Bourdais looking to end win drought

The Frenchman, the reigning International F3000 champion, put his Newman/Haas Racing Lola on pole position for the first two races of the season, but technical problems and bad luck have seen him fail to turn this potential into race wins.

"For sure we need a win," said Bourdais. "I think for sure qualifying is going to play a big part in the race. I think it is going to be really hard to pass. If you start first then you have a good chance to win. But then I have led the first two races and I didn't get one win so strategy can still be important. It's kind of a race in-between ovals and road courses so we will see what it going on.

"It's a really hard race to call because nobody has a baseline on the cars here. It's probably one of the races where I really want to be at the top because it is closer to my home. Some of the races are 20 hours away so...

"There is pressure but is in that fact that each time we are comfortable leading a race and doing well we have something which completely ruins the race. It's very strange. I have never been this quick but so unlucky."