In one of the more interesting season opening races in ChampCar's history, Aussie Will Power thundered to victory in the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, giving Team Australia its' first series win and giving team co-owner Derrick Walker his first win in the series since Gil de Ferran won at Portland back in 1999.
After an aborted start, the field took the first green of the year......and just as quickly, the first crash of the year occurred involving NHL Racing rookie Graham Rahal(#2 Medi/Zone FC/P) who damaged the right front suspension trying to avoid "Speedy" Dan Clarke's bull-headed charge at the green; Rahal would finish 17th. By lap 14, there had already been four cautions(the fourth courtesy of Clarke, who slid into the tirewalls at turn 3)........the race remained green afterwards.
Once everyone calmed down and got into the rhythm of a full-up street fight, things settled down.......except for the ever-present problem of pitstops; for some reason, some of the teams were having problems with the fueling mechanisms during pitstops; what was happening was that whenever teams would refuel, the fuel vents on the Panoz DP01's weren't venting properly, causing methanol fuel to back up into the fueling rig, causing some drivers to have abhorrently long stops(which came back to bite some drivers later on.....
). Setting up the fuel problems was a full-course caution on lap 24, caused by series champion Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/P) whose horrid weekend got even worse when he smacked the wall at turn 4, eventually parking the car on the approach to the chicane prior to turn 11; Bourdais would finish 13th.
At the time of the caution, Power and SeaBass's main nemesis, Paul Tracy(#3 Indeck/Monster Energy Drink FC/P) were fighting tooth-n'-nail for the lead; both would come in for fuel and tires......and both had fueling issues; PT's were enough to cause one extra stop, which essentially cycled the lead(and eventually the win...) back to Power. Although Power had to make one additional stop for fuel himself, Tracy's pit woes were more than enough to give Power the edge.
There were other surprises up and down the results list for today's race.....
~~Another career best......in 2006, then-rookie driver Katherine Legge finished 6th on the oval in Milwaukee, setting the highest finish in series history for a female driver; today, she finished 6th, setting the best career finish on a road/street course for a female driver
~~More frontrunners at the back.......joining Bourdais at the rear of the field at race's end was RuSport's Justin Wilson, who had mechanical problems and finished 14th
~~Impressive debuts.......two drivers who IMO surprised me by their performances were PKV's Tristan Gommendy(5th) and Minardi Team USA's Robert Doornbos(2nd); Doornbos's was especially surprising since it was, IIRC, his first rolling start and his first start on a street circuit(BTW, his 2nd-place finish was the highest debut finish on a street circuit in the modern era of NA motorsports since Nigel Mansell won at Surfers Paradise in 1993)
Top-10 results from Las Vegas...........................
1st} #5 Will Power.......................................68 laps
2nd} #14 Robert Doornbos(R).......................-16.787 sec
3rd} #3 Paul Tracy.......................................-27.357 sec
4th} #8 Alex Tagliani....................................-48.980 sec
5th} #22 Tristan Gommendy(R).....................-1:10.395 sec
6th} #11 Katherine Legge.............................-1:21.260 sec
7th} #19 Bruno Junquiera.............................-1 lap
8th} #29 Alex Figge(R).................................-5 laps
9th} #7 Mario Dominguez.............................-11 laps
10th} #21 Neel Jani(R).................................-11 laps
