Tracy supreme in Vancouver

Unlike Schumacher's French Grand Prix triumph, however, Tracy's extra pit visit was not a tactical masterstroke, but the result of a refuelling glitch that left him seven gallons short and necessitated a "splash-and-dash" top-up a handful of laps from the end.

"The first part of the race was going the way we wanted," said Tracy. "The car was working well. The last [planned] stop went according to plan, on the radio they said I was good to go. Then they came on the radio and said that we weren't going to make it and that I needed at least a 25-second lead. After running laps like I was qualifying and bumping the wall a few times, I was able to do that. We made that stop, filled up, and finished on top. It is good to get these points and be back in contention for the championship."

When Sebastien Bourdais dispatched surprise front row occupant Rodolfo Lavin at the start of the race, it looked like a classic Forsythe/Newman-Haas duel was on the cards. Bourdais shadowed Tracy in the early laps, but lost ground rapidly following a restart deep in the first stint, just as the pitstops approached. Tracy rejoined with a clear lead, while Bourdais found himself embroiled in traffic for the rest of the afternoon.

Into the breach stepped the fledgling RuSPORT team, who rolled the dice at the first round of pitstops by short-filling AJ Allmendinger and Michel Jourdain Jr in order to gain track position. The ploy worked a treat, as Allmendinger and Jourdain leapfrogged a host of cars to take over second and third places.

Allmendinger used the clear track to reel off a string of impressively quick laps, but ultimately lost out to his team-mate at the final pitstop exchange after Jourdain eked out an extra three laps on his second tank of fuel. The two-three finish marked a new watershed for the first-year outfit run by Carl Russo, who was reduced to tears afterwards.

"It is fantastic that both RuSPORT cars finished on the podium today, and I am very happy for AJ," said Jourdain. "We had both cars finish in the top five in Milwaukee, so it shows that our team is improving. It was a tough race, we went fast when we had to and it was backed up by a good race strategy."

Allmendinger added: "Although we didn't qualify well, we knew all along RuSPORT had great cars for the race. Then my engineers David Brown and Chris Lerch just put together an awesome strategy and my guys did a tremendous job on the pitstops. For once, I'm almost speechless. Each weekend we've been getting closer and closer. As for the Rookie of the Year standings, normally it's not something that I really focus on. But if I can beat Justin Wilson - who's not really a rookie, but a very accomplished driver - I'll be really happy."

Bruno Junqueira's race was always going to be a damage limitation exercise following a qualifying crash that consigned him to eighth on the grid, so the Brazilian did well to salvage fourth.

"I wish I could have started in second place and been able to challenge Paul," he said. "We were one of the only guys to pass cars on the track but unfortunately I couldn't pass the two cars that were in front of me at the end of the race. The RuSPORT strategy was a big gamble but it worked really good for them. We had a faster car but their strategy worked."

Team-mate Bourdais was eventually shuffled back to fifth, losing out to Junqueira when he pitted earlier at the end of the second stint. The Frenchman's pace was curiously inconsistent, but he felt the prevailing fuel regulations - which require two green-flag pit stops but do not lay down a mandatory refuelling "window" - were his biggest enemy.

"I'm frustrated about the rules because the race is all about fuel economy now," he said. "No one could pass - they just had to save fuel. We had to short-fill to keep our position. Then the others pitted later on a different strategy and were able to get ahead of us. We had a car to finish second but we weren't able to take advantage of it."

Mario Dominguez drew the short straw on pit strategy and wound up sixth for Herdez Competition, ahead of Rocketsports' Alex Tagliani. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Mario Haberfeld and Jimmy Vasser rounded out the top 10. The third of the Canadians, Patrick Carpentier, was running fifth when he was taken out by backmarker Alex Sperafico on lap 22.

Bourdais retains a 27-point lead over Junqueira in the points standings, while Tracy's victory - his second of the season and the 28th of his career - promotes him to third ahead of team-mate Carpentier.