Bourdais dominant in Toyota Grand Prix

He led 70 of 74 laps to win for the second straight year.
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Sebastien Bourdais began to think that things were just going a little too perfectly Sunday.
"I felt at one point that the engine didn't sound right," Bourdais said after a dominating victory in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. "The power was there but it didn't sound the same. Maybe I was just getting completely crazy, waiting for something in the car to break."
That bothersome engine sound and a harmless yellow warning light that blinked on briefly in the cockpit of his Ford Cosworth-powered Lola were the only things that caused Bourdais even a ripple of concern as he began the quest for his third straight Champ Car World Series title.
Winning here for the second straight year, Bourdais trailed only after a midrace pit stop, leading 70 of 74 laps on the 1.986-mile, 11-turn circuit that threads its way through city streets tucked between downtown and the Pacific Ocean.
Strong racing
The 27-year-old Bourdais was dominating throughout the weekend, leading nearly every practice and both sessions of qualifying. Through most of the race, he was as much as a half-second faster than runner-up Justin Wilson on each lap.
Bourdais was so dominant that it began to worry him.
"I couldn't stop myself from thinking, 'Oh, God, what's going to go wrong?' But it was a perfect weekend really. No drama," Bourdais said.
Wilson, last year's third-place finisher in the series, tried hard to keep up with Bourdais, but never could catch the leader. The Englishman finished 14.096 seconds behind the winner in the race shortened by two laps because of the 2-hour time limit.
"I had to keep pushing, hoping maybe he'd make a mistake and I could capitalize, but it didn't happen today," Wilson said. "Eight or nine laps from the end, he just went out of sight. I was just hoping he pitted at that point."
Bourdais, earning his 17th career victory, got every point possible for the weekend and will go into the street race in Houston May 13 eight points ahead of Wilson and far in front of several other familiar names.
Early exit
Likely championship contenders Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira and A.J. Allmendinger didn't even make it through the first turn of the first race of the season.
As the leaders approached the left-hand turn, Mario Dominguez hit the rear of Forsythe Championship Racing teammate Tracy's car, lifting his rear tires off the ground and sending Tracy careering into Bourdais' teammate, Junqueira.
Junqueira slammed into RuSport's Allmendinger and Oriol Servia also got caught up in the accident that sent all of them to the garage.
Dominguez did only minimal damage to his car and raced on to finish fourth, right behind Alex Tagliani and just ahead of 2002 series champion Cristiano da Matta, making his first start for Dale Coyne Racing.
Katherine Legge, making her first Champ Car start, was able to regain a lost lap and finished eighth, the best showing ever for a woman in the series that was known as CART until 2005. Janet Guthrie's ninth-place finish in the 1978 Indianapolis 500 was the previous best for a female driver in the series.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.