if we could make a little statement and finish strong it would be great. It would be nice to enter the off-season with a nice result to look at.”
Ed Jones – #19 Boy Scouts of America Honda
“I’ve never raced in Sonoma before but I did get to test with the team there earlier this season. It’s going to be completely different from our last race at Watkins Glen going from a super high grip track to a track that falls off really quickly. It’s going to also be very hot compared to our last race where it was on the cold side, so polar opposites really. We’ll see how we get on but when we tested there we had a pretty decent car. I can’t wait, hopefully we can finish the season strong.”
Sébastien Bourdais en français
« On espère avoir un peu plus de chance à Sonoma ce weekend qu’on a eu à Watkins Glen la semaine dernière. J’ai très hâte à cette course. C’est un endroit où je suis régulièrement rapide. C’est un circuit qui est difficile techniquement et il offre peu d’adhérence quand il fait chaud. Comme il a fait 111 degré Fahrenheit la semaine passée on peut s’attendre à de la chaleur ce weekend. Espérons qu’on aura une bonne journée. C’est notre dernière course de la saison et ce serait très bien de finir avec un bon résultat. »
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