In a race which saw one of the scariest crashes I've seen in a ChampCar race in several years, Forsythe's A.J. Allmendinger notched his 5th win of the year, ensuring that for the fourth straight year, the fight for the Vanderbilt Cup will be decided outside the USA.
As the race began under very clear, sunny skies, it was Englishman Dan Clarke(#14 Imagine Appeal FC/L) who led the field up the hill and down towards turn 1, and it didn't take long for the first caution to fall as several cars, notably those of Bruno Junquiera(#2 Hole in the Wall Camps FC/L), Will Power(#5 Aussie Vineyards FC/L) and Jan Heylen(#11 Diamall/Muermans FC/L) went on various off-course excursions; all three continued on, though the cars of Power and Heylen had to pit for repairs. When the green flag fell two laps later, fellow rookie Charles Zwolsman(#34 MiJack FC/L) used a burst of Cosworth power-to-pass to pass Clarke for the lead, which lasted all of 1+ lap, as on the approach to turn 5, Sebastien Bourdais(#1 McDonald's FC/L) dove to the inside and took the lead away from Speedy Dan. Bourdais then proceeded to stretch his lead over Zwolsman, setting three consecutive fast laps on 7, 8 and 9. Eventually, though, the first round of stops came and went, and, as usually happens, the field got shuffled a bit. Bourdais still led, though.
Problems continued for some, though.....case in point, Will Power, as he brought out the second caution on lap 17, getting his 750-hp ChampCar beached in the gravel traps at turn 1. Once they got him out of the kitty litter, the green came back out, and once again everyone was chasing SeaBass, as the Frenchman reeled off yet another bunch of fast laps. At the halfway point, Bourdais was in the lead, followed by Paul Tracy(#3 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L), Justin Wilson(#9 CDW/Oracle FC/L), Clarke and Oriol Servia(#6 Gulfstream FC/L). Just past halfway, most everyone filed up the pitlane into pitroad for their second round of stops, except for Junquiera and Clarke's teammate, Nelson Phillipe(#4 WellBox/Bradford White FC/L).
Once all the stops were completed, it was a mad dash down pitroad, and in a rare miscue, Bourdais's pitcrew couldn't get him out ahead of both Wilson and A.J. Allmendinger(#7 Indeck/Forsythe FC/L), falling behind both in the process. When the green fell again on lap 29, Junquiera was the leader, and once again the caution came out for a one-car spin as Andrew Ranger(#27 Wal-Mart/Tide FC/L) spun through turn 1; safety crews soon had him back on track and the green fell once again. Several laps later, the third and final round of stops began around lap 35-36; by lap 43 everyone was out. Once again, pitcrew miscues would wreak havoc on the drivers, this time Phillipe, whose crew failed to properly seat the left rear on properly; it eventually fell off in turn 5, but Phillipe was able to get around, albeit very slowly and have a new tire placed on the car......amazingly, no caution was thrown.
Then........one of the scariet(and I mean scariest.....)crashes to occur in a ChampCar race happened at the Kink. As the cars of Katherine Legge(#20 Bell Micro FC/L) and Dan Clarke were battling for 6th and 7th, the rear win on Legge's ChampCar broke, sending her spinning into the concrete barriers on the outside of the Kink, the car separating into several pieces and doing barrel rolls along the barriers. Amazingly, Legge was unhurt, aside from minor contusions and a banged-up knee. The race was red-flagged for 42 minutes as safety crews and track officials cleaned up all the debris and repaired the fencing along the Kink.
When the green flew, there were only three laps remaining and, in Allmendinger's words, "were the longest laps of my life."
In the end, though, the Los Gatos, Ca. native held off both Junquiera and Bourdais to notch his fifth win of the season. Here are the top-10 from Road America......
1}#7 A.J. Allmendinger......................................51 laps
2}#2 Bruno Junquiera........................................-0.674 sec
3}#1 Sebastien Bourdais...................................-0.988 sec
4}#6 Oriol Servia..............................................-2.637 sec
5}#9 Justin Wilson............................................-3.763 sec
6}(R)#14 Dan Clarke........................................-4.764 sec
7}(R)#34 Charles Zwolsman..............................-5.537 sec
8}#27 Andrew Ranger.......................................-7.358 sec
9}(R)#11 Jan Heylen.........................................-8.667 sec
10}#3 Paul Tracy..............................................-9.017 sec