BRUNO BACKS IN; Junqueira wins an action-packed Montreal race.(Motorsports)

Byline: J.P. VETTRAINO

Excitement... overtaking... commotion... Let's call it action. The previous two Champ Car races had more action than the five road races before them combined, and Montreal continued the trend. Yet the race around Circuit Gilles Villeneuve stands out because much of the action came via hard luck. Bruno Junqueira won his first race of the season as Sebastien Bourdais, his Newman-Haas Racing teammate, got skunked, and the championship battle got a lot more interesting.

Junqueira deserved it, no debate. He's been on the short end more than once this season, and was probably entitled to a payback. He kept his cool as others fumed, even if the fuming was largely the result of bad breaks, from which Junqueira gained. Consider:

* Mario Dominguez had the best race car, and drove one of the better races of his career, only to be damned by a bad air wrench that cost him about 30 seconds in the pits.

* Paul Tracy bent a toe link in the first corner and wrestled his reluctant Lola for the balance of the race, drifting between second and eighth, finishing an impressive fourth.

* Rookie Justin Wilson continued to impress, turning a series of fastest laps, running with the leaders and sniffing at the podium before he coasted to a stop with a broken gearbox, 14 laps short of the finish.

* Bourdais led the most laps and was running first when he crashed. He deserved better than a DNF in 15th place.