Bourdais goes Baja-ing.

No sooner did he take the Vanderbilt Cup for winning his second Bridgestone presents the Champ Car World Series powered by Ford than champion Sebastian Bordais was off to take part in an IROC race. Now the Champ Car season's over he's off Baja racing.

Bourdais and his Newman Haas team-mate Oriol Servia will this weekend make their second appearance in the Tecate Score Baja 1000 in the Centrix Financial Baja Challenge Class.

The 2005 event begins on Friday, November 18 at Mexico's Baja Peninsula where more than 300 racers will have 30 hours to complete the 709 mile course through some of the region's roughest terrain. At least thirty US states and ten countries will be represented in the biggest Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 since the mid-1980s.

Centrix Financial was an associate sponsor of Newman/Haas Racing's two Champ Car entries this season as well as the title sponsor of the team's two-car program for the 2005 Indianapolis 500 which took place on May 29. Team Centrix will field five cars in the Baja Challenge Class, which is a unique Pro-Am race pitting professional drivers, media, celebrities and adventure seekers against each other in identical cars.

Last year Bourdais teamed with US D1 Drifting Championship driver and Pikes Peak Hill Climb winner Rhys Millen and finished third in the event despite being sidelined for two hours due to suspension damage early in the event.

This year he will co-pilot the BC No. 8 entry with Baja 1000 veteran Wally Fisk of Wide Open Baja, two-time World Champion Hot Dog Skier Glen Plake and Jim Galbreath, a Denver-based investment manager and SCCA and motocross racer. Bourdais' longtime girlfriend Claire Ragot, who is no stranger to competition after being a member of the USF track team in 2004 and spring of 2005, will serve as Bourdais' navigator/co-pilot.