The day in Fontana, California was cold and breezy but the action on the track was hot and heavy as the teams and drivers of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford continued last-minute preparations for the April 9 season opener. source: champcarworldseries.com Thirteen of the 18 cars slated to see the green flag in next week's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach took advantage of the final preseason session of the year, running the first of two days of testing on the 1.459-mile California Speedway infield road course. Two-time defending series champion Sebastien Bourdais (#1 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) showed that he was more than ready to defend his title, posting the fastest lap of the day after stopping the clocks at 52.537 seconds. His best lap was just .003 seconds faster than the best effort of Mexico City winner Justin Wilson (#9 CDW Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone), but was good enough to give the 2004 and '05 champion reason to be excited about next week's season lidlifter. "Compared to last year, I feel much better," Bourdais said. "We have had good tests in Sebring and we ran well today. We have had good weather for our tests and that has allowed us to get a lot of work done. I feel very good with the progress we've made." Wilson was neck-and-neck with the defending series champ after a day of running that got started two hours late due to overnight and early-morning rains. "We had a good test plan that allowed us to evaluate a lot of changes that we hope will help us at Long Beach," said Wilson. "We've been working very hard on the overall quality of the team and I've been really impressed with the preparation as we head toward Long Beach." The competition level in the 2006 version of the Champ Car World Series is expected to be higher than it has been in a number of seasons, and that was borne out in the faces of a number of drivers who had solid times - just not as solid as they might have hoped.
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