Claude Bourbonnais
Nationality	Canadian
Born	(1965-06-24)June 24, 1965 (age 59) L'Île-Perrot,Quebec
IndyCar Series career
1 race run over 1 year
Best finish	52nd (1996–97)
First race	1997Indianapolis 500 (Indianapolis)
Wins Podiums Poles 0 0 0
Champ Car career
5 races run over 1 year
Years active	1994
Team(s)	ProFormance Motorsports McCormack Motorsports
Best finish	50th (1994)
First race	1994Grand Prix of Long Beach (Long Beach)
Last race	1994Texaco-Havoline 200 (Elkhart Lake)
Wins Podiums Poles 0 0 0

Claude Bourbonnais (born June 24, 1965), is a former driver in theToyota Atlantic,Indy Lights, andCARTChampionship Car series. He raced in the 1994 CART series with 5 starts. He also raced in the 1997Indianapolis 500, which by then had become part of theIndy Racing League, completing 9 laps and finishing in 30th position.

He was theToyota Atlantic teammate of fellow French-Canadian and futureFormula One world championJacques Villeneuve in 1993 and in fact finished ahead of Villeneuve in series points.

He has been working for major car manufacturer in USA doing demonstration drives and was also a driver coach in theAmerican Ferrari Challenge.

Bourbonnais first appeared on the national Canadian racing circuits in 1983. The Canadian was introduced to racing by his father, who racedsnowmobiles.^[1] Bourbonnais raced in theFormula 125superkart series. Scoring several podium finishes theKali kart driver finished fifth in theQuebec championship standings.^[2] The Quebec native dominated the following season winning all but two races. Most notably Bourbonnais won the Formula 125 race supporting the1984 Canadian Grand Prix atCircuit Gilles Villeneuve.^[3]

Following superkarts, Bourbonnais raced in the nationalFormula Ford 2000 series in Canada. In his debut season Bourbonnais best result was a second place atCircuit Trois-Rivières, behind DutchmanCor Euser. The Canadian driver finished one point shy of the top ten in the drivers championship.^[4] In 1986 Bourbonnais improved one championship position after exchanging hisReynard 83SF for a more recentSwift DB3.^[5] The Quebecois driver also competed in the inaugural season of theRothmans Porsche Challenge Series in 1986. His best result was a sixth place atCircuit Mont-Tremblant.^[6] After switching from the Swift DB3 into a Reynard 87SF, Bourbonnais started winning races in the 1987 Canadian Formula Ford 2000 series. The Canadian won at Mont-Tremblant improving to third in the championship standings.^[7] Retaining the 87SF for 1988 and 1989 Bourbonnais became a double champion. In 1988 Bourbonnais won six out of eight races.^[8] The following season Bourbonnais scored six race wins out of nine races. The Canadian defeated many up and coming talents such asJimmy Vasser andKen Murillo^[9] For 1988 the Canadian also appeared in the U.S. based,SCCA sanctioned,Formula Continental class. The Canadian qualified for theSCCA National Championship Runoffs winning the race. Bourbonnais was the first to do so in a Formula Ford 2000 chassis, as previous editions of the Formula Continental race were won byFormula Super Vee chassis. Bourbonnais won the race from pole position, also setting the fastest race lap.Curtis Farley finished second, more than nine seconds behind Bourbonnais.^[10]

After his 1988 success, Bourbonnais stepped up to the highly popularFormula Atlantic series. Racing in the Atlantic division, opposed to the Pacific debut, Bourbonnais impressed at his debut. In his first Atlantic race, atLime Rock Park, Bourbonnais won from pole position. The driver, racing aSwift DB4, finished third in the final standings.^[11] Improving the following year Bourbonnais won two races. He was the fastest driver atHeartland Park Topeka and again at Lime Rock Park. AsBrian Till won three races, Bourbonnais finished second in the championship standings.^[12]

Bourbonnais also tried his luck racing in Europe. The Canadian attempted to race in the final two rounds of the1990 International Formula 3000 Championship. At theBugatti Circuit 34 drivers tried to qualify for the 25 racing spots. Bourbonnais set the 29th fastest time, therefore he did not qualify for the race.^[13] A second attempt came atCircuit Paul Armagnac. Again Bourbonnais failed to qualify. Both times Bourbonnais drovePacific Racing enteredLola T90/50 cars powered byMugen Honda engines.^[14]

For 1991 Bourbonnais signed withCourage Competition to race in the1991 World Sportscar Championship. The team ran aCougar C26S which contested the C2 class, for cars built according to 1991Group C regulations. At the1991 430 km of Monza the Canadian made his debut alongsideMichel Trollé. The duo finished tenth overall. At the24 Hours of Le Mans the team was joined byMarco Brand. The team retired after 293 laps.

In 1992 Bourbonnais had his racing season split between the U.S. and Great Britain. In theAtlantic Championship Bourbonnais raced at the Canadian rounds of the now unified championship. The Canadian finished thirteenth at Montreal and seventh at Trois-Rivieres.^[15] The fast racer also ran a partialBritish Formula 3000 in 1992. After a third place atDonington Park Bourbonnais was forced out of the series due to a lack of sponsors.^[16]

Having secured enough funding, provided byPlayer's cigarettes, Bourbonnais returned to the Atlantic Championship in1993. TheForsythe/Green Racing entered driver won seven races. In the end Bourbonnais was beaten to the championship by only four points to fellow CanadianDavid Empringham.

Bourbonnais first races in a major championship were in the1994 PPG Indy Car World Series, sanctioned byCART. The Canadian made his debut in the third round of the championship, theGrand Prix of Long Beach. The racer was entered by the short livedProFormance Motorsports which existed only throughout 1993 and 1994 entering,Scott Pruett,John Paul, Jr. and Bourbonnais.^[17] His debut was short cut by a broken exhaust in hisChevrolet powered Lola T93/00 after 24 laps.^[18]

Later in the season Bourbonnais returned withMcCormack Motorsports. The driver suffered a single car crash at Toronto. Technical difficulties prevented finishes for Bourbonnais atMid-Ohio,Vancouver andRoad America.

Bourbonnais ran a partial season inIndy Lights withForsythe Racing in1995. After some mediocre results the Canadian scored a second place atNew Hampshire International Speedway in aBuick poweredLola T93/20. The Canadian ran a full season with the American racing team in Indy Lights the following year. His racing season started with disappointed. A practice crash atHomestead-Miami Speedway left Bourbonnais with a concussion. Therefore he missed the opening race of the season.^[19] Bourbonnais returned at Long Beach placing seventh. The following round, atNazareth Speedway the Canadian scored his first pole position in the series. However, mechanical issues prevented a strong finish. The second half of the 1996 Indy Lights season Bourbonnais was very strong. The Quebec racer scored a number of podium finishes. He even won the Indy Lights race at Vancouver. The racing driver finished fourth in the drivers championship.

Bourbonnais ran a partial season in 1997 withEclipse Racing not scoring notable results.^[20]

Throughout his racing career, Bourbonnais made attempts at theIndy 500. His first start was the1997 Indy 500. The legendary race was run over three days due to rain delays. After a practice crash theBlueprint Racing team had to work hard to get Bourbonnais in the race. In a last chance qualifying session the Canadian qualified his car in 32nd place.^[21]

Bourbonnais, along withPaul Durant,Robby Gordon,Sam Schmidt andJim Guthrie, were granted extra practice laps. Due to engine troubles in earlier sessions the drivers made extra system checks.^[22] Engine troubles haunted Bourbonnais during the race. The Canadian survived a chaotic race start which took out five drivers before the start of the race. However, starting lap eight, theOldsmobile Aurora V8 in Bourbonnais'Dallara IR7 blew. As he stopped down the backstretch his stop caused a yellow flag.^[23]

In1998 Bourbonnais made a second attempt at the Indy 500 with BLueprint Racing. Struggling for speed the Canadian had to qualify on Bump day in order to make the race. Bourbonnais (and alsoLyn St. James andDan Drinan) failed to beatJohnny Unser's time to make the race.^[24]

Besides single-seaters, Bourbonnais has raced in sportscars and GT's. In1998 the Canadian joinedMike Davies andBill Dollahite to race aFerrari 333 SP in the 6 hours of Watkins Glen. The mainly amateur based team finished on an impressive tenth place overall, eighth in class.^[25] For2000 Bourbonnais joinedPhilip Creighton Motorsports at the Grand-Am race at Trois-Rivieres. Together with teammateScott Schubot the team finished fourth overall in aLola B2K/10.

In2003 Bourbonnais returned for a one-off in theTrans-Am Series. Bourbonnais replacedPaul Gentilozzi atRocketsports Racing for the race at Trois-Rivieres.^[26] The Canadian rookie qualified hisJaguar XKR in third place, finishing the race in fifth.^[27]

In 2018 he began a career in politics by being a candidate for theCoalition Avenir Québec during the2018 Quebec general election inVaudreuil (provincial electoral district) where he finished 2nd.

(key)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1991	Courage Compétition	Marco Brand Michel Trollé	Cougar C26S-Porsche	C2	293	NC	NC

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position)

• Claude Bourbonnais career summary at DriverDB.com
• Official website

• 1965 births
• Racing drivers from Quebec
• Living people
• Champ Car drivers
• Indianapolis 500 drivers
• IndyCar Series drivers
• Indy Lights drivers
• Atlantic Championship drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• International Formula 3000 drivers
• British Formula 3000 Championship drivers
• Trans-Am Series drivers
• World Sportscar Championship drivers
• SCCA National Championship Runoffs winners
• Canadian racing drivers

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