Surfer's Paradise, Australia (My Sportsbook) - Sebastien Bourdais won the Lexmark Indy 300, but the big news was that he also clinched the 2005 Champ Car Series title for the second consecutive year just by taking the green flag.

Bourdais was consistent throughout the year posting six wins and 12 top-10s in 12 starts. The Frenchman's worst finish was a sixth in Milwaukee. Over the last two years Bourdais has earned 13 wins and 16 poles in 26 starts. He is the first back-to-back series winner since Gil de Ferran swept to titles in 2000 and 2001.

Bourdais crossed the finish line 9.129 seconds ahead of runner-up Allmendinger. He is the 15th different driver to win the Lexmark Indy 300.

The green flag dropped as pole winner Oriol Servia brought the field to the green flag.

But just as the field reached the first turn Cristiano da Matta missed his breaking point and ran into Servia. Mario Dominguez got collected in the aftermath. Servia's car was not seriously hurt, but da Matta and Dominguez were much more seriously damaged.

After the smoke and dust had cleared, Paul Tracy emerged with the lead. Bourdais, who clinched the championship after taking the initial green flag, slid into second place behind his favorite nemesis.

The two quickly pulled out to more than a two-second lead over third-place A.J. Allmendinger.

After a dozen laps, Tracy had edged away from the champion and held a 2.137- second lead while Allmendinger began to close in on Bourdais.

At the back of the field, Servia was slowly picking his way through the field after the first-lap incident. He worked his way up to 10th place with a daring pass of Rodolfo Lavin on lap 13. But the pole winner was still more than 24 seconds behind the leaders.

Tracy pitted on lap 20 from the lead leaving Bourdais with open track in which to put some pressure on the Canadian. The Frenchman came in one lap later and came back on track just in front of Tracy.

Bourdais began putting up laps that Tracy could not match and built his lead to more than three seconds. In fact, Tracy went pack down pit lane on lap 24, stopped in his pit and got out of his car to end his day with a mechanical problem.

That gave Bourdais a 6.441-second lead over the new second-place runner Allmendinger and more than 13 seconds over third place Justin Wilson.

On lap 29, Will Power slapped the tire wall with help from teammate Alex Tagliani. The accident and resulting caution was just what Allmendinger needed as it enabled the No.10 Rusport car to close onto Bourdais' rear bumper for the restart.

But on the restart Bourdais blasted out to a quick 1.845-second lead and that was as close as Allmendinger would get. By lap 39, the margin was 5.857 seconds as Bourdais put up his fastest lap of the day.

The champion pitted on lap 41 and with no errors on pit lane returned to the track with the lead as Allmendinger and Jimmy Vasser followed him into the pits.

Bourdais held an 8.121-second margin with 16 laps remaining.

Tagliani got past Allmendinger, but still had to pit one more time for enough fuel to reach the checkered flag so Allmendinger didn't fight too hard. Allmendinger was 12.902 second behind Bourdais with 10 laps to go.

Tagliani pitted with nine laps remaining leaving no one between Allmendinger and Bourdais, but the margin was just too big.

Bourdais took the checkered flag and collected his second straight Vanderbilt Cup.

Vasser, Tagliani and Servia completed the top-five.

The final race of the 2005 season is scheduled for Sunday, November 6th at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.