Monday, April 11, 2005 | 9:20 a.m.
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Reigning Champ Car World Series champion Sebastien Bourdais picked up where he left off in 2004 by winning Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and ending Paul Tracy's two-year domination of the popular street race.
Bourdais, who won seven of the 14 Champ Car races last season, including the inaugural event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, passed Tracy for the lead coming out of the pits on the first round of stops -- a feat that surprised Bourdais on several counts.
"I think I have to be pretty thankful to the Bridgestone alternate tires," Bourdais said of the softer tires teams must use at least once in a race. "PT already did a few laps, so he had time to warm them up (and) I was just out of the pits.
"I was kind of worried that I couldn't keep up with him, and it was the opposite. The tires came up so fast, I had a great run on him. I think it's been the best pass over PT I've ever had -- doesn't happen very often to pass Paul, so I'm very happy about that."
After getting out of the pits ahead of Tracy, a Las Vegas resident, Bourdais came over the in-car radio and told his team, "How about that."
"As you can imagine, my reaction was the opposite," said Tracy, who started from the pole and was denied his fifth career Long Beach victory. "When Sebastien came, he came hard and there really wasn't much to do; he was able to pull away.
"I saw that he was on the (option) tires and I was on the standards at that point. I thought if I can hang with him and stay close, then maybe on the next stop, my final stop, we were going to be on (the option tires). When we came out of the pits, I closed a little bit of ground on him ... but he was just able to maintain that distance (and) that was pretty much it."
Bourdais, who led 37 of the 81 laps, cruised to a 4-second margin of victory ahead of Tracy and gave team owners Paul Newman and Carl Hass their first victory in Long Beach since 1987 with Mario Andretti. It was the 11th Champ Car victory in 33 career starts for Bourdais.
Newman/Haas Racing's Bruno Junqueira took third, his third consecutive podium finish on the streets of Long Beach. Justin Wilson and Mario Dominguez rounded out the top five in the race that was witnessed by an estimated 80,000 fans on a picture-perfect Southern California afternoon.
Las Vegas residents Jimmy Vasser and Alex Tagliani finished ninth and 15th, respectively.
Bourdais, who has finished in the top three in 18 of his 33 Champ Car starts, admitted to being surprised at the ease of which he was able to pass Tracy and win the race after "struggling" to a fourth-place qualifying effort. This race snapped a streak of 15 races in which Bourdais qualified in the top three.
"I was not sandbagging at all," Bourdais insisted. "I was just really trying hard -- probably trying a bit too hard -- during qualifying. I couldn't put it together when I had to.
"I wasn't upset about the balance, but it wasn't fast enough. At some point, not to save fuel any more, I just went for it and the car responded. It's just that kind of deal where (the cars are) so close from one another, that a very small difference will make it happen or just ruin the race."
Despite failing to extend his winning streak to three races in long Beach, Tracy said he was pleased with his runner-up finish. What he was not pleased with, however, was the persistent rumors that the rival Indy Racing League could replace the Champ Cars in Long Beach next year.
Champ Car's contract with the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach and parent Dover Motorsports Inc. expired when the checkered flag dropped on Sunday's race and IRL officials have openly stated they would love to add the Long Beach race to their schedule.
"I've been here at this race since '91 ... and I saw more excitement this weekend and more enthusiasm from the crowd than I've seen in a long, long time. There's not much else that (Champ Car) can do. I mean, they put their best foot forward and did everything they can do to try to keep this race.
"I think it's probably one of the best (events) that has ever been here and ... it's going to turn into a political fight now, which isn't what it should be about; it should be what the fans want. But that's a fact of life, (that) it's going to turn into a political money fight. That's what the whole thing has been over since the split with the IRL.
"We just hope that we're going to be back. I would feel very ashamed if this was my last time here."
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