Bourdais snags pole, but Power still on

His name might sound like a publicist’s bad joke, but there’s nothing funny about how quickly Will Power is proving he belongs in the big leagues of open-wheel auto racing.

After being named rookie of the year in the Champ Car World Series in 2006, Power, 26, started this season by winning the series’ opening race on the streets of Las Vegas a week ago.

It was his first Champ Car victory and the first series win by an Australian.

Power, who drives the No. 5 car for Team Australia, then won the provisional pole for today’s 33rd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

He narrowly lost it in the second round of qualifying Saturday to Sebastien Bourdais, who has won the Long Beach race the last two years and the series title for three consecutive years.

But Power will start second, and he’s now had front-row starting berths in three of the last four races, going back to the end of last season.

Bourdais, of the Newman-Haas-Lanigan team, ran a lap at 104.889 mph to win the pole. Power ran 104.658 mph. Power’s teammate, French rookie Simon Pagenaud, qualified third.

“We were a little frustrated after yesterday,” Bourdais said. “But today was a different day. We made some improvements.”

Meanwhile, four-time Long Beach winner Paul Tracy will miss today’s race after suffering a broken vertebra in his lower back in a crash during practice Saturday.

The 38-year-old Tracy, who won the series title in 2003, lost control of his No. 3 Forsythe Championship Racing car and slid nose-first into a concrete barrier.

Forsythe chose Spaniard Oriol Servia, a Champ Car driver who was without a full-time ride this year, to replace Tracy for Saturday’s qualifying and today’s race. He will start 14th in the 17-car field.

Power is leading a youth movement that is challenging the more experienced drivers in Champ Car, such as Bourdais, Tracy and 2006 series runner-up Justin Wilson.

Power, in fact, has his sights set on a championship this year.

His team owners, Derrick Walker and Craig Gore, “really want to win a championship and I want to help them do that,” Power said.

There’s a long way to go, of course. The Long Beach race -- over an 11-turn, 1.97-mile circuit on the city’s seaside streets -- is only the second event on Champ Car’s 16-race schedule.

And Bourdais is no less determined to win his fourth consecutive series title. But even before the season started, Bourdais predicted that Power would be among the drivers to beat in 2007.

Power said his fast start “feels really good” but called it the beginning “of a long marathon because, you know, we really want to win this championship.”

He grew up in Toowoomba in Queensland, Australia, near the Surfers Paradise street course where Champ Car and its predecessor, CART, have raced since 1991.

Power got his first chance to drive the course in 2001 in Australia’s Formula Ford National Championship, and finished second.

After four years in Australian and European racing circles, Power was tapped by Team Australia to drive the last two races in 2005, including Surfers Paradise.

Then Walker, himself a Scotsman and a longtime team owner, and Gore, an Australian businessman, gave Power a full-time ride last year.

Power responded with three top-five finishes and finished sixth in series points.

“We realized early on that [Power] had a lot of raw talent,” Walker said, adding that his driver also is “obsessively focused” about winning. “And this year, we’ve obviously got the car working better.”

But Power and the rest of Team Australia deliberately try to keep an even keel.

Gore said, “While the team is still on a high after last week’s win in Las Vegas, everyone has knuckled down and focused on this week’s race.”

And Power also said he hadn’t celebrated much after winning the Vegas Grand Prix.

“You don’t want to have a big high and then have a big downer,” he said. “I’m just going to keep on going about it.”

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Champ Car driver Cristiano da Matta greeted fellow drivers and team members in the pits Saturday, his first appearance at a track since suffering serious head injuries in a freak accident during testing last August.

Da Matta’s car was hit by a deer that ran onto the track at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

The Brazilian was hospitalized for several weeks and has mostly recovered, but he hasn’t announced any racing plans.

“I’m really pleased to see everyone,” he said. “It’s good to be back.”

james.peltz@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Facts

Site: Streets of Long Beach.

* Schedule: Today, race (Ch. 4, 1 p.m.)

* Track: Temporary road course, 1.968 miles, 11 turns.

* Race distance: 159.408 miles, 81 laps.

* Last race: Will Power became the first Australian to win a race in the Champ Car World Series or its predecessor, CART, leading 38 of the 68 laps en route to the victory at the season-opening Vegas Grand Prix. Power won by about half a mile on the 2.44-mile, 12-turn temporary circuit.

* Last year: Sebastien Bourdais easily won for the second consecutive year. He trailed only after a midrace pit stop, leading 70 of 74 laps on the course that threads its way through city streets tucked between downtown and the Pacific Ocean. Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira and A.J. Allmendinger didn’t make it through the first turn of the race.

* Fast facts: Three-time defending series champion Bourdais and heralded rookies Graham Rahal and Simon Pagenaud all failed to finish the race at Las Vegas. Bourdais started 16th after a crash in qualifying, overcame three flat tires in the first 24 laps to reach third place and then hit a concrete barrier on Lap 30 and ended up 13th.... Tracy has won this race four times but won’t race today.... Katherine Legge finished sixth at Las Vegas, the best by a woman on a road or street course.... Bourdais set track qualifying records last year with a time of 66.886 seconds and a speed of 105.924 mph.... The winner of this race has gone on to claim the series title 10 times.

* Next race: Grand Prix of Houston, April 22.

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TODAY’S LINEUP

*--* 1. (1) Sebastien Bourdais 1:07.546 2. (5) Will Power 1:07.695 3. (15) Simon Pagenaud 1:07.883 4. (8) Alex Tagliani 1:08.047 5. (2) Graham Rahal 1:08.170 6. (14) Robert Doornbos 1:08.183 7. (9) Justin Wilson 1:08.200 8. (19) Bruno Junqueira 1:08.430 9. (22) Tristan Gommendy 1:08.527 10. (7) Mario Dominguez 1:08.554 11. (21) Neel Jani 1:08.609 12. (42) Matt Halliday 1:08.864 13. (4) Dan Clarke 1:08.890 14. (3) Oriol Servia 1:08.922 15. (28) Ryan Dalziel 1:09.070 16. (29) Alex Figge 1:09.151 17. (11) Katherine Legge 1:09.766 Note-Time in minutes; ()=car number

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