The new
Team Australia Champ Car squad suffered a late-race heartbreak
in its debut today with Alex Tagliani falling out of a top
ten result with only two laps remaining in the Long Beach
Grand Prix in California. The Long Beach race was the first
round of the Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series
Powered by Ford, with the Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast
to be the 13th round from October 20 to 23. After qualifying
strongly in seventh, Tagliani ran sixth in the early stages
but fuel mileage issues dropped him down to ninth as the race
drew to a close. However, with only two laps to run, the Canadian
was shown a black flag for leaking oil from the rear of the
car. At the same time, the team radioed Tagliani to alert
him of a problem with falling gearbox oil pressure. Tagliani
was forced to pull off the track on lap 79 of the 81 lap race,
dropping him down to 15th in the race standings.
Australian
rookie Marcus Marshall finished one spot ahead in 14th in
his Champ Car debut. The Queenslander only fell off the lead
lap late in the race but gained valuable mileage behind the
wheel of the Number 5 Lola. The team will now test in Portland
this week in preparation for the next round of the Champ Car
World Series in Monterrey, Mexico from May 20 to 22. Team
Australia is a new Champ Car entry created for 2005 by veteran
team owner Derrick Walker and Australian businessmen Craig
Gore and John Fish.
RACE
REPORT: Reigning series champion Sebastien Bourdais
continued his dominant Champ Car form from 2004 in winning
the Long Beach Grand Prix, the first round of the Bridgestone
Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. Bourdais
(Newman/Haas Racing) led for 37 of the day’s 81 laps,
ran the fastest lap of the day and earned the championship
point for gaining the most positions in the race, giving him
a five-point lead in the point standings after round one.
The
win was the 11th of the Frenchman’s career and was the
first Long Beach win for the Newman/Haas Racing squad since
Mario Andretti took the checkered flag in 1987. Canada’s
Paul Tracy (Forsythe Championship Racing) was second, with
Brazilian Bruno Junqueira (Newman/Haas Racing) filling the
opening podium of the year in third. The
UK’s Justin Wilson (RuSPORT) made a late pass on Mexico’s
Mario Dominguez (Forsythe Championship Racing) to slip into
fourth spot, matching a career high for the second-year Champ
Car driver. Dominguez settled for fifth spot for the third
consecutive season at Long Beach
A pair
of rookies scored the next two spots as Timo Glock (Rocketsports
Racing) and Ronnie Bremer (HVM) ended up sixth and seventh.
Glock’s sixth was the highest finish for a driver making
his Champ Car debut since Wilson’s sixth place in Long
Beach a year ago, while Bremer led a pair of laps, marking
the first time that a driver has led in his Champ Car debut
since Bourdais paced the field in St. Petersburg in 2003.
A.J.
Allmendinger (RuSPORT) and the PKV Racing duo of Jimmy Vasser
and Cristiano da Matta rounded out the top 10.
FROM
THE MOUTH OF AUSTRALIAN DRIVER MARCUS MARSHALL: “I
thought today would actually be a little tougher physically
than it actually was. I really learnt a lot today –
pit stops, cold tires, full fuel loads – all the stuff
that I hadn’t done before. It will be great to take
all that stuff which I now know into the next race. I know
where I can improve a lot and will go back now and look at
the all the data and look forward to Mexico. The race went
pretty well to plan, but went I got strapped into the car
part of my drink hose was behind my back and it really started
to hurt after a while. I couldn’t push on the brake
as hard as I would have liked at times and it probably hurt
my consistency a little. I could still churn out the laps,
but when we were under safety car I really noticed the pain.
Overall
I am pretty happy with the day and it was just a pity that
I ended up with the leaders right at the end of the race and
went down a lap. After 80 laps or so - to still be on the
lead lap on my debut I am quite happy with.”
