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Competition Heats up in CHamp Car and V8 Supercars |
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
Weekend racing during round three of the Champ Car World Series and the Australian V8 Supercar seasons has continued to whet the appetite of fans towards the Lexmark Indy 300 on October 18-21.
There’s still many races to be run and won in the meantime but the fields in both categories are begnning to sort themselves.
With Championship titles at stake the intensity will build prior to
Queensland’s ulimate four day-four night, entertainment spectacle on
the Gold Coast.
Following the results of the Grand Prix of Houston, reigning Vanderbilt
Cup titleholder Sebastien Bourdais (#1 McDonald’s
Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) finds himself commanding top post on the
Champ Car World Series standings courtesy of back-to-back event
victories.
Team Australia’s Will Power (#5 Aussie Vineyards
Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) didn’t enjoy the best of fortune over the
weekend and his 11th placing saw him reqlinquish his overall lead to
the three-time defending champion.
Despite the Houston disappointments, where the 26 year-old Toowoomba
driver started from pole position, he sits just three points adrift of
Bourdais in the overall standings, after two impressive podium results
to begin the season.
Bourdais’ teenage team mate Graham Rahal made Champ Car history when
completing a one-two finish for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, becoming
the youngest Champ Car driver to earn a top-three podium finish.
Sacrificing his Senior Prom weekend, 18 year-old Rahal completed the
first one-two finish for the team since Sebastien Bourdais and Oriol
Servia accomplished the feat in Las Vegas in the fall of 2005.
Houston proved a happy hunting ground for many of the rookies and
Australia’s Team Minardi USA owner, Paul Stoddart is celebrating
another fine performance by his young charge Robert Doornbos.
The Dutch driver’s third place finish was also enough for him to claim third in the overall standings.
Power’s Team Australia team mate Simon Pagenaud finished a gutsy fifth place to elevate himself inside the series top ten.
In the process, the Frenchman recorded the fifth straight top-five
finish for Team Australia, which began with Alex Tagliani’s third place
effort during the 2006 Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast.
The Australian V8 Supercar Series may have traveled abroad for the
first time this year, but the results proved on par with the previous
two events, with Holden continuing their dominance over Ford drivers.
Toll HSV Dealer Team’s Rick Kelly ran away with the trophy and the
final race win at the V8 Supercars round at Pukekohe in New Zealand.
The defending series champion put on an impressive display of speed and
strategy to pick up the title at the last ever Pukekohe round of the V8
Supercars, before the championship moves to a street circuit at
Hamilton, NZ from 2008.
Garth Tander (Toll HSV Dealer Team), the winner of race one and two,
finished the round in second place while Ford’s Jamie Whincup (Triple
Eight Race Engineering) claimed third position.
Tander could only manage eighth in the final race but his efforts
across the weekend were enough to hold down second place in the
Championship.
Kelly admitted he would have to improve in the next few rounds if he is
to keep his team mate at bay in the race for the Championship.
So far this year between the two of them Kelly or Tander have won all but one race.
The V8 Supercar Series travels to Victoria for the Winton round on May
18-20, while Champ Car drivers will have the opportunity to take a
breath during a six week lay-off before lining up at Portland
International Raceway for round 4 of 16.
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