Allmendinger heads Forsythe 1-2

Allmendinger chalked up his third victory in a row to finish 1.8 seconds ahead of his Forsythe Championship Racing teammate, the pair of them beating Sebastien Bourdais into third place.

The Newman/Haas Racing driver was muscled out of the way by Tracy after being balked by a curiously slow Justin Wilson.

The British pole-sitter led the first stint, but when he pitted his RuSPORT car along with the other front-runners during the first yellow-flag period, he was jumped by Allmendinger out of the pits, and never looked a likely victory contender thereafter.

However, the fuel mileage situation was confused by the yellow-flag periods, and there are theories that had a final yellow not been necessary - after a collision between Oriol Servia (PKV Racing) and Nelson Philippe (CTE Racing-HVM) as they duelled over fifth place - some of the leading runners may have had to pit again.

Such a state of affairs cost Alex Tagliani a better finish, as he had just pitted under green flag conditions when the Servia/Philippe accident happened.

However, in a fighting race in which he successfully passed Bourdais, Cristiano da Matta (RuSPORT) and Servia among others, the Canadian was content with sixth on home ground, given that his Team Australia car was hurriedly rebuilt between warm-up and race following a big accident.

Tagliani's teammate Will Power drove a good race too to head the rookies on a day when principal rivals for the rookie title Dan Clarke (CTE Racing-HVM) and Katherine Legge (PKV) both failed to finish. He now moves into the lead of the rookie standings, six points ahead of Legge and Clarke.

Clarke was an early casualty, after being baulked and then stalling as he attempted to round the wreck of Legge and Jan Heylen (Dale Coyne Racing). He got restarted but got wiped out by a hesitant Charles Zwolsman (Conquest Racing) as the pair came up to pass Rocketsports Racing's Tonis Kasemets.

Legge drove a good race and held the fastest lap of the race for a period of time (by some 0.4sec), but on her final stint, with a set of tyres she didn't like, she struck the wall coming out of the final turn.

Pos  Driver              Team                   Time
 1.  A.J. Allmendinger   Forsythe Championship  1h38:01.286
 2.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe Championship  +     1.851
 3.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman Haas            +     2.434
 4.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT                +     4.170
 5.  Cristiano da Matta  RuSPORT                +     6.761
 6.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia         +     8.383
 7.  Will Power          Team Australia         +     9.663
 8.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman Haas            +    12.177
 9.  Charles Zwolsman    Mi-Jack Conquest       +    1 lap
10.  Andrew Ranger       Mi-Jack Conquest       +    1 lap
11.  Mario Dominguez     Dale Coyne             +    3 laps
12.  Oriol Servia        PKV                    +   10 laps
13.  Nelson Philippe     CTE HVM                +   10 laps
14.  Katherine Legge     PKV                    +   21 laps
15.  Tonis Kasemets      Rocketsports           +   37 laps
16.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne             +   42 laps
17.  Dan Clarke          CTE HVM                +   72 laps

Fastest lap: Alex Tagliani, 1:00.461 on lap 76