Tagliani breaks his duck

This time, for once, the cards fell squarely in his favour in a tactically-framed, topsy-turvy and often bewildering race that turned on the timing of yellow flags and the new-for-2004 rule that stipulates a minimum number of green-flag pit stops.

Tagliani found himself in the happy position of having just made his first pit visit when a full-course caution erased his time deficit to the leaders. Even better news was that the frontrunners had to take on fuel under the yellow - effectively a wasted pit visit since it did not count towards their green-flag tally. The net result was that Tagliani emerged behind only Paul Tracy, with an extra stop under his belt, and duly assumed the lead when the pitstop exchanges were back in synch.

"I feel good," said Tagliani, whose win was also the first for the fledgling Rocketsports team owned by OWRS principal Paul Gentilozzi. "I mean, this is a race that I nearly won in 2000. With six laps to go we had a halfshaft failure. Maybe, you know, today we got a little bit lucky with the way the yellow turned out. But many races we've been unlucky, even this year. In Monterrey we passed basically every car on the racetrack in the first stint, and we ended up losing position in the same kind of scenario.

"You know, I think it takes a really fast car, good strategy, and a little bit of luck to win a race in this series. And today all the ingredients were there."

"Eventful" doesn't begin to describe a race that featured numerous exciting on-track scraps but was ultimately decided by the vagaries of Champ Car's fuel regulations, which put a premium on one commodity: luck.

Pole-sitter Sebastien Bourdais led the early laps from team-mate Bruno Junqueira, who made a great start from the outside of the second row. Then on a lap 14 restart both Newman/Haas cars were leapfrogged by Tracy, in a bizarre chain of events that began with the pace car catching Bourdais by surprise in the last corner and forcing him to jam on the brakes, prompting the close-following Junqueira to take to the grass in avoidance.

Tracy took full advantage of the confusion, immediately pouncing on Junqueira and then out-duelling Bourdais around the outside at the first corner. The two made light contact and Bourdais was left to grapple with bent left-front
suspension thereafter.

While Tracy couldn't believe his luck, tempers were soon flaring in the Newman/Haas pit after Bourdais and Junqueira tangled, also at the first corner. Bourdais continued with his car now in a rather bedraggled state, but Junqueira spun and stalled, falling off the lead lap and out of contention.

The ensuing full-course yellow proved the turning point of the race, handing a priceless advantage to Tagliani and others who had pitted before the caution came out. Initially Justin Wilson looked to be sitting pretty, but the Briton was outbraked by Tagliani at Turn 5 on lap 19.

Tracy resumed the lead when Tagliani, Wilson and company made their second green-flag stops, but once more found himself one stop behind in the pitstop cycle. The Canadian's hopes of salvaging a podium finish were dashed by a problematic air gun on his final pit stop. For good measure, he later incurred a drive-through penalty for causing "avoidable contact" with regular sparring partner Junqueira at Turn 5, and went home with only a meagre helping of points for 12th place.

Meanwhile Tagliani had to see off a late challenge from Tracy's team-mate Rodolfo Lavin, who continues to surprise observers who remember his mediocre Indy Lights and Atlantic performances. The Mexican was another of the early stoppers, but was able to carry his final tank of fuel two laps longer than Tagliani and put himself in a position to challenge for the win. But on cold tyres and having used his full quota of "push-to-pass" power, Lavin was unable to fend off Tagliani on the long flat-out run to Turn 5. Even so, second place represented easily his most impressive accomplishment to date.

Bourdais was relieved to come away with third following his various travails, padding his championship lead to 47 points over Junqueira in the process.

The Frenchman said: "Well, I don't really know what to think about this race really because there have been so many things that I don't even know what happened myself. All I know is that we were leading the race. Then this yellow came out at the wrong moment. I got passed by a couple of people; I passed a bunch of people. And here I am on the podium, and I have no idea what happened in between."

Ryan Hunter-Reay's afternoon progressed in the opposite direction. After qualifying second the Herdez Competition driver collided with Jimmy Vasser in a clumsy passing attempt at Canada Corner on the opening lap. The early yellows brought him back into contention, however, and he posted a strong recovery drive to climb back to fourth.

Team-mate Mario Dominguez rounded out the top five, with Oriol Servia coming home sixth for Dale Coyne Racing. The Spaniard made some opportunistic passing moves and at one stage was lying as high as second, but lost precious ground on his penultimate pit stop. Wilson slipped back to seventh after a suspension problem upset the handling of his Conquest Racing Lola, while Guy Smith kept his nose clean and finished a respectable 10th on his Champ Car debut.