Bourdais beats Tracy in Champ Car opener

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LONG BEACH, Calif. - Sebastien Bourdais outdueled Paul Tracy on Sunday, giving Newman/Haas Racing its first victory in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in 19 years.

Tracy, who won the last two Long Beach races and four overall, started from the pole and tried hard to make a race of it. But this one belonged to Bourdais, the reigning Champ Car World Series champion, after he passed Tracy for the lead on the 38th of 81 laps.

The last time the team co-owned by Chicago business Carl Haas and actor Paul Newman won America's longest running downtown street race was in 1987, when now-retired Mario Andretti finished first and Bourdais was 8 years old.

And it could be the last time the Champ Cars, which replaced Formula One here in 1984, race at Long Beach. This is the final year of the contract and Long Beach officials are considering replacing the Champ Cars with the rival Indy Racing League in 2006.

"We want to be back here next year," Bourdais said as he celebrated the 11th victory of his career. "The fans here saw great racing today and we want to come back and do that for them again."

Bourdais started fourth, but came out of the first series of pit stops second to Tracy. Once he got past the Canadian driver, Bourdais built a pair of leads of more than 5.5 seconds, both erased by full-course caution flags. Tracy was unable to take advantage of those opportunities.

The two leaders made their final stops on lap 61 and Bourdais easily beat Tracy's Forsythe Racing entry back onto the track. After Jimmy Vasser and rookie Andrew Ranger, both driving a different pit strategy, made their final stops on lap 70, that put Bourdais and Tracy back on top, with the Frenchman leading by 7.6 seconds.

When rookie Bjorn Wirdheim bumped Ranger into a tire wall on lap 72, bringing out the fourth and final caution of the day, Tracy had one more shot at the leader. But it was no contest.

Bourdais, who won seven of 14 races last year, took the green flag on lap 76 and, while Tracy was fighting off a challenge for second by Bruno Junqueira, the other Newman/Haas driver, Bourdais easily pulled away.

He finished 4.138 seconds ahead of Tracy, nearly the length of the entire main straightaway on the 1.968-mile street circuit.

"I did everything I could," Tracy said. "I've done a lot of races here at Long Beach and had a lot of success, but this is one of the hardest races I've ever had."

Echoing Bourdais, Tracy said, "It would be a real shame if we're not back next year."

Junqueira finished third, followed by Justin Wilson, Tracy's new teammate Mario Dominguez, and a pair of rookies, Timo Glock and Ronnie Bremer.

Junqueira, who has now finished third, second and third in his last three starts at Long Beach, started from the outside of the front row and took advantage of an early mistake by Tracy to briefly take the lead on the third lap. But Tracy got it back on a restart eight laps later. "We just couldn't get back up there to the leaders because of some yellow flags and traffic," Junqueira said. "But Sebastien getting a win for Newman/Haas is a good way to start the season."