After a well-received opening round on the new street circuit in Las Vegas, the Champ Car World Series makes a quick turnaround and heads for one of the most established inner city venues in the world - Long Beach, California.

First used in 1977 for Formula 5000, the seaside circuit went on to play an integral part in showing Formula One to the American public before switching to Champ Cars in 1984. The marquee event among street courses in the United States, the 1.968-mile street course has been a springboard for a number of championship runs, from Paul Tracy in 2003 to Sebastien Bourdais' third straight title a year ago. The event history reads like a Hall of Fame alumnus, with Mario Andretti, Danny Sullivan, Al Unser Jr, Alex Zanardi and Jimmy Vasser all having taken the trophy home from SoCal.

This year, the CCWS makes it 24th trip to the streets which frequently played host to the season-opener. The race will certainly be hard-fought, but the knowledge that ten racewinners - and three of the last four - have gone on to take the overall title will give extra impetus to all involved. And with the status quo under threat, that should make for an interesting weekend for the locals.

"Long Beach is a historic event - in a lot of ways it's like Monaco or any of these types of events," CCWS rookie Graham Rahal commented, "Being next to the ocean is awesome, and the atmosphere of the city is great - they really get into the event. That's why the race has become so popular. It's been around so long that a lot of people not only enjoy going to the race, but they also know when it's going to happen and that they can count on it each year. For me, it's just an exciting event to go to. It's tough to compare it to the Indy 500 but it's got to be up there with the best events.”

Last week's Vegas Grand Prix most definitely sent out an alarm call to Champ Car veterans, as the recent influx of new young talent flexed its muscles and claimed the majority of the top positions, staking an early claim to the 2007 championship.

Second-year Team Australia driver Will Power dominated the weekend to score his first Champ Car win, having already claimed a point for pole position, and set the fastest lap of the race just to make sure everyone noticed his potential. That second series pole and first victory has given the Australian the early lead in the chase for the Vanderbilt Cup, and he carries a six-point cushion into Long Beach for the Toyota Grand Prix.

“I feel great and very confident going into Long Beach after our strong Vegas weekend," Power said, "We will go into this weekend trying to get the best out of the car, qualify in the top five and minimise our mistakes to get as many points as possible. Last year, we did well, but I made some mistakes, so I want to get this race right and get Team Australia on the podium again.”

Four-time Long Beach winner Paul Tracy was among the season campaigners to show that he was far from ready to let the young guns have all the fun, the 38-year old leading Friday qualifying and coming home third in the race after duelling with Power most of the way. The Canadian led more laps in the season-opener than he did throughout all of 2006, suggesting that Forsythe may have got to grips with the new Panoz DP01 quicker than most.

"The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach has been an integral part of my career, it is an extremely important event for Champ Car and I know that all the drivers really enjoy the track and the atmosphere overall," Tracy commented, "We are coming off a pretty decent weekend at Las Vegas and we now just have to keep the momentum going and keep accumulating points - but I'm going to do everything possible to win Long Beach for the fifth time.”