Long Beach, CA (Betting Express) - Two-time defending series champion Sebastien Bourdais captured the Champ Car season opener - The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The No.1 Newman-Haas Racing driver took the checkered flag 14.096 seconds ahead of runner-up Justin Wilson.

It was Bourdais' 17th career victory in 46 starts.

While pole winner Bourdais took the green flag in great position, four of his challengers failed to finish even a single lap.

Coming into the first turn, Mario Dominguez hit the back of his Forsythe Championship racing teammate Paul Tracy and sent him flying into Bruno Junqueira, Oriol Servia and A.J. Allmendinger.

Dominguez continued on, but the other four drivers were out of the race almost before it began.

"Definitely not the way to start the season," said a disappointed Tracy.

"Its just the nature of the game," said Servia. "Everybody wants to win the first race and get to the first corner in front."

After three laps of full-course yellow the event returned to racing with the two-time defending champion jumping out to a big lead.

His margin was 1.431 seconds after lap five and 4.043 at lap 10.

Dan Clarke hit a tire barrier to bring out a caution flag and send everyone down pit lane for their first stops of the season.

Bourdais and Justin Wilson came out one-two as the race went back to green.

Within one lap, Bourdais again showed he was the dominant car by building his lead to 2.429 seconds.

His lead was over nine seconds when a Jimmy Vasser spin brought out another full-course caution and quickly dissolved his lead.

When the green flag dropped, Bourdais took off again.

It was apparent that barring a mechanical breakdown or a huge error on his part, that Bourdais was far superior to any other car on the track and the Long Beach Grand Prix was his to win or lose.

Two separate incidents on lap 36 brought out a yellow flag. Will Power, who was running fourth at the time, overshot turn one and stalled. At the same time Katherine Legge spun.

Alex Tagliani was closing in on second-place Wilson as the drivers approached their final fuel stops. Dominguez was running a strong fourth after his first- lap incident and former Formula One driver Antonio Pizzonia was fifth in his first Champ Car start.

Bourdais made a green-flag stop on lap 48 which left him in fourth place until the other drivers made their stops.

Pizzonia had a problem in turn one and locked his racecar up to avoid hitting the wall, but Dominguez was not so lucky and scrapped the wall just before the turn onto Shoreline Drive.

On lap 52 after the leaders had finally all stopped, Bourdais returned to the top spot with Wilson 3.882 seconds behind.

The only question was whether Bourdais and Wilson had stopped too early and would they have to make one final, albeit quick, fuel stop to reach the checkered flag.

With 10 laps to go, the Frenchman's lead was 5.778 seconds and he could turn the fuel mixture down for better mileage.

But with the maximum racing time a factor, the race was shortened to 74 laps which removed any fuel questions.

Bourdais turned up the wick and crushed the field by a 14.096-second margin.

Alex Tagliani, Dominguez and Cristiano da Matta completed the top-five.

The second race in the series is scheduled for Saturday, May 13th on the streets of Houston.