mlittle wrote:It is said that the Australian fans who visit Surfers Paradise for ChampCar's annual soiree', the Lexmark Indy 300, are some of the most rabid racefans on earth, and they got to see another non-repeat winner....just not the one they were hoping for.
After an abortive start, polesitter Will Power(#5 Aussie Vineyards FC/L) led the field single-file for a second start and dominated the first half or so of the race, although fellow rookies Charles Zwolsman(#34 MiJack FC/L) and Jan Heylen(#11 Diamall/Muermans FC/L) managed to jump ahead of Power by pitting off-sequence and cycling to the front. Until the first round of stops for the leaders, Power did indeed dominate. Then it started to go downhill from there.......
When the leaders pitted around lap 14, Power got into his stall near pit entrance and made his stop, only to nearly get run over by
both Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L)
and Paul Tracy(#3 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L); by the time everyone left pitlane, Power was missing a piece of bodywork from his car courtesy of PT. It wasn't the only problem anyone had; PT's teammate, A.J. Allmendinger(#7 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L) left a second too soon from pitlane and ripped the fuel hose nozzle off, setting his fueler on fire for a few moments. Allmendinger returned to pitroad, where he stalled the car uncharacteristically and ended up returning to the race down in 15th.
After the restart on lap 16, it was Heylen from Zwolsman and Power, with Bourdais, Servia and Phillipe nipping on their heels. For SeaBass, though, it was a golden moment when rival Allemendinger shunted the wall exiting turn 3, handing Bourdais his third consecutive Vanderbilt Cup title. With that settled, SeaBass got, to quote Team Australia's Craig Gore, "greedy". Chasing after Power past the second front-side chicanes, Bourdais divebombed into turn 3, banging wheels with the hometown hero and effectively ending Power's chances at a win.(Power would finish 12th, one lap down.) Afterwards, Power dejectedly remarked,
I was surprised Sebastien did that, because A.J. was out of the race and the championship was his. He ruined my race and my home event.
Meanwhile, back at the front, Oriol Servia(#6 Gulfstream FC/L) ended up in the lead for a while as the second round of stops went by, before losing 5th gear and ultimately retiring on lap 38, handing the lead over to Phillipe, who led through the final round of stops from Dominguez, Tracy and Tagliani. However, after a caution for spins by both Heylen and Servia's teammate, Katherine Legge(#20 Bell Micro FC/L), it was the Rocketsports entry of Antonio Pizzonia(#18 Lexington Energy FC/L) who led, albeit for only a few laps as Pizzonia pitted on lap 51 for fuel.
With less than 10 laps remaining, it was CTE-HVM's Nelson Phillipe(#4 Wellbox FC/L) leading, followed by Mario Dominguez(#8 PEMEX/GISCA FC/L) then PT and Tag. While Phillipe held off Dominguez to take the victory, the odd man off the podium was Tracy, who was very ticked off IMO at race control for what was a screwed-up call late. When Dominguez tried to pass Phillipe entering the Bartercard chicane following the restart, Dominguez had to get off the gas, nearly letting Tracy run right into him. PT, in turn, had to shortcut the VB Chicane to avoid him. Here's why I said it was a screwed-up call from race control. Under ChampCar rules, a driver cannot shortcut a chicane to either gain advantage vs. another driver OR to defend their position. When PT shortcut the VB Chicane, he was trying to avoid hitting Dominguez, yet for some reason race control ordered PT to relinquish 3rd to Alex Tagliani(#15 Aussie Vineyards FC/L), which PT dutifully did.
In the end, though, it was Phillipe who held on to notch his career ChampCar victory, becoming the youngest driver in ChampCar history, previously held by then-PacWest driver Scott Dixon when the Kiwi won on the mile-oval at Nazareth Speedway in 2001.
Here are the top-10 from Surfers Paradise...........
1}#4 Nelson Phillipe......................................59 laps
2}#8 Mario Dominguez..................................-0.727 sec
3}#15 Alex Tagliani.......................................-6.053 sec
4}#3 Paul Tracy............................................-7.238 sec
5}#12 Andrew Ranger...................................-9.376 sec
6}#2 Bruno Junquiera...................................-10.246 sec
7}#34 Charles Zwolsman..............................-16.848 sec
8}#1 Sebastien Bourdais...............................-18.978 sec
9}#19 Andreas Wirth....................................-22.195 sec
10}(R)#18 Antonio Pizzonia..........................-44.085 sec
