A good bit of speculation was made at the beginning of the 2005 Champ Car World Series season about the increased talent level present throughout the series' driver roster, but nothing proves a point like results.

Through the first four events on the road to the Vanderbilt Cup, four different drivers have won races, four different drivers have won poles and eight different men have ended up on the podium. This weekend, 14 drivers will be looking to extend that streak, while those that already have Champ Car victories hope to be the first to double up, as Champ Car heads to the shores of Lake Erie for the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland.

Cristiano da Matta became the latest to join the ranks of racewinners with a stirring run from tenth in Portland, giving PKV Racing its first Champ Car victory, while Justin Wilson became the fourth different polesitter of the 2005 season when he paced Portland qualifying. Both have been close to taking Cleveland glories in the past but close on the body-pounding Burke Lakefront Airport course gets you little more than a pat on the back when the smoke clears over the oldest temporary race course on the Champ Car circuit.

The man that has stood tallest on the 2.106-mile course over the past two years leads the pack the Cleveland again in 2005. Sebastien Bourdais carries the number-one plate on his Newman Haas Racing machine, a plate partially earned with a Cleveland romp a year ago. Bourdais led 88 laps en route to his 2004 victory, a win that followed a 2003 Cleveland race that saw the Frenchman score victory from the pole, outlasting his pursuers and the elements on a hot, difficult North Coast night.

Bourdais leads the series points race again in 2005, and comes to Cleveland looking not only to widen his advantage, but also to become the first driver to win three consecutive events in the 24-year history of Champ Car racing at Burke Lakefront Airport. The Newman Haas driver has neither started nor finished any worse than sixth this year, and is tied for the series lead in races finished and laps completed.

His main antagonist, as it has been for much of his three-year Champ Car career, is America's active victory leader among open-wheel drivers Paul Tracy. Tracy stands just 11 points in arrears of Bourdais after four races and has one of the year's race wins to his credit, scoring an impressive win in Milwaukee. Tracy beat the field to the Cleveland chequered flag in 1993, but has yet to make a return trip to Victory Lane. The Canadian has been strong in Cleveland, winning the pole a year ago before being eliminated in a first-lap crash, and scoring three other podium finishes since the 1993 victory.

There are a number of drivers in the field that appear ready to make it five winners in five races. RuSPORT's Wilson nearly broke his duck last weekend in Portland, rolling from pole and pulling away to a ten-second lead through the first half of the race. He suffered the first on-track heartbreak of the Champ Car season soon after however, as a failed oil pump ground his Ford-Cosworth XFE to a halt. Wilson earned the first front-row start of his career on his last trip to Cleveland, but his day ended before the starter could put the green flag away, as the Brit was a victim of a first-lap, first-turn crash.

His RuSPORT teammate seems equally poised to make the jump to Champ Car race winner as AJ Allmendinger comes to town after earning front-row starts in each of his last two races. The Californian started fourth and finished sixth a year ago in his first Cleveland Champ Car race, and won from pole there on his way to a Toyota Atlantic title in 2003.

Two-time Cleveland polewinner Jimmy Vasser is seeking his first race win on the shores of Lake Erie, hoping to build on a run of success that has seen him finish in the top-ten in four of his last five trips to Northeastern Ohio. Vasser and da Matta have combined to show their PKV Racing team, of which Vasser is a part-owner, its best start in its three Champ Car seasons with Vasser winning the pole at Milwaukee and da Matta taking the win last week.