Night race a resounding success

The race, won by Newman/Haas driver Sebastien Bourdais, run on Burke Lakefront Airport, took place at 8.50pm EST as the sun was setting and lasted for just over two hours.

"This was absolutely the perfect place to have a night race and I think everyone would agree," said former F1 and CART champion Mario Andretti, who drove the pace car. "It really accentuates the speed of our cars and how much punishment the drivers put them through. I think it was a very wise move."

The attendance over three-days was over 112,000, and was a marked improvement on previous events staged at the venue partly thanks to smart promotion for Friday's qualifying. It was by far the largest turnout for any CART qualifying at a United States venue, other than Long Beach, in recent memory.

"Chris (Pook, CART CEO) brought up the subject of moving this race to night several months ago as a way to reinvigorate this event," said Graham Hearns, director of events for IMG Motorsports, promoters of Cleveland. "I'd say it certainly worked and it was a perfect night in every way.

"We tried to create a variety of reasons for people to attend, whether it was their first time or 22nd time. It all started with Wednesday night's Block Party, then the Rock & Race festivities Thursday and Paul Tracy's bike ride on Saturday. The people in Cleveland have always supported CART and this whole weekend was very encouraging."

The drivers felt the same way. "It was a full house and a good race," said Jimmy Vasser. "Everyone was on their feet as we came down the front straightaway at the end of the race and that was awesome. This was a good night for our series."

Alex Tagliani agreed but felt some improvements could be made: "The night race was a success and the stands were full. We are fortunate that everything went well. We learned a lot about how to use the lights at night. We can be prepared in the future when we run at night and face bad conditions.

"I would recommend more lights overall, but especially in the back section were it could be quite dark between turn seven and eight."