WILD ONE; San Jose was Champ Car's weirdest race so far this year.(Competitions of car racing)

Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH

This is how Team Minardi driver Robert Doornbos' weekend at the San Jose Grand Prix went: He qualified a miserable 15th of 17 cars, ran up over the back of Conquest Racing's Jan Heylen on the first lap, leaving his front wing attached to Heylen's car, right behind his head; stalled and had to be bump-started; drove to the pits to get a new nose cone, came out in last place, then won.

"In Champ Car,'' Doornbos understated, "anything can happen.''

Arguably this season's strangest race, and certainly one of the most competitive, San Jose's tight, hatchet-shaped, 1.4-mile downtown street course features maybe the series' slowest turn, a hairpin at the end of the front straight that is essentially a U-turn on Almaden Boulevard. Outbraking a competitor there makes for an active passing zone, one of few available, and it was there that the excitement began.

Sebastien Bourdais outgunned fast qualifier Justin Wilson into the first turn, then the cars began stacking up, going three wide around the hairpin. Heylen basically stopped on the track to avoid hitting Mario Dominguez-subbing for Pacific Coast's Ryan Dalziel, who broke his collarbone when he fell off his bicycle-and Doornbos hit Heylen, bringing out a caution.

Meanwhile, RSports' Wilson passed Bourdais when the Newman-Haas-Lanigan veteran blew a corner. Then, under yellow, Bourdais stalled his car trying to save fuel idling around in seventh gear, when he lugged the engine and it quit. He managed to get it re-started and resumed in eighth. Bourdais, winner of the two previous San Jose races, would never again be a factor.

This left Wilson in first and Doornbos' Minardi teammate, Dan Clarke, who qualified third, in second place. On lap three, under caution, Clarke, presumably anticipating a green flag, slammed into the right rear of Wilson's car, causing extensive suspension damage and costing Clarke a nose wing. Both limped to the pits. Clarke emerged with a new nose; Wilson was in pit lane for an excruciating 21 laps while his crew repaired the car. "I was just sitting there in disbelief,'' he said.