Bourdais takes crushing win

The double reigning champion led from the start, and except for a handful of laps under yellow flag, the Newman/Haas Racing driver was never headed.

Bourdais's closest challenger Justin Wilson had no answer to the Frenchman, regularly losing up to half a second a lap, and eventually finished 14 seconds down. Third place went to Alex Tagliani of Team Australia.

Many potential winners were eliminated in a first corner accident triggered by Mario Dominguez of Forsythe Championship Racing.

Dominguez appeared to miss his braking point, running into the back of teammate Paul Tracy, which in turn set off a chain reaction shunt that eliminated third and fourth qualifiers Bruno Junqueira (Newman/Haas) and AJ Allmendinger (RuSPORT), as well as Oriol Servia of PKV Racing.

Dominguez's car was apparently unharmed in the incident, and he was able to continue, eventually taking fourth place after a spirited battle with Tagliani two thirds of the way through the race.

The Mexican tagged the wall under pressure from the Team Australia driver, however, and rarely looked a threat thereafter.

Cristiano da Matta and rookie Jan Heylen steered their way clear of any trouble and debris to finish fifth and seventh for Dale Coyne Racing, while Andrew Ranger had a slightly ragged but determined run to sixth for Conquest Racing, from 16th on the grid.

Jimmy Vasser's final Champ Car race at Long Beach ended in disappointment, his car stopping on the inside of Turn 1 while running sixth, but his rookie PKV teammate Katherine Legge had a dogged run to finish eighth.

A half-spin and subsequent stall held Legge back, but subsequent yellows allowed her to stay on the lead lap.

Brazilian F1 refugee Antonio Pizzonia had a wild day for Rocketsports Racing, which saw him run as high as sixth, but also saw him slipping down an escape road and banging wheels with Ranger on his way to 10th.

Will Power ran fourth behind teammate Tagliani for much of the race but was hassled into missing his braking point into Turn 1 by a resurgent Dominguez, and stalled while avoiding the tyre-wall.

Power went a lap down after a further incident and eventually snatched ninth.

Dan Clarke had some incidents on his way to 11th, and lost a lot of time after completing almost a full lap with a punctured left-rear after hitting a wall hard.

Fellow rookie Charles Zwolsman also struck the wall and had to retire.

Grand Prix of Long Beach results:

Pos  Driver        Team              Time
 1.  Bourdais      Newman/Haas       1h40:07.670
 2.  Wilson        RuSPORT           +    14.096
 3.  Tagliani      Team Australia    +    20.484
 4.  Dominguez     Forsythe          +    22.611
 5.  da Matta      Dale Coyne        +    36.799
 6.  Ranger        Mi-Jack Conquest  +    54.923
 7.  Heylen        Dale Coyne        +  1:01.648
 8.  Legge         PKV               +  1:02.207
 9.  Power         Team Australia    +  1 Lap
10.  Pizzonia      Rocketsports      +  1 Lap
11.  Clarke        CTE - HVM         +  2 Laps

Retirements:

     Driver        Team              Laps  Reason
     Zwolsman      Mi-Jack Conquest   67   Contact
     Philippe      CTE - HVM          46   Mechanical
     Vasser        PKV                24   Mechanical
     Junqueira     Newman/Haas         1   Contact
     Allmendinger  RuSPORT             0   Contact
     Tracy         Forsythe            0   Contact
     Servia        PKV                 0   Contact

Fastest lap: Bourdais, 1:07.931 on lap 71