Champ Car's first-ever standing start went off well, if better for some than others. (LAT photo)

"The first stint was a typical game of fuel saving," Bourdais said. "Nobody from the outside could even believe we were saving so much fuel. It was made very hard by Alex (Tagliani) because he wasn't playing the game. He just beat himself because he passed us, yeah, great, but there were another two cars in front of him that he didn't seem to be able to attack. After that, he was the first one in the pits.

"He just doesn't seem to get it. It was really frustrating because at some point I saw we were not going to go further due to that. At some point I had to use 'push to pass', braking, saving fuel, do this, do that. It was getting a little tricky. Save fuel but don't get passed. Get passed, still don't save as much fuel as you want. It was a little tough."

The illusion continued until the first round of pit stops, when Wilson peeled off at Lap 27 and Bourdais came in for service two laps later. NHLR short filled him to ensure that he beat Doornbos, Power and Tagliani back onto the track. From there, Bourdais went to work. On Lap 32 he set fastest lap of the race (to that point) at 60.011. On Lap 33 he turned a 59.891. On Lap 39 he was down to 59.839 and he ran Lap 45 in 59.628. Wilson was powerless to respond.

"The second stint I was expecting to pick up the pace," he said. "It never happened. I was a little bit surprised at that. Ultimately weren't quite quick enough. I wish I knew a little bit more. The car was working great. Everything was just fine. After a while we started to just lose a couple of 10ths. We dropped from 60.3 pretty much every lap to 60.6. We just leveled off there for a while, then 60.8. They kept telling me over the radio that Sebastien was catching. There was nothing left. I was already flat out.

"I was just hoping that we could do something once we got to the pit stop. I was hoping we were heavy on fuel and he was light. After the next pit stop, we went no quicker either."

Although Bourdais did indeed have to make his second stop first, pitting on Lap 52 to Wilson's Lap 54, that just made for a small bit of drama when they arrived together the Festival Chicane as the CDW Panoz exited the pits. It was not contest. With a head of steam on hot tires, Bourdais effortlessly relegated Wilson to second place and never looked back.

"When I got to the second pit stop, I looked at (race engineer) Craig (Hampson), and I was like, 'Boy, I can smell blood here coming,'" Bourdais said. "We did catch him and pass him. I knew I had a pretty small window to get it done because he was coming out of the pits and struggling a little bit. I was already on hot tires since I pitted earlier with the short fill on the first stop. We just got it done.

"From there it was just a pull-away game, because I had to pull about four or five seconds' advantage on him to be able to sustain the lead."

Helped by the race's fastest lap on Lap 84 (59.331s), Bourdais did just that. But if the race for first was effectively over, most of the other placings remained up for grabs until the closing moments of the race.

Polesitter Wilson had nothing for Bourdais in the second half, but had everyone else handled. (LAT photo)

After his electrifying start, Power got around Doornbos on the first round of pit stops only for the radio to fail on the Aussie Vineyards Panoz. Unable to communicate with his team, Power had to guess at the proper fuel strategies and was even unsure of whether or not to use his 'power to pass' surge to keep Doornbos at bay. Meanwhile, the Dutchman turned lap after lap in the low 60sec range with metronomic consistency to reel-in Power, then got around him on the final pit stop exchange.

"At the end of the race when the track was rubbering in, my car was actually getting better," said Doornbos. "I really could start pushing. I could see Will getting closer and closer and then I could make the pass on him. That's always fun to make a move for a good position. I just did it on the entry to the chicane and it worked out well. Afterwards I could pull a gap of 10 seconds, which was also quite easy."

While Power cruised home to a lonely fourth, the battle for fifth raged until the checkered flag, featuring Tagliani and Clarke with Gommendy, Simon Pagenaud and Rahal in a supporting role. Gommendy and Tagliani had battled tooth and nail most of the race with the Frenchman seemingly getting the better of things on the second fuel stint. But he languished behind the lapped car of Ryan Dalziel for several laps, unable to get past, unwilling to force the issue, enabling Tagliani to close back up.

Then, on the final round of stops, Tagliani and Clarke both got around the Pay-by-Touch entry, leaving Gommendy to fend off Rahal and Pagenaud. Make that Pagenaud and Rahal after the American slithered off the road in Turn Four for his second agricultural excursion of the day (his first having come at the behest of Clarke on Lap 62 as the battled for sixth).

Such was Bourdais' pace, however, that he caught the five-car battle in the closing laps of the race. After Rahal made way for his teammate, Pagenaud and Gommendy in turn followed suit. But Clarke was rather less cooperative, preferring to focus on his efforts to get past Tagliani. With a double-figure lead on Wilson, Bourdais was under no particular pressure to force the issue and so "followed" Tagliani and Clarke home at a discrete distance. Call it making history or participating in history, it was a superb performance.

"I think I'll probably never be able to top Denver '04, because that was very special," said Bourdais. "(But) I think it's definitely right up there . . . It's definitely the way I love to race, just be pushing the whole time. At some point in the car, you can smell it, it's coming. It's right there. You're working at it really hard. You know if you keep on pushing and trying, it's going to get there. It's very satisfying, very motivating thing for our championship expectation."

GI JOE'S GRAND PRIX OF PORTLAND RESULTS