Two weeks ago, the Champ Car World Series produced one of those races that will live in the memory, after Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais completed a remarkable comeback from a first lap spin to win his fifth race of the year and extend his lead in the championship.

It leaves Montreal with a lot to live up to as the championship heads north to Canada for the Molson Indy Montreal this weekend, although for one driver the race will be unforgettable – regardless of results.

On taking the green flag, 1996 champion Jimmy Vasser will establish a new series record for consecutive starts, breaking the record of 192 that he currently shares with Al Unser Jr.

Michel Jourdain Jr is the defending champion of the Montreal event, after stealing away victory from Alex Tagliani with 10 laps to go after Tagliani's fuel strategy backfired, allowing the Mexican star to score his second career win. Jourdain comes into this weekend as the only driver to have led in each of the two previous Montreal races, and could use a big performance to get back into the top 10 in the points chase.

Meanwhile, Tagliani will try again to score a win in his hometown race, although he removed the troublesome zero from his career victory column with a win at Road America three weeks ago. The polesitter at Montreal a year ago, Tagliani led 52 of the first 57 laps before the fuel strategy problems left him with a fourth-place finish. He currently sits in fourth in the series standings, having completed more laps than anyone this season.

However, on current form its hard to look past Bourdais for the race win. The Newman Haas driver has five wins, five poles and a qualifying average (1.6) that has allowed him to contend for the lead at nearly every stop on the schedule. He has also led 316 laps in the nine races so far.

His teammate Bruno Junqueira sits in second place in the standings despite the fact that he has yet to take a win this season. Junqueira will be hoping Bourdais hits problems as he did last season when he failed to finish, as the Brazilian attempts to close the gap at the top – currently a massive 56 points. A run of five podium finishes has enabled him to keep Bourdais within reach but Junqueira knows that he needs an improvement on last seasons 13th place finish to prevent the gap widening further.

Montreal is one of the few tracks that has never seen defending series champion Paul Tracy up front as the Canadian hero, and reigning Champ Car champion, has yet to lead a lap in competition at the island track.

Tracy has run well there however, climbing from tenth to finish fourth in 2002, and running in the top five last year before a dry fuel tank dropped him to sixth on the last lap of the race. Tracy is third in the series standings this year and comes off a runner-up finish in Denver and is the only other driver behind Bourdais to take at least two wins this season.