Rider on the Storm: Robert Doornbos Wins Wet and Wild Mont-Tremblant - First built in 1964 and situated in the alpine village of Mont-Tremblant in the Laurentian Mountain, the 2.65-mile, 15-turn Circuit Mont-Tremblant is, in the eyes of many world class drivers, one of the finest motor racing circuit in the world. In fact Michael Schumacher has gone on record calling it “The little Nurburgring.”

For the first time in the modern era, the Champ Car returned to the beautiful circuit for round six of its 2007 season and what resulted was mixed bag of great racing, mistakes, high emotions, and radically different weather conditions.

The race began when polesitter Tristan Gommendy’s car refused to light, while outside pole sitter Will Power stalled his car. Capitalizing on the misfortune of their rivals, Sebastien Bourdais and Robert Doornbos streaked to the front of the field during the full course yellow (which was hurriedly waved to sort-out the starting lone fiasco). Once the race went green, Sebastien Bourdais and his Newman/Hass/Lanigan Racing machine raced away, while Doornbos did his best to fill Bourdais mirrors. Shortly after the first round of pit stops, the rains came and so did the chaos. During a caution period on lap number 26, Bourdais slid of the course at Namerow Bend allowing Doornbos into the lead. Wit the rains coming down sporadically, the track couldn’t make up its mind weather to be wet or dry, but even so, Doornbos held station in first place with Wilson, Clarke, Jani, Rahal and Tagliani playing follow the leader. On lap number 44, Mother Nature truly entered the mix, a full-on downpour drenching the Circuit Mont-Tremblant. The leaders, scratching and clawing for any sort of traction, tried to find their way back to the pit area, desperate to have their racecars shod with wet tires. From there, Doornbos was able to fend off a spirited attack for Bourdais, the began to motor away, a healthy 1.5-seconds between he and Sebastien. Doornbos held on to win the calamitous race, his first for the Team Minardi USA operation.

And while Doornbos was deliriously happy in victory, Bourdais, the three-time CART champion was so mad he had steam coming out of his ears. Apparently Bourdais believed Doornbos has blatantly blocked him on a number of occasions in the closing stages of the race and made sure everyone was aware of it.

Whatever the case, Doornbos just scoffed at the ranting and raving.

“I fully think that I deserve this victory,” he said. “I’m very happy for this team and for myself. But to see what happened on track, I know that the rules in the U.S. are different, a different way of racing. In Europe, we race hard. In Formula 1, we race hard. It’s a sport. At the end of the day, you’re fighting -- you have to be selfish, you’re fighting for your own positions. If Sebastien feels that he could have passed me, he should have done it. I felt I was quicker.”

No matter what the case, Doornbos’ highly impressive win now has he and Sebastien tied in the fight for the 2007 Champ Cat Series Championship. Next stop: Toronto, Canada. See you next week. It should be one hell of a race.