LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The 2003 CART season is only two races old going into this weekend's annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach yet there is already a developing storyline:

The sheer speed of Sebastien Bourdais against the controlled aggression of Paul Tracy.

Bourdais, a 24-year-old rookie from France who looked dazzling in a Champ Car during his first test with Newman-Haas Racing, captured the poles at St. Petersburg and Monterrey, Mexico, but crashed in the races.

Tracy, a 34-year-old Canadian with more years (13), starts (193) and wins (21) than any current CART regular, parleyed Bourdais' problems with his sudden patience to open '03 with back-to-back victories.

Consequently, Tracy is off to his best start ever in search of his first CART championship.

"A lot of people weren't picking me as a favorite to win the championship before the season started and now we've had two races and I guess, really, all I can do is just try to go into each race and try to minimize the mistakes that I can make on the race track," said a man who has thrown away several wins during his career because of his desire to be out in front.

"To start off with a new team (Players/Forsythe), I think we have surpassed our expectations for the first couple of races of the year. Our goal was really just to finish the races and get points. And to come out of it with two wins, the most laps led and 43 points has just been fantastic."

Bourdais, the 2002 F3000 champion, is the first rookie since Nigel Mansell to capture back-to-back poles to begin his Champ Car career, but some poor pit strategy by Newman-Haas and radio problems early in both races put him back in the pack. He crashed trying to catch up.

"We've started very well and, to be honest, I was really surprised to get these results," said Bourdais, who is teamed with Bruno Junqueira, runner-up in 2002. "We were leading in both of the first events, and we didn't succeed to get the final result. So it's a bit of frustration.

"But, anyway, we were also competitive on both weekends. All I can expect is to finally win one soon."

	Tracy, who has two wins in two races this season, has won at Long Beach before.

Tracy obviously knows his experience should be a factor against his younger competition.

"Sure it's important. A lot of the tracks other than St. Pete I've been to and raced at before, and a lot of the newer drivers don't have experience," he said. "I think going into the first day of practice in qualifying, I think that's an advantage, but obviously some of the new drivers have proven that this doesn't take them very long to learn a circuit, and one person in particular is Sebastian. He's fast on the second day, he's been able to get on the pole both times with no track experience coming into the weekends.

"But you know experience does help in the race, and race distances and the first day of practice. We also haven't put ourselves into a problem yet because we've made good decisions. When the yellows have all been -- they have made clear-cut decisions on when to come in and not to come in. We've been back in a situation where we've been stuck in traffic, like at St. Pete, you know, where you could make a risky move and maybe damage the car trying to pass somebody.

"I think as a whole, the team has made good decisions and I've made good decisions, and that's translated into a couple of wins.

Tracy, whose mountain bike training outside his home in Las Vegas has him in the best shape ever, can tie Al Unser's record (he opened the 1971 season with three consecutive wins) with a triumph at Long Beach.

"I know it's been 30 years since somebody won the first three races and I don't really get caught up in that," Tracy said. "All I want to do is do a good job and finish the race and get some points. I know that if we can start up front going into a race weekend, I know that if we come out of the trailer with a good car and start close to the front, then I can win in any situation.

"I've won twice at Long Beach and I always seem to run well there so I'm looking forward to this weekend. My energy towards racing is at a peak."

Michel Jourdain Jr., who has trailed Tracy to the checkered flag in both races for Team Rahal, figures to be a factor along with Adrian Fernandez, Patrick Carpentier, Oriol Servia, Jimmy Vasser and Junqueira.

Vasser won the pole here a year ago and had the dominant car only to lose when the caution flags didn't fall in his favor. This year he's driving a year-old Reynard against the new Lolas for Stefan Johansson's new team.

"We had a good run at Long Beach last year and I have a lot of good history there," said the '96 CART champ, who also won here that year. "This is sort of a home race for me, here and Laguna Seca and I always look forward to it.

"This is an important race for us this weekend, being a new team, the first few races have been a lot of extra work, we fought mechanical issues all weekend in Mexico, but we have still run toward the front in both races."