FOUR FOR FOUR; Sebastien Bourdais is perfect this year in Champ Car.(Motorsports)

Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH

The smart thinking was that if the Sebastien Bourdais juggernaut was ever to be derailed, it would be at the Milwaukee Mile. This is where Bourdais' Newman-Haas Racing team hasn't sat on the pole since 1985. This is where Bourdais, reigning Champ Car champion, has never led a single lap. It's where Bourdais' three previous finishes on Champ Car's only oval track have been sixth, ninth and 18th-dead last. With Bourdais having won the first three Champ Car races of 2006, winning four in a row would be a challenge.

It was. But Bourdais won it anyway.

The Time Warner Cable Road Runner 225-actually, it was the 197, due to live television-mandated time constraints-wasn't pretty, even before the race began. Brand-new Bridgestone tires, similar to the Indianapolis 500 rubber developed by corporate cousin Firestone, made last year's chassis setup notes obsolete. And with five rookies in the field, all inexperienced on ovals, you would suspect some crashes. There were: But they were mostly by veterans.

Two practice crashes, one by Team Australia's Alex Tagliani, the other by Dale Coyne Racing's Cristiano da Matta, prevented both drivers from qualifying. Da Matta was able to tag the back of the field for the race in a cobbled-together car, but Tagliani scratched completely, as his car was too badly damaged to repair.

That was a genuine shame, as just two minutes into the first practice Tagliani posted a lap of 175.336 mph, almost as fast as Bourdais' pole-winning speed that afternoon. But 15 minutes later Tagliani hit the wall. Bourdais' pole speed, 175.394 mph, was less than a mile an hour faster than teammate Bruno Junqueira's second-place time in a backup car, as he also wrecked his primary racer.

So with just 16 cars starting-the fewest in decades-the last thing Champ Car needed was what happened on the first green-flag lap. Paul Tracy, four-time winner of the race, had qualified a disappointing 10th, but was planning major moves early in the race. In Turn Three, his Forsythe teammate Mario Dominguez drove inside Junqueira and knocked him into the wall. Tracy got a piece of Dominguez's car, and he hit the wall, too. Dominguez, whose car looked fine, withdrew because of suspension woes.