When A.J. Allmendinger won the last Champ Car race three weeks ago, the American driver proudly declared that he had prevented series leader Sebastien Bourdais from clinching the championship on his turf.

``I'm not letting a French guy clinch on American soil,'' Allmendinger said in victory lane at Elkhart Lake, Wisc.

Well, both drivers are on neutral ground this week _ the tricky 2.8-mile oceanside street course around resort hotels and high-rise condominiums on the Gold Coast of Australia.

But give Bourdais the home-course advantage.

Bourdais has two podium finishes in his three career starts at Surfers Paradise, including a win last year that clinched the Vanderbilt Cup.

Allmendinger finished second in the Australian race in 2005 and sits second this year in the overall points championship, 58 points behind the French driver.

To join Ted Horn as the only driver in the 97-year history of Champ Car racing to win three consecutive championships, Bourdais needs to finish ninth or better in Sunday's race.

Allmendinger said after his race win in Elkhart Lake that ``you never know what can happen'' in the final two races of the season _ here and in Mexico City on Nov. 12.

He could not be more correct about the race at Surfers.

Favouring Allmendinger is what has become a well-worn fact about this race _ no driver has won more than once in 15 previous races in Australia since the first in 1991. It's the longest such streak in Champ Car series history.

Only three times in those 15 years has the pole winner won the race, and only four of the 15 polesitters _ including the three winners _ have ever finished on the podium. Eight former series champions have won here, including Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell and Toronto's Paul Tracy.

Britain's Justin Wilson, sitting third in the standings, is the only other driver with a mathematical chance of overhauling Bourdais' total.

Wilson, who has top-eight finishes in each of his previous visits to Surfers Paradise, must secure the maximum 70 points available to him over the season's last two events _ and rely on Bourdais not scoring any _ to stay in the hunt.

Bourdais, with 338 points, is on a hot streak of his own, starting on the front row in each of the last five races, and only a last-lap dustup with Tracy in Denver on Aug. 13 kept him from a string of six consecutive podiums.

One driver happy to be Down Under is Katherine Legge, who walked away from a spectacular crash at Elkhart Lake. Legge, making her first career start in Australia, was in sixth place with five laps remaining in the 51-lap contest when part of her rear wing broke.

Her car, painted pink in honour of her team's breast cancer charity, launched into the retaining wall and up against the track's wire fence. In flames, it began cart-wheeling through the air and came to rest alongside the track.

Despite massive damage to the car _ many drivers on the track who saw the accident thought Legge must have been seriously injured or killed _ the 26-year-old British rookie walked away from the crash with only bruises on her legs.

Five days later she tested at high speed at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

``I have no hesitation whatsoever about competing again. In fact, I am looking forward to the challenge,'' says Legge. ``We've had a chance to work on a few things that I think will help us in Surfers Paradise.''

Sunday's race will also feature Champ Car debuts for a pair of drivers, both of whom tested in the pre-season.

Australian Ryan Briscoe will run the RuSport team's second car for the first time since Cristiano da Matta's testing accident in August. Briscoe has competed in V-8 Supercars, Grand-Am sports cars and Indy Racing League cars this season.

And Andreas Wirth of Germany will move up from the Champ Car Atlantic series for his first senior start.

There will be qualifying sessions Friday and Saturday ahead of Sunday's 65-lap race.

© The Canadian Press, 2007