Sebastien Bourdais will make his second straight start for Starworks Motorsport in the final round of the Grand-Am Rolex Series's three-race North American Endurance Championship. Bourdais, who co-drove with Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio to a third place finish last round at Watkins Glen, will replace Lucas Luhr alongside Alex Popow in the team's No. 2 Riley Ford at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
After finishing second in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and third at The Glen, Starworks is second in the NAEC standings, two points behind Action Express Racing. With 20 points for the winner and 16 for second, it will be winner-take-all in the inaugural race at Indianapolis for Watkins Glen winner Action Express Racing (28 points), Starworks Motorsport (26), Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (25) and Rolex 24 winner Michael Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian (24).
“We want to do the best we can for the first race at Indianapolis and for the NAEC,” said Starworks team owner Peter Baron. “Sebastien did an amazing job for us at Watkins Glen. Having him in the No. 2 car gives us a strong second bullet at Indy, along with Ryan and Enzo in the No. 8 car.”
Bourdais has twice driven at IMS in the Indianapolis 500, in 2005 and earlier in May of this year. He never raced on the road course as Formula 1 ended the United States Grand Prix there in 2007, with Bourdais arriving in F1 with Toro Rosso a year later. He did test at the track on July 9 with Popow.