Tracy Dominates in Milwaukee
Paul Tracy was a dominant force in the third round of the Champ Car World Series at the Milwaukee Mile
The Canadian took the lead with a bold move around the outside of polesitter Jimmy Vasser early on and never looked back, fending off a brief challenge from AJ Allmendinger to score his first win since Vancouver last July.
"I have to thank my [Forsythe Championship Racing] crew," said Tracy. "My engineer Eric Zeto gave me a perfect car. In qualifying we made a small mistake on set-up, but after the warm-up this morning I knew we had a car to fight for the win."
Allmendinger doggedly kept the pressure on his former mentor but lost ground at the final pit stops, only to be handed an olive branch in the form of a late caution period that erased Tracy's five-second lead.
Tracy, however, is famous for his alacrity on cold tyres and left the field for dead at the restart, setting a new fastest lap of the race for good measure. Allmendinger had no response, but was happy to settle for a career-best second place finish.
"Paul was faster than me - that's basically what it came down to," the American acknowledged. "I think on old tyres we had something for him but on new tyres he was a missile. But RuSPORT did a great job. We needed a great run because we've had a bad start to the year."
Oriol Servia did a sterling job to finish third on his debut for Newman/Haas Racing, passing teammate and reigning Champion Sebastien Bourdais on a restart and then dispatching Justin Wilson when the Briton got caught up in some slower traffic.
"Before the race [Cristiano] da Matta told me, 'You'll see, things happen easier at Newman/Haas' and they did," enthused Servia. "The PacifiCare car was just going forward, forward, I was just a passenger!
"You know, I'm sure [the injured] Bruno [Junqueira] deserved a win, and I tried, but I think a podium is quite a good thing for us in my first race with the team and only two hours of practice before qualifying. I'm really grateful, really happy, and I hope we can build on this."
Wilson wasn't quite able to keep up with RuSPORT teammate Allmendinger on this occasion, but came home a strong fourth for the third consecutive race and trails Championship leader Bourdais by just seven points.
The Frenchman was left to lick his wounds after throwing away a likely fourth-place finish (he had passed Wilson deep in the second half of the race and was shadowing teammate Servia) with a speeding infraction at his final pit stop. The ensuing drive-through penalty cost him a lap and relegated him to sixth place.
Vasser was unable to capitalise on his first pole in three years and spent most of the afternoon chasing a decent balance on his PKV Racing Lola. The American was the last of the unlapped finishers in fifth.
Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed heavily on lap six, jarring his neck in a heavy rearward impact with the wall. He was reported to be awake and alert by Champ Car medical officials and has been taken to a local hospital for observation.
2005 Road Runner 225 at the Milwaukee Mile - Results:
CLASSIFIED: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Paul Tracy Forsythe Championship 1h45:01.259 2. A.J. Allmendinger RuSPORT + 3.369 3. Oriol Servia Newman Haas + 6.120 4. Justin Wilson RuSPORT + 6.859 5. Jimmy Vasser PKV + 8.331 6. Sebastien Bourdais Newman Haas + 1 Lap 7. Mario Dominguez Forsythe Championship + 1 Lap 8. Ronnie Bremer HVM, Inc. + 1 Lap 9. Timo Glock Rocketsports + 2 Laps 10. Alex Tagliani Team Australia + 3 Laps 11. Cristiano da Matta PKV + 4 Laps 12. Nelson Philippe Mi-Jack Conquest + 5 Laps 13. Marcus Marshall Team Australia + 5 Laps 14. Ricardo Sperafico Dale Coyne + 10 Laps NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Driver Team On Lap Bjorn Wirdheim HVM, Inc. 175 Andrew Ranger Mi-Jack Conquest 126 Ryan Hunter-Reay Rocketsports 6 Fastest Lap: Paul Tracy, 22.208s, on lap 221
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