Allmendinger dominates Portland

The American took the lead at the start from polesitter Bruno Junqueira, and was only headed thereafter in pit stops.

He did have to withstand huge pressure from RuSPORT's Justin Wilson mid-race, but when Justin locked up under braking for the Turn 1 on the 70th of the 105 laps, his challenge to his erstwhile teammate was largely broken.

In the closing laps, championship leader Sebastien Bourdais of Newman/Haas Racing set some searing laps to close onto Wilson's tail, but after a brief couple of stabs at Turn 1, he was forced to settle for third.

Fourth place went to Bourdais' teammate Junqueira who was left desperately unhappy with the race start, which he believes should have been waved off, as he slipped immediately to fourth. He spent the majority of the race holding off Cristiano da Matta, whose first race for RuSPORT ended in fifth place.

One of the stars of the race was one of the stars of qualifying - Britain's Dan Clarke, who leapt into second place at the start in his CTE Racing-HVM car and comfortably held that spot until a huge lock-up into Turn 1 flat spotted his tyres and sent him to the pits early.

He subsequently did a fine job of holding off the two Newman/Haas cars while running third, but when they beat him on fuel strategy, he seemed destined to finish seventh. However, he closed relentlessly on Paul Tracy and passed him on the very last lap to take sixth. He now takes over the lead of the rookie standings.

Paul Tracy made a brilliant start from 10th on the grid to take fifth into Turn 1, but his handling woes from qualifying appeared not to have been eradicated, and he was never a serious factor thereafter.

Results

Pos  Driver              Team                 Time
 1.  AJ Allmendinger     Forsythe         105 laps
 2.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT           + 5.420
 3.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas       + 6.005
 4.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman/Haas      + 36.368
 5.  Cristiano da Matta  RuSPORT          + 39.551
 6.  Dan Clarke          CTE-HVM          + 50.287
 7.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe         + 52.296
 8.  Nelson Philippe     CTE-HVM          + 52.677
 9.  Andrew Ranger       Conquest          + 1 lap
10.  Oriol Servia        PKV               + 1 lap
11.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia    + 1 lap
12.  Charles Zwolsman    Conquest         + 2 laps
13.  Katherine Legge     PKV              + 2 laps
14.  Mario Dominguez     Dale Coyne       + 2 laps
15.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne       + 2 laps
16.  Tonis Kasemets      Rocketsports     + 3 laps
17.  Nicky Pastorelli    Rocketsports     + 4 laps
18.  Will Power          Team Australia  + 13 laps