Race Report.(Motorsports)

As Champ Car champion and points-leader Sebastien Bour- dais clicked off the fastest laps of the race late in the San Jose Grand Prix-even as his crew urged him on the radio to slow down-you would think his utter domination would have made for a pretty dull event. You would be wrong.

"I turned what, the third-fastest lap of the race? And I was still nine-tenths of a second slower than Sebastien,'' said second-place finisher Cristiano da Matta. "I really don't think I could have done much to make up any ground on him.''

Da Matta, in his first podium finish since his win at Portland last year, finished nearly seven seconds behind Bourdais, and a second-and-a-half ahead of third-place finisher Justin Wilson, last week's winner at Edmonton.

Even though Bourdais and his Newman-Haas car were the class of the field, there was plenty going on behind him to make San Jose arguably the most entertaining Champ Car race of the year.

The video footage of the NASCAR-style fight between Canadians Paul Tracy and Alex Tagliani will likely make TV sports highlights packages for weeks to come, but there was some compelling on-track action, too.

On lap 52 Tracy, who had been complaining about his brakes, overshot Turn Six, entered the run-off area and made a U-turn. And then in a move defying explanation, Tracy came back on the track right in front of Tagliani. The two collided, nearly taking out Tracy's teammate, San Jose native A.J. Allmen-dinger. Tracy and Tagliani kept going, though both were effectively done for the day.

Later, it happened: Tagliani confronted Tracy in the pits, grabbing Tracy's uniform and yelling, among other things, "I have no cars! I have no cars left!''