Allmendinger wins, Legge saved

But after the race, most people were just relieved that Katherine Legge was still alive.

Legge, who was driving a superb race and looked likely to finish in the top six, had a horrific-looking shunt on lap 47 on the approach to Turn 11, when a rear wing failure sent her into the wall.

Legge's PKV Racing Lola then flipped in the air,d somersaulting along the catch fencing, before coming to a rest upside-down at the side of the track.

The tub stayed remarkably intact, however, and she was able to get out of the car with only minor bruisings to her knees.

The race was stopped while the track was cleared and catch-fencing was repaired, and when it restarted, Allmendinger - who had been leading before the accident - was able to hold off the superior Newman/Haas cars to take the chequer.

The early stages of the race had been dominated by Bourdais once he had dispensed with Conquest Racing's Charles Zwolsman (who beat him away from the start) and surprise pole-sitter Dan Clarke.

However, full-course yellows for spinners kept dragging the Frenchman back into range of the pursuing pack, and when that coincided with a pitstop window, both Justin Wilson (RuSPORT) and AJ Allmendinger were able to jump Bourdais out of the pitlane.

Allmendinger then pulled a great pass on Wilson into Turn 1, but Bourdais was able to save fuel at his enforced slower pace and emerged from the pits in the lead, but on cold tyres.

Allmendinger would not be denied, however, and nailed Bourdais into Turn 5, and further round the lap Junqueira did the same.

Wilson went on to finish fifth behind Oriol Servia (PKV) and just ahead of Clarke.

 1.  Allmendinger  Forsythe Championship  2:36:44.637
 2.  Junqueira     Newman/Haas            +     0.674
 3.  Bourdais      Newman/Haas            +     0.988
 4.  Servia        PKV                    +     2.637
 5.  Wilson        RuSPORT                +     3.763
 6.  Clarke        CTE - HVM              +     4.746
 7.  Zwolsman      Mi-Jack Conquest       +     5.537
 8.  Ranger        Mi-Jack Conquest       +     7.358
 9.  Heylen        Dale Coyne             +     8.667
10.  Tracy         Forsythe Championship  +     9.017
11.  Tagliani      Team Australia         +    13.172
12.  Dominguez     Rocketsports           +    20.151
13.  Power         Team Australia         +    1 Lap 
14.  Philippe      CTE - HVM              +    1 Lap 
15.  Caceres       Dale Coyne             +    1 Lap 
16.  Legge         PKV                    +    6 Laps
17.  Kasemets      Rocketsports           +   37 Laps