Sebastien Bourdais continues to belie his road racing heritage during a third superb year of Champ Car competition, after he won his third straight superspeedway victory in the Champ Car Hurricane Relief 400 Saturday night on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway oval. source: lolacars.com In taking his second consecutive win on this track by 0.312 seconds from teammate Oriol Servia, Bourdais extended his point lead over the Spaniard by 67 points to lead 310 to 243 with three races yet to run in the 14-race 2005 season. The driver of Newman/Haas Racing's Lola/Ford-Cosworth/Bridgestone racer led from the pole yet was passed on the seventh lap by 14th placed starter Paul Tracy (Forsythe Lola), who then led the field for a 107 laps, before yet another collision between the two resulted in retirement for the Canadian against the Turn 3 wall. "It's not been a smooth ride," Bourdais acknowledged. "We lost the front hatch just before the first pit stop and we lost downforce." Staying behind Tracy to ease the loss of a couple of hundred pounds of downforce, Bourdais explained how he adapted, saying; "I had to just keep on my toes to adjust the car. I would correct it all the time and it was a nerve-wracking race! This was a bumpy ride but, all-in-all a very good result for the team." Servia led for six laps in the other Newman Haas Lola, calling the 166-lap contest "good fun." Saving fuel at the start in the hope of a later yellow, Servia's hopes went unrequited. "At the end it was impossible to overtake and Sebastien and I even touched wheels. I think both my sidepods were marked and it was pretty exciting at 200 miles per hour. It was a good race and I'm very happy for the team to be one-two again."
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