Allmendinger wins as rivals collide

However, all the post-race talk was of a collision between his Forsythe Championship Racing teammate Paul Tracy and the Newman/Haas Racing entry of Sebastien Bourdais in the final turn of the final lap as they duelled over second place.

Allmendinger won by 20.6 seconds from the second Newman/Haas car of Bruno Junqueira, with Dan Clarke taking third after a beautiful drive on a weekend in which the CTE Racing-HVM cars were off their usual impressive pace.

Bourdais wasn't the only man to have major trouble on the red-walled soft Bridgestone tyres this race, but he was the most significant one, and as he dropped into the clutches of the chasing pack in his middle stint, he had dropped to fifth by the time he pitted.

Back on harder black tyres, the Frenchman cut a series of scorching laps to pass Justin Wilson and Bruno Junqueira.

He closed in on Tracy, who was having major fuel pick-up problems, and appeared to have got the deal done going into the final turn, but he was slightly off-line and had to brake slightly earlier.

Tracy found some engine response and nailed it down the inside, but the rear of his car stepped out of line and swung into the Newman/Haas car. The pair were pretty much out on the spot, and were eventually classified sixth and seventh.

Wilson's RuSPORT car shredded its soft Bridgestones, and he plummeted down the field in the closing stages, being passed by Clarke, Will Power (Team Australia) and Nelson Philippe in the second CTE Racing-HVM car.

Alex Tagliani of Team Australia collided with Tracy at the first turn and was immediately out, obliging Tracy to climb through the field from dead last.

Oriol Servia of PKV Racing retired on lap 15 with falling oil pressure, while teammate Katherine Legge finished ninth after she was, like many others, afflicted by tyre problems.

Pos  Driver              Team                   Time
 1.  A.J. Allmendinger   Forsythe Championship  1h44:59.557
 2.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman Haas            +    20.588
 3.  Dan Clarke          CTE HVM                +    50.261
 4.  Will Power          Team Australia         +    55.915
 5.  Nelson Philippe     CTE HVM                +  1:14.187
 6.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe Championship  +  1 lap
 7.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman Haas            +  1 lap
 8.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT                +  1 lap
 9.  Katherine Legge     PKV                    +  1 lap
10.  Charles Zwolsman    Mi-Jack Conquest       +  2 laps
11.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne             +  2 laps
12.  Nicky Pastorelli    Rocketsports           + 70 laps
13.  Mario Dominguez     Dale Coyne             + 76 laps
14.  Andrew Ranger       Mi-Jack Conquest       + 79 laps
15.  Oriol Servia        PKV                    + 83 laps
16.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia         + 97 laps

Fastest lap: Bourdais, 1:00.314 on lap 90