San Jose, CA (My Sportsbook) - Sebastien Bourdais captured Sunday's inaugural Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San Jose Champ Car race in front of more than 62,000 fans. The No.1 Newman Haas Racing driver crossed the finish line 3.724 seconds ahead of runner-up Paul Tracy.

The victory was Bourdais' third of the season and 13th of his Champ Car career.

On the tight and twisty San Jose streets, the race appeared to be one in which the winner might be the only one left standing.

On the first lap, three cars had trouble. Ryan Hunter-Reay's car failed to complete the parade lap and was pulled off out of the way until he could restart it. As the drivers reached the hairpin turn, they bunched up and two cars, Ricardo Sperafico and Ronnie Bremer came together. Sperafico was knocked out of the race.

The race cars were also forced to traverse a pair of railroad tracks on each lap which caused untold damage to man and machine.

Next out was A.J. Allmendinger, who had qualified fourth quickest. He hit the turn four wall.

"Brain fade," said a disappointed Allmendinger.

Lap 13 saw Andrew Ranger tag the same wall as well.

"Its not a race track," said Ranger.

In the meantime, Bourdais continued to lead each lap and held a 3.600-second margin after just 15 laps.

Nelson Philippe lasted just 19 laps before an engine problem knocked him out of the race. After 20 laps, just 12 cars remained on the course.

Bourdais continued to show the pace, though his margin began to shrink as he reached the first of the backmarkers.

On the first full-course yellow, Paul Tracy's Forsythe Championship Racing team got him past Oriol Servia with a fast pit stop. Ronnie Bremer stayed on track to inherit the top spot, with Bourdais and Tracy right behind.

Bourdais' crew radioed to the series champion that it was reporting a "voltage problem," possibly from the violent nature of the course.

The green flag dropped once again on lap 33 to restart the race. One lap later Rodolfo Lavin made a mistake in the hairpin turn.

Bremer maintained his margin as the drivers passed the 40-lap mark. The young Dane held the lead until he was forced into the pits for fuel on lap 48. That gave the lead back to Bourdais who had managed to hold off the charge of his nemesis Tracy. His lead was 1.756 seconds after 50 laps.

Tracy was really trying to make up time, perhaps too hard and swung wide in turn four on lap 55 brushing the concrete. But he continued on without losing any time.

On the final pit stop, Bourdais and Tracy beat everyone out and restarted two- three behind Bjorn Wirdheim, who stayed on the track.

After one false start, the race began again on lap 66 in what would be a timed event, meaning the race would not go the full 115 laps. Still, Wirdheim could only go about 10 more laps before being forced to pit lane for fuel.

Bourdais sat behind the leader and showed the patience of a champion. On a track in which passing was near impossible, the temptation was to go ahead and make the winning pass immediately. But Bourdais correctly waited and on lap 72 was rewarded as Wirdheim finally made his way down pit road.

With the open road now in front of him, Bourdais powered his way to a working lead. It was 1.143 seconds on lap 75 with 20 minutes of racing to go. By lap 78 the margin had more than doubled to 3.498 seconds when Cristiano da Matta hit the same turn four wall that had already snared so many drivers today.

The race restarted with eight minutes to go, about eight laps of racing. Bourdais got a great jump on Tracy and moved out about half-a-second.

And the end came with no passing on the track, just as it had been for the first 92 laps.

Oriol Servia, Justin Wilson and Mario Dominguez completed the top-five.

The next race is scheduled for Denver on Sunday, August 14th.