Bourdais aims for 5

This weekend Sebastien Bourdais is chasing history that dates back to before he was born.

Bourdais has won each of the first four races of the season as the Champ Car series rolls into Portland. Only two drivers have won five straight Champ Car races: A.J. Foyt won seven straight in 1964 and Al Unser Sr., twice won five in a row, the last time in 1970.

Bourdais was born nine years later. So he has a sense of how elusive his fifth could be.

“The greatest spans can always go to hell on race day,” he said. “If and when and how you can rewrite history – you can’t control it. That’s just racing.”

The suggestion that he could run this season’s Champ Car table might be fun to consider but way too premature, he said.

“It’s racing. So many things can happen, it’s absolutely ridiculous to think you can run the table,” he said. “But luckily you don’t need that to win the championship.

Bourdais has already had success on the road course at Portland International Raceway. He won the Portland Grand Prix from the pole in 2004.

Bourdais has won nine of his last 11 races and has 20 career wins in 49 starts. He is the two-time defending series champion.

But despite Bourdais’ four victories this season, the points race for the championship is still tight. Justin Wilson has finished second to him in three events, and trails him by 31 points.

Last year at PIR, Wilson led 43 of 45 laps from the pole until an oil pump failure took him out of the race

Nadeau becomes mentor

There are some things Jerry Nadeau just can’t seem to shake from his life.

Like that numbing sensation that occasionally visits the left side of his body, reminding him that his recovery from a near-fatal crash at Richmond International Speedway in 2003 is still a work in progress.

Or the competitive nature that flares up every time he gets around a racetrack and keeps him from giving up on his dream of resurrecting his NASCAR career.

In recent months, however, Nadeau has been consumed by another force. His name is David Gilliland. And if Nadeau’s gut is correct, the NASCAR brethren won’t be able to ignore him.

Having been out of racing for three years since nearly losing his life in that May 2003 crash, Nadeau has made a return of sorts this season. The former Nextel Cup winner is working as a consultant for first-year Busch Series team Clay Andrews Racing and its rookie driver Gilliland, who will attempt to qualify for Saturday’s Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway.

“I tried some different things like being a racing school instructor … but it was like, I’m not real happy doing what I’m doing now,” Nadeau said. “(The team) called and asked if I would help David out with this being his first year in Busch, and I figured, heck, I wasn’t doing much anyway. There’s not much that I can really tell him, though, because he’s so good. He’s a better caliber of driver than I was starting out.”

Unfortunately for Nadeau, the image of him being airlifted to Virginia Commonwealth Medical Center with severe head injuries three years ago is the last memory most race fans have.

But when Andrews went searching for a mentor for the 30-year-old Gilliland, a former Grand National Division West Series Rookie of the Year, Nadeau’s seven years of Cup experience is what popped into his head first.

“Jerry brings a lot of experience, and that”s really helped me a lot because I’ve never been to most of these tracks,” said Gilliland, who is running a partial schedule this year and has made six career Busch Series starts. “He’s been there and done that and been successful at it.”

Before joining the Andrews crew, Nadeau had spent much of the last few years doting on his daughter Natalie and rehabilitating from the neurological injuries that left him unconscious for 20 days and forced him to learn how to walk again.

The lengthy healing process proved an exercise in frustration for the energetic Nadeau.

But it paled in comparison to the torment the Danbury, Conn., native felt whenever he watched a green flag drop in a Cup race.

“It drives me crazy (not being able to compete),” Nadeau said. “I rarely watch races that much, but when I do, not a second goes by that I don’t think about coming back. I would rather break every bone in my body than have a head injury. But I’m doing great now. I’m way better than I was a year and a half ago.”