BOUNCING BACK; Champ Car's season turned around after threatening to bore.(Motorsports)

Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH

The record books will show that-ho hum-it was just another Champ Car championship for Newman-Haas driver Sebastien Bourdais, but that's selling the season short. Despite an often shallow field, competition was surprisingly tight, and the excitement provided by the team change of lone American driver A.J. Allmendinger gave the season a needed shot of adrenaline.

Until Allmendinger was fired by the RuSport team, and hired by Forsythe, it was indeed shaping up to be-ho hum-a Bourdais-athon, as he won the season's first four races, at Long Beach, Houston, Monterrey and Milwaukee, and the attending media was struggling to make the story interesting.

But then RuSport fired Allmendinger, who had come up through the Atlantic ranks with the team but had not won a Champ Car race, and replaced him with former champion Cristiano da Matta, who had been soldiering along with the underfunded Dale Coyne team. By then, Mario Dominguez had worn out his welcome at Forsythe and was shipped off to Coyne, and Allmendinger was hired to team with Paul Tracy.

Then came the fifth race of the season, at Portland, and Allmendinger won. Then he won the next race, in Cleveland, then the next race at Toronto, his adopted home and the hometown of his fiancee. Justin Wilson broke up the Bourdais-Allmendinger streak at Edmonton with his lone win of the year, but Bourdais was second there, Allmendinger third. After that, Allmendinger and Bourdais played musical chairs with the top spot on the podium until the next to last race, at Australia, when Nelson Philippe broke through for his first win. Australia was Allmendinger's last Champ Car race, as he had just signed to run a NASCAR Nextel Cup Toyota Camry for Red Bull, his longtime personal sponsor.

Though Allmendinger was prepared to run the season finale at Mexico City, Forsythe pulled him to give Indy Racing League driver Buddy Rice an audition for 2007. Allmendinger had been trailing Bourdais in the points, and by missing the final race, Wilson was able to pass Allmendinger, dropping him to third.

There were two other big stories in Champ Car for 2006: One was the presence of British rookie and Atlantic graduate Katherine Legge, driving for the PKV team co-owned by Kevin Kalkhoven, also co-owner of Champ Car. Though often quite fast, Legge unfortunately peaked at the season opener at Long Beach, where she finished an unexpected eighth. Aside from her spectacular crash at Road America due to a broken rear wing, she did not make much news that did not relate to her gender. She finished 16th in points, the lowest of any driver who competed in all 14 events. Still, considering her lack of experience, it was not a bad season, and Kalkhoven said she will have a ride for 2007, but it's unclear with what team. Legge even figured into the rookie-of-the-year battle for a while, but in the end, Team Australia's Will Power finished well ahead of CTE's Dan Clarke.