THE BOURDAIS SHOW; Newman-Haas driver was the class act in Champ Car.(Special Report)

Byline: BILL McGUIRE

With all due respect to Champ Car, Bridgestone and the Ford Motor Co., perhaps a name change is in order. Maybe the 2005 season should have been called "Sebastien Bourdais Presents the Champ Car World Series, Powered by Newman-Haas.'' After all, Bourdais' car usually led the show.

Now in his third year, the 27-year-old Frenchman has dominated Champ Car the past two seasons. It's not just that Bourdais is favored to lead every practice and take every qualifying session at every track. It is expected. If the driver isn't leading the charts when a session ends, people look down pit lane toward the Newman-Haas canopies and scratch their heads. If someone other than Bour-dais is at the top of the order, it is viewed as an anomaly, some kind of momentary shift in the planets.

Any time Bourdais does not win a race, it is considered an upset. This year he scored six wins in 13 events, beginning with the season opener at Long Beach, then Edmonton, San Jose, Denver, Las Vegas and Surfers Paradise. Bourdais won his second consecutive drivers' title by 60 points, a cakewalk.

Some will mark it down to the level of competition in Champ Car: The series is not what it once was, they say. Maybe so, but with the entire field driving identical Lola chassis powered by Ford-Cosworth engines, the racing is closer than ever. And there is still more than a handful of highly talented drivers blocking the path between Bourdais and winner's circle, including Paul Tracy, universally regarded as one of Champ Car's top drivers, and Bourdais' usual nemesis on any given day.

Though Champ Car is a spec series, Bourdais' Newman-Haas equipment is a major component of his success. In a field of "equals,'' the team's Lolas are invariably a little quicker, a little better. The Newman-Haas crew has more miles and expertise with the Champ Car package than any other; engineers from every team would give their right arms to get their left hands on those fat setup books.

But it's not all in the car: Bourdais' own teammates often struggle to keep pace with him. Oriol Servia, who joined the team at Milwaukee after Bruno Junqueira was injured at Indy, says Bourdais is "the quickest driver in the world right now.''