MILWAUKEE Champ Car track has its bumps for drivers

Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira struggled on the Milwaukee Mile.
WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) -- Sebastien Bourdais' first experience on the Milwaukee Mile was not a roaring success.
All of the Champ Car venues were new to the Frenchman last year, but he did a great job of adjusting quickly to most of them -- finishing fourth in the standings and taking top rookie honors.
Milwaukee, however, seemed to mystify Bourdais.
Newman/Haas Racing teammate Bruno Junqueira, a Champ Car veteran who went on to finish second in the season points behind Paul Tracy, didn't fare much better a year ago.
He too struggled on the wide, flat oval, which the team based in Lincolnshire, Ill., considers its home track.
Season-worst
Last June, Bourdais qualified a season-worst 13th and held on to finish ninth despite having to pit on the pace lap because of an overheating engine. Junqueira started eighth and crashed out on the fourth lap, finishing 17th.
"It's still a mystery why we were not competitive in Milwaukee last year," said Bourdais, who will go into Saturday night's Road Runner 250 leading the series by five points over Junqueira.
"We were really struggling," he said. "Bruno was 11th and I was ninth after the first practice session and we just kept having a miserable weekend. Bruno crashed at the start and I just lost my confidence completely when I saw him crash."
Junqueira, who finished fourth here as a rookie in 2001 and 10th in 2002, was just as disappointed by last year's problems.
"Milwaukee was really difficult last year," the Brazilian said. "I had my first big crash on an oval at the start of the race and scored no points here.
"The car wasn't too good but we had a test there a month ago and we were quite quick and are confident that we can do much better this year."
Bourdais came from a European road racing background and made a quick adjustment to ovals, winning in May 2003 at Eurospeedway in Germany. But Milwaukee was his first taste of racing on a true oval.
"It was a very difficult and long weekend for me," he said. "Everyone told me that if you have a good car on a short oval you're going to have a very nice race and if you have a bad car, you're going to have the worst time of your life. I guess I had the bad moment."
This year
Things got off to a somewhat better start Thursday for both Newman/Haas drivers -- thanks perhaps to the team testing here earlier this season.
Ryan Hunter-Reay led the way on the opening day of practice with a lap of 179.288 mph, followed by Patrick Carpentier at 178.435, Tracy at 177.167 and Mario Dominguez at 176.828. Junqueira was fifth at 176.410 and Bourdais was seventh at 175.311. Michel Jourdain Jr., last year's winner, was 11th at 174.047.
"We worked really hard in the two-day test we did at the beginning of May and I think we made a lot of progress," Bourdais said. "Hopefully, we can produce a better result this year."