Basso wins Toyota Atlantic race

Basso snatched the lead into turn one as Wheldon dropped to third behind Rice. The latter then took over at the front on lap three, with Basso also dropping behind Wheldon before the action was halted after Joey Scarallo and Pete Mercier independently hit the turn four wall.

A ten lap yellow followed, after which Wheldon shadowed Rice mercilessly. On lap 35 the PPI driver dived inside Rice at turn one, but his rival refused to concede the place. They ran side by side for a lap before making contact, Rice spinning and both having to pit with suspension damage.

That left Basso in the lead and he gradually pulled away from Andrew Bordin to win by 3.0s. Hoover Orsi was third completed the podium.

"I don't know what happened with Rice and Wheldon," said the jubilant Basso. "They were pretty crazy. I don't know who made a mistake but I was pretty happy when it happened because I was able to take the lead again."

Wheldon was able to rejoin the race after suspension repairs and would finish 13th, but Rice had to retire.

"I am incredibly disappointed," said Wheldon. "I had such a good car, definitely a car capable of winning. I really need to see the tape of the race, to determine exactly what happened with the incident, until then, I am not too sure."

"It's unfortunate the race had to end the way it did," added Rice. "Dan and I had a great race going. I'm not really sure what happened. I came off the corner and held my line, then I was pitched sideways.

"I spun it round to keep it off the walls but Dan hit us on the left front. We tried to fix it under yellow but there was too much to repair. It's really a shame."

Rice still holds a ten-point championship advantage over Wheldon as the series heads for its flagship race, part of the Canadian Grand Prix support package at Montreal.

Results from Milwaukee:

1 Martin Basso
2 Andrew Bordin
3 Hoover Orsi
4 David Rutledge
5 Alex Gurney
6 Rocky Moran Jr
7 Mike Conte
8 David Cutler
9 Will Langhorne
10 Bob Perona
11 Stephen Roy
12 TJ Bell
13 Dan Wheldon
14 Masaoki Nagashima
15 Akihiro Asai
16 Christophe Bouvais

Retirements:

Buddy Rice
Pete Mercier
Joey Scarallo