Bourdais has another Montreal misfire

MONTREAL - Sebastien Bourdais has to be wondering what it's going to take for him to win a race in Montreal. But at least he was running at the finish on Sunday.

Two years ago, as a rookie, Bourdais started sixth and wound up 19th after a mechanical failure cut short his race.

Last year, he won the pole, led 26 of 69 laps and finished 15th after being hit from behind while leading by then-rookie A.J. Allmendinger.

Sunday, Bourdais started from the pole again and led the first 59 laps of the 79-lap event before a problem changing a tire on his final pit stop knocked him out of the lead. The Frenchman went on to a fourth-place finish behind Newman/Haas Racing teammate Oriol Servia, who earned his first career Champ Car World Series victory.

"It was the perfect race until then," said Bourdais, the reigning series champion and current points leader. "The bad pit stop just killed us. There is nothing to say, the McDonald's team is trying really hard and sometimes a bit too hard. Then small mistakes happen.

"We still increased our (points) lead, so it is good for Newman/Haas Racing."

Servia moved past 2003 series champion Paul Tracy into second place, but trails Bourdais by 61 points with just four races remaining. Tracy is now 65 behind the leader.

---

NO LUCK FOR A.J.: Ricardo Sperafico's crash on the 58th lap Sunday brought out the first of only two full-course caution flags and apparently cost A.J. Allmendiner at least a top-five finish and possibly a shot at his first victory.

Sperafico's rear wing sailed off the car as it kissed a concrete barrier and Allmendinger, who was running fifth at the time, ran over it, flattening his left front tire. Unfortunately for Allmendinger, he had to pit while officials had pit road closed. He was brought back to the pits for a drive-through penalty and wound up restarting on lap 64 in 10th place.

He wound up finishing ninth.

"I'm very disappointed with today's race," he said. "The RuSport guys did a good job. I had a chance early on to get around Oriol and that would have been key. After that, I just couldn't catch a break.

"Basically, everything that could have gone wrong in the race did today. Sperafico's car came apart and it seemed like it just exploded in front of me. I just ducked. After that and the penalty, I did everything I could to gain back any type of position."

---

ON THE AIR: Television personality Bob Costas was a special guest at Sunday's race, spending the day with Paul Newman, the award-winning actor and co-owner of Newman/Haas Racing.

Costas was doing research for an episode of his monthly HBO show, "Costas Live," which will center on Newman's longtime love affair with racing in general and Champ Car racing in particular. The show will begin airing on Sept. 9.

"I came here with about a thimbleful of knowledge about racing and now I've got maybe two thimblefuls," Costas said. "But it has been fun."

Costas was disappointed when a promised pre-race ride in the Champ Car's two-seat race car failed to materialize.

"I was really looking forward to that," Costas said. "But they said there was no driver available at the time."

---

SPARK PLUGS: When Bourdais led his 32nd lap in Sunday's race, it was also the 1,000th of his 2½-year-old Champ Car career.... With race organizers having removed nearly half the grandstands from last year, Sunday's crowd was reported at 36,204, down about 20,000 from 2004. Race officials said the three-day attendance was 93,755.... Servia is the fourth different winner in as many Champ Car races in Montreal. The three previous winners, Dario Franchitti, Michel Jourdain Jr. and Bruno Junqueira, were not entered in Sunday's race.