Report: Third straight win for da Matta

The Brazilian started fifth in his Lola-Toyota but a superb first pit stop on Lap 27 vaulted him past Alex Tagliani, Franchitti and Newman/Haas teammate Fittipaldi. Da Matta led by as much as 17 seconds before traffic and a late full course yellow made his winning margin smaller than it should have been.

"This was a great weekend, one of those weekends where we didn't have to work too hard to make the car fast," said da Matta after his fifth career Champ Car win. "I had a close call in the middle of the race when Shinji Nakano didn't see me when I was trying to lap him. He closed the door and knocked a piece out of my front wing, but it didn't affect the car."

Pole man Adrian Fernandez led the first 14 laps before fading brakes caused him to give way to Tagliani at Turn 5. The Canadian had pulled a similar move to pass Franchitti for second a few laps earlier, and once in the lead, Alex pulled away steadily as Fernandez held up his challengers.

Tagliani and most of the lead pack pitted on lap 27 (the maximum number of laps they could run under CART's new fuel rules), but the air jack failed on Alex's Reynard-Ford and the resulting slow stop dropped him behind Fittipaldi and Franchitti. 'Tag' finished fifth.

Once in front, da Matta extended his advantage over Fittipaldi, who lost second place to Franchitti on the second round of stops. The Scot then closed the gap to da Matta from 17 to 5 seconds when the Brazilian got caught trying to lap the battling duo of Fernandez and Michael Andretti.

Dario appeared to catch a break when Tony Kanaan spun on Lap 77 of 85, taking Tora Takagi off with him. The second yellow of the race flew, but Takagi rejoined the contest between Da Matta and Franchitti. When green flag racing resumed with four laps to go, the Japanese driver resolutely ignore the waving blue flags, denying Franchitti (and the 95,000 fans in attendance) a shootout to the end.

Franchitti was furious. "I'm absolutely disgusted by his behaviour," he said. "I don't know what the hell he was thinking." CART Chief Steward Wally Dallenbach said after the race that Takagi could be penalized by the next Champ Car round at Long Beach on April 14.

Da Matta cruised to the win over Franchitti, with Fittipaldi third and Michel Jourdain a fine fourth in his first drive for Team Rahal.

Front runners Jimmy Vasser and Kenny Brack were eliminated on the first lap when rookie Townsend Bell cannoned into Brack at Turn 5.

"I've got a lot of respect for Townsend - he's a good driver, but it was a stupid, stupid thing to do on the first lap of the race," said Vasser. "I couldn't believe he was going for it like that on the first lap."

For full race results click here.

For full championship standings click here.