Bourdais On Toronto Pole In what is certainly one of the closest 1-2-3 qualifying results in Champ Car history, Sebastien Bourdais clinched the pole position for Sunday’s Molson Indy Toronto beating Justin Wilson by 0.002, with provisional polesitter Paul Tracy just another 0.040 further back. Local favorite Tracy will, however, start from the outside front row tomorrow, as he had paced Friday’s Qualifying 1. It was Bourdais’ second pole of the year, and the extra point he earned for it cut in half his gap in the standings to Tracy, the Canadian now leading 129-128. The Frenchman’s feat almost did not get a chance to happen though, as he made significant damage to his Newman/Haas machine in the practice that anteceded Qualifying 2, and was only able to log his first flying lap of the afternoon on the session’s 17th minute. "It feels good to be back up front, as we've had some ups and downs this year," reckoned Bourdais. "The McDonald's crew did an awesome job to put the thing together, to bring it on time so I could have the chance to challenge for the pole position, and we pulled it off." In spite of keeping his championship lead, Tracy - who led the 20-minute Practice 4 session - wasn’t pleased with qualy 2’s outcome, as his last lap was being three-tenths quicker than Bourdais’ best until he lost time upon catching Cristiano da Matta at the Exhibition Place’s final corner. “That was really tough to take," PT complained. "I was up two tenths (of a second) on Sebastien with two corners to go. I’m really disappointed with Cristiano (da Matta). He looked like he decided to slow down to launch a lap with me right behind him and I had to back out of it. I slowed down to get some room and get ready to try again but then the Red Flag came out and that was it..." As a result, history repeated itself at Toronto, where last year Tracy led on Friday only to be knocked off by Bourdais the following day. The Frenchman went on to win the '04 race. Champ Car’s qualifying rules dropped Wilson to the inside of row two, which he will share with Bourdais’ N/H teammate Oriol Servia. Team Australia’s Alex Tagliani and Forsythe’s Mario Dominguez will line up on the third row, ahead of the PKV duo of Jimmy Vasser and Da Matta. Wilson’s RuSPORT colleague A.J. Allmendinger is ninth, while Conquest’s Nelson Philippe put on his best qualifying effort of the year in tenth. Andrew Ranger was the top rookie in the 11th spot, with newcomers Alex Sperafico - who caused the session to end two minutes earlier when he brought out a red flag due to contact with a tire wall - and Ryan Dalziel placing 15th and 16th respectively. Molson Indy Toronto - Starting lineup: 1) S. Bourdais, No.1 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 58.552, 107.904mph 2) P. Tracy, No.3 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 58.594 107.827 3) J. Wilson, No.9 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 58.554 107.900 4) O. Servia, No.2 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 58.795 107.458 5) A. Tagliani, No.15 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 58.821 107.411 6) M. Dominguez, No.7 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 59.089 106.923 7) J. Vasser, No.12 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 59.256 106.622 8) C. da Matta, No.21 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 59.371 106.416 9) A. Allmendinger, No.10 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 59.416 106.335 10) N. Philippe, No.34 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 59.448 106.278 11) A. Ranger, No.27 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 59.486 106.210 12) B. Wirdheim, No.4 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 59.705 105.820 13) R. Sperafico, No.11 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 59.961 105.368 14) T. Glock, No.8 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 1:00.189 104.969 15) A. Sperafico, No.55 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 1:00.336 104.714 16) R. Dalziel, No.19 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 1:00.436 104.540 17) R. Hunter-Reay, No.31 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 1:00.591 104.273 18) M. Marshall, No.5 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 1:00.613 104.235                 Tracy's Maturity Not Fastest Car Wins Cleveland   Paul Tracy scored his second win of the 2005 Champ Car World Series, duplicating his victory of three weeks back on the Milwaukee Mile. Further paralleling that victory is the fact that the podium line-up was the same, with A.J. Allmendinger in second place ahead of Oriol Servia, just as in Milwaukee. But there the similarities end. In contrast to Milwaukee where P.T. worked his way from fifth to first in the opening laps then more or less controlled the race to the finish, at Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport he couldn’t afford to relax until the checkered flag. For although he started on pole and led the first segment of the race, series of full-course yellows and ever-changing pit strategies left the outcome of the race in doubt until the final round of pit stops concluded with less than 10 laps remaining. What’s more, Tracy did not have the fastest car on the racetrack. Not even close. The final statistics revealed six other drivers posted faster laps than Tracy. Still, Tracy found a way to win. “We only turned seventh-fastest lap time of the race, but we were just consistent the whole race,” he said. “I ran within a 10th or two the whole race. Never put a wheel off, never made a mistake. The pit stops were perfect. Our last stop was six seconds. You know, we weren’t the fastest car out there, but consistency really paid off.” Tracy’s biggest threat took himself out of a race he appeared destined to win. That would be Cristiano da Matta. Winner at Portland in large part owing to a strategic pit stop call, da Matta benefitted from another timely pit stop at Cleveland. This time it had more to do with luck than strategy, as da Matta headed for the pits moments before a full-course yellow was declared in the wake of a coming together between Justin Wilson and Mario Domiguez. With Tracy forced to wait a couple of laps for Champ Car to “open” the pits again to make his scheduled stop, da Matta thus emerged in the lead when the racing resumed. And although he had had nothing for Tracy in the first segment of the race -- when most of the cars were on Bridgestone’s softer “option” tires -- after switching to the standard tires on the second stint, da Matta was hooked up. Just ask Tracy. “The second stint, (da Matta) was just flying,” he said. “I couldn’t keep the pace that he was going.” Still he kept the pressure on da Matta, enough that the Brazilian made an unforced error that cost him the race. Coming up to lap the cars of Marcus Marshall and Timo Glock entering the final chicane, da Matta lost the air to his front wing and slid into the back of the Team Australia entry, cutting Marshall’s right-rear tire and wrecking his own left-front suspension. “They were going side by side into the corner when I came up on them and lost the air on my front wing,” said da Matta. The car just pushed a little too hard and I hit one of them. It was just one of those stupid racing incidents.” Tracy regained the lead at da Matta’s expense but he was a long way from home free. Taking a cue from da Matta’s win at Portland, a number of quick cars pitted out of sequence in the early stages of the race -- including Jimmy Vasser, Ronnie Bremer, Wilson and Dominguez. So although da Matta’s exit left him the leading those running conventional strategies, Tracy often found himself battling through very quick “traffic” on restarts. “I spent a lot of time with cars in front of me,” he said. “I thought ‘OK, I can hold onto this guy or get past him,’ and they were driving away from me. So that’s a little bit frustrating. “When you’re sitting out front, leading, it’s easy to run your own pace in the car, the balance is much better, you don’t have the turbulent air from the car in front of you. So if you’re running right close to a guy, within five or six car lengths, the car is just sliding, you’re using the tires more just to stay in there.” In the wake of da Matta’s exit, A.J. Allmendinger emerged as the biggest thorn in Tracy’s side. The young American was on the rebound from a heavy crash in Saturday’s final qualifying session that sent him to the hospital for a precautionary CT scan and that, in the midst of a sweltering summer day by Lake Erie, left him battling an upset stomach. Like da Matta, Allmendinger pitted just before a full-course yellow on Lap 54 while Tracy waited -- again -- until the pits re-opened to make his second stop. Not only did Allmendinger cycle into the lead during the full-course yellow as the cars ahead of him pitted, but when Tracy returned to the track he found Vasser and Glock between him and the RuSPORT car. However, Tracy made quick work of Vasser and Glock on the restart and zeroed in on Allmendinger, much to A.J.’s consternation. “I knew it was going to be tough on the last restart when I had Paul behind me, knowing that I was going to have to pull a fairly full distance since he was going to pit later than I was. PT is the master of the restart. Passed two guys out of Turn One. That actually pissed me off. I was hoping I’d actually get a couple laps of people in between us. After that, I was just really pushing hard.” Try as he might to open a sizable gap to Tracy, Allmendinger couldn’t get quite enough breathing room; partiocularly given the fact that the Canadian had four laps “in hand,” having last stopped on Lap 56 as opposed to Allmendinger’s Lap 52 stop. Thus Tracy’s final stop had to be quicker, all things being equal. “I kind of knew, unless something magical happened in my pit stop or something bad happened in his pit stop, that he was going to come out ahead of me,” said Allmendinger. “It was just a matter of how much.” Allmendinger went to Lap 76 while Tracy lasted to Lap 80 and emerged a little more than three second clear of Allmendinger. But while Allmendinger may have had a marginally faster car (his best lap was .3s faster than Tracy’s) his real concern at that stage was in his mirrors. That’s where Servia was increasingly looming, having worked his way up to third from sixth on the grid after a typically thrusting race. And while Allmendinger may have had a quicker car than Tracy, Servia had the quickest car of all in the closing laps, turning a 58.616 seconds -- the fastest lap of the race -- on Lap 90. Had the race gone the scheduled distance of 95 laps there’s no telling what Servia had for Allmendinger -- or what the both of them may have had for Tracy. But four full-course yellows for a total of 19 laps ran the race to the edge of its television time slot, so officials declared it a “timed race” at one hour 45 minutes and left Servia pondering what might have been…. “As always, you want one more lap,” he said. “Especially I thought I was much better than A.J. in Turn One, which is where you want to be when you pass somebody. So I was really hoping to have one more lap. But it’s always like this, right? But it was good. He was also pushing at the end. He was obviously in good pace, too.” Speaking of one more lap, the race ended with Alex Tagliani wishing for one more lap -- of full course yellow. After qualifying fifth and running in the top five most of the race, “Tag” pushed his fuel conservation powers to the limit, going to Lap 86 before making his final stop -- and leading Laps 81 through 85 as a result. And nearly “stealing” a win for Team Australia. “We were one lap of full-course yellow away from making it to the finish without another pit stop,” said Tagliani. “We knew it was going to be a timed race, that it would end on Lap 90. So we ran maximum fuel conservation in that last stint rather than trying to race with Servia and Allmendinger. “When we realized the yellow wasn’t going to happen we went for it but it was too late to do anything about Oriol and A.J. But that’s OK. It was a gamble worth taking.” Trailing home behind Tagliani came Sebastien Bourdais, who came up short in his bid for a third straight win at Cleveland. He was looking good in the early going, keeping pace in third behind Tracy and da Matta. But he too follows the conventional pit strategy and lost out too Servia on the final round of stops, then lost another spot to Tagliani on the final restart and never fully recovered. “Tagliani was getting closer to me and was either going to run into the back of me or pass me so at the breaking of Turn 1,” he explained. “I opened up the line and he went by. I tried to get the position back many times after that but couldn’t.” Vasser salvaged some points for PKV with a solid if unspectacular run to sixth while Wilson rebounded from a couple of moments with Dominguez (who retired after contact with the RuSPORT car on Lap 38) to finish seventh. Andrew Ranger’s promising weekend -- he qualified fourth and ran in company with Tracy, da Matta and Bourdais in the early going -- came to a disappointing end with an eighth-place finish. The young Canadian was penalized for stopping for fuel while the pits were closed during a full-course yellow and he subsequently fell even further down the order as the result of double whammy, when his radio quit working and he was unable to communicate with the MiJack/Conquest crew about an increasingly troublesome understeer. Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by U.S. Bank results: 1) Paul Tracy, No. 3 Forsythe Racing Lola, 91 laps 2) A.J. Allmendinger, No. 10 RuSPORT Lola, 91, +3.113sec 3) Oriol Servia, No. 2 Newman/Haas Racing Lola, 91, +3.91 4) Alex Tagliani, No. 15 Team Australia Racing Lola, 91, +10.184 5) Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 Newman/Haas Racing Lola, 91, +13.261 6) Jimmy Vasser, No. 12 PKV Racing Lola, 91, +20.360 7) Justin Wilson, No. 9 RuSPORT Lola, 91 +23.488 8) Andrew Ranger, No. 27 Conquest Racing Lola, 91, + 25.211 9) Ricardo Sperafico, No. 11 Dale Coyne Racing Lola, 91, + 31.736 10) Timo Glock, No. 8 Rocketsports Racing Lola, 91, +47.724 11) Tarso Marques, No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Lola, 90 12) Marcus Marshall, No. 5 Team Australia Racing Lola, 89 13) Nelson Philippe, No. 34 Conquest Racing Lola, 89 14) Ronnie Bremer, No. 55 HVM Lola, 80, mechanical 15) Bjorn Wirdheim, No. 4 HVM Lola, 51, accident 16) Cristiano da Matta, No. 21 PKV Racing Lola, 50, accident 17) Mario Dominguez, Forsythe Racing Lola, 38, accident 18) Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 31 Rocketports Racing Lola, 1, accident                 Champ Car Bourdais Takes Round One  LONG BEACH, California (April 10, 2005) – The first race of the Champ Car World Series is in the books and 2004 Champion Sebastien Bourdais (No. 1 McDonalds Newman-Haas) has begun where he left off: on the top step.  It wasn’t a cakewalk by any means; he had to come from fourth position and pass both Forsythe Racing teammates Mario Dominguez (No. 7) and Paul Tracy (No. 3), plus his own teammate Bruno Junqueira (PacifiCare No. 2) to get there, and none of them made it easy for him.  In the end, Tracy came home in P2; ending his dream of a “Hat Trick” of Long Beach wins, and a streaking Bruno Junqueira muscled by Dominguez at the end of the race to take the final podium position for Newman-Haas Racing.  A streaking Justin Wilson, in his first race for new team RuSport Racing, grabbed P4 from Dominguez for a well deserved finish.   “It was a butt-kicking race,” said a very happy Bourdais when he’d climbed out and celebrated his victory.  “I had to take care of the car at the beginning because we didn’t know what we had, but the team gave me a great car today and we made the best of it.”  A disappointed Paul Tracy was forthright about his ride. “I ran the same pace every stint,” he said. “The car just didn’t get any faster; we were fighting to keep up with Newman-Haas at the end of last year too.  We have work to do on our race pace, now that we’ve got qualifying licked, but it will come.”  It was a clean start off the line, but poleman Tracy had a ‘moment’ when he accidentally hit the pitlane cruise button and Junqueira pounced, getting by him for P1 on the first lap of the race.  Mario Dominguez, who first met his new team on Thursday, held P3 behind his teammate.   The first full course yellow came out on Lap 8 when Andrew Ranger (No. 27 Mi-Jack Conquest) tried a move that only a rookie could believe in, diving down a non-existent inside of Nelson Philippe and turfing his No. 41 Mi-Jack Conquest Racing teammate into the tire wall at Turn 1.  Ranger’s car was unhurt, but he dropped to P15 and his teammate had to be towed to the pits for a refit and from then on was reduced to running practice laps well behind the field.  But on the restart, Tracy jumped Junqueira for P1 and away he went, opening up a big lead in anticipation of the first pit stop.  But it was in the pits that Bourdais recaptured the lead, on Lap 38, and he never gave it up again.  Tracy had a final chance to get him on the restart on Lap 76, but it was not to be.  Junqueira, who had dropped to P5 after leading the first part of the race, muscled by Mario Dominguez for P3, and Justin Wilson used the final burst of Power to Pass to take Dominguez too and finish in P4.  The race was relatively free of turmoil, with only 3 full course yellows and two cars that didn’t finish; Ricardo Sperafico’s Dale Coyne Racing machine went out on Lap 43 with a broken gearbox, and rookie Andrew Ranger was punted by fellow rookie Bjorn Wirdheim of HVM Racing late in the race.  The controversial Pit Windows and weekly rule changes were removed in the off-season, but the race didn’t turn into a fuel saver by any means.  The two best rookies of the race were Timo Glock (No. 8 Rocketsports Racing), who took P6, and Dane Ronnie Bremer (No. 55 HVM) who finished in P7, well ahead of two former champions and a number of veteran drivers.  We can all expect to zee these two young men on the podium in the not too distant future! “The car was tricky to drive today,” Glock admitted, “but they made a few changes in the final stop and at the end the car was flying.  I’m very pleased with our pace today and look forward to working with the team to get even better in our next race.”  The Champ Car World Series has a six-week break before heading to Monterrey, Mexico on May 22nd for the second round of racing.  Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach results (1.968mi street circuit): 1) Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81 laps, 1h46m29.768s, 81 laps, 89.811mph 2) Paul Tracy, No. 3 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +4.137s 3) Bruno Junqueira, No. 2 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +5.446s 4) Justin Wilson, No. 9 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +6.270s 5) Mario Dominguez, No. 7 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +7.917s 6) Timo Glock, No. 8 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +8.501s 7) Ronnie Bremer, No. 55 Lola-Ford Cosworth, +8.999s 8) A.J. Allmendinger, No. 10 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +10.945s 9) Jimmy Vasser, No. 12 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +14.806s 10) Cristiano da Matta, No. 21 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +16.074s 11) Oriol Servia, No. 19 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +18.719s 12) Bjorn Wirdheim, No. 4 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +19.651 13) Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 31 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 81, +20.034s 14) Marcus Marshall, No. 5 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 80 15) Alex Tagliani, No. 15 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 79 16) Fabrizio del Monte, No. 41 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 74 17) Andrew Ranger, No. 27 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 70, accident 18) Nelson Philippe, No. 34 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 61, accident 19) Ricardo Sperafico, No. 11 Lola-Ford Cosworth, 41, gearbox

Tracy Breaks Track Record On Pole for Long Beach LONG BEACH, California  – Paul Tracy has served notice that this is his year in the Champ Car World Series Championship, by not only taking Pole for tomorrow’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, but by setting a new track record of 1.07.485, breaking the 2000 record set by Gil de Ferran (now Sporting Director of B.A.R. Honda) by .009 seconds.  And remember that back in 2000 the Champ Cars were much heavier and had a lot more downforce than they do today!  Again there was a gnat’s eyelash between Tracy and Bruno Junqueira, who won yesterday’s provisional pole, but today the .159 went the other way and Junqueira will line up second for tomorrow’s race.  Third place was captured by Mario Dominguez, Tracy’s teammate at Forsythe Racing, and he’ll line up next to Junqueira’ S teammate and 2005 Champion Sebastien Bourdais on the second row.  Justin Wilson of RuSport rounds out the Fast Five.   Fastest rookie of the session was the German Timo Glock of Rocketsports Racing, who slots into P6.  Glock was very impressive in pre-season testing and it seems he will carry over his speed into the regular season – at least he has excellent momentum for the opening race.  Glock was an early challenger in the session but never got closer than .3 seconds to the P1 time and was the first car below the 1.07 mark on the grid.   Junqueira waited until the 19 minute mark to come out, waiting to see if his pole time was under siege; when teammate Bourdais topped his time in only his 3rd lap out, and that time was approached by Tracy, it was time to act.  It didn’t take Bruno long to jump both drivers and re-take P1.  All the top 3 were in the 1.07 club by this time, and Bruno was less than .3 off the track record by that time, testifying to the excellence of the track and of the Bridgestone tires today.   From then on it was a seesaw battle among the top four drivers, with no yellow flags or problems on the track; all three of the top drivers overshot Turn 1 at least once and went down the escape road, but it didn’t do them any harm.   It was 31 minutes into the session when Tracy put down both his head and his foot, and blasted his way into the record book and onto the pole for the opening race – and meanwhile his teammate Dominguez, on his final lap of the session jumped over Bourdais to grab the 3rd position.  Everyone piled onto the track with one minute to go for one last kick at the can; Junqueira made a wild lap but missed the apex and fell just .159 short, giving Paul Tracy the pole.   The race will begin tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time on NBC.  Look for a contest to remember – and meet us back here to see how it all turns out.     Bruno Tops 1st Day Long Beach Qualifying Junqueira negotiated the 1.968-mile Long Beach street course in 1:08.342 (103.667 mph) to snare the provisional pole for Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, scoring a championship point and guaranteeing himself a front-row starting spot for Sunday's race. The defending Long Beach polesitter was less than a second off the five-year old track record set by Gil de Ferran on the first day of qualifying, taking the top spot by .152 seconds over two-time defending Long Beach Paul Tracy (#3 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone). The 35-minute qualifying session started in tentative fashion as a handful of rookie drivers slithered out of the pits to turn their initial qualifying laps. It took 10 minutes for the rookies to entice their veteran counterparts to join the fray, but once they did, the times dropped in rapid fashion. Second-year driver Justin Wilson (#9 SanDisk Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) jumped to the top of the charts on just his third lap, but was soon eclipsed by a freight train of drivers that started with teammate A.J. Allmendinger (#10 RuSPORT Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and Sebastien Bourdais (#1 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and ended with the eventual polewinning lap of Junqueira, which came with 16 minutes remaining in the session. As can happen in the Champ Car World Series, the strategy for the qualifying session was scrambled when starter J.D. Wilbur unfurled the scarlet banner in response to an incident involving rookie Fabrizio del Monte (#41 Konica/Minolta Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone). Del Monte, who joined the first-year Jensen Motorsports squad for the 2005 lidlifter, spun in Turn Eight to bring out the red flag, sending everyone back to Pit Lane while the Champ Car Safety Team set everything back in order. The course went green with six minutes remaining, allowing the 19-car field just enough time to run a warmup lap or two before taking their final shots at Junqueira's top time. Tracy would come the closest on the day, turning a best lap of 1:08.494 (103.437 mph) after putting on his alternate Bridgestone Potenzas in an effort to steal the first-day pole, but ran up on traffic on his final pass and had to settle for the second spot. Bourdais would end up in the third spot after a best lap of 1:08.736 (103.073 mph) while Wilson was the last driver on the day to break into the 1:08 range, carding a top time of 1:08.884 (102.851 mph). The top five was rounded out by a strong effort from Alex Tagliani (#15 Aussie Vineyards Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone), who carried his new Team Australia Racing mount to the fifth position with a best lap of 1:09.056 (102.595 mph). Another veteran Champ Car driver that switched teams in the offseason had a strong showing as new Forsythe Championship Racing pilot Mario Dominguez (#7 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) came in just .002 seconds behind Tagliani to claim the sixth spot. Rookie Andrew Ranger (#27 Mi-Jack/Tide Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) provided the biggest surprise of the day, taking the seventh position in his very first Champ Car qualifying session, posting a quick lap of 1:09.416 (102.063 mph). Reigning Roshfrans Rookie of the Year Allmendinger was next with the rookie duo from HVM Inc. following closely behind as Ronnie Bremer (#55 HVM Inc. Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and Bjorn Wirdheim (#4 HVM Inc Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) took the ninth and tenth spots respectively on the first day grid. Bremer, who finished fourth in the Toyota Atlantic event in Long Beach a year ago, was ninth with a top time of 1:09.514 (101.919mph) while Wirdheim was a tenth of a second back after a best lap of 1:09.619 (101.765mph). 2002 Champ Car titlewinner Cristiano da Matta (#21 Bell Micro Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) ended his day in the 11th spot in his first qualifying run since returning to the Champ Car World Series, while rookie Timo Glock (#8 Deutsch POST Speed Academy Global Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) was 12th. The final qualifying session to set the grid for Sunday's race will take place Saturday afternoon, beginning at 2 p.m. Pacific Time. 2005 Champ Car Field Features Strong Driver Lineup Champ Car News Service The 2005 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford will feature one of its strongest and most talented driver lineups in many years, and each of the drivers that comprise that lineup will be out to prove their worth as the 14-race season kicks off with Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. This year’s campaign features four drivers that have captured Champ Car titles in their illustrious careers, one of which has four Long Beach wins under his belt, along with three former Long Beach pole sitters. But the battle for Long Beach won’t be determined just among those drivers with championship pedigrees as the 2005 Champ Car lineup features a number of drivers and teams that will figure prominently in how the weekend – and the championship – is decided. The battle for the title usually begins with the guy that holds the crown, but on the 1.968-mile Long Beach street course, any quest for victory has to go through the pit of Paul Tracy (#3 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone). The series active leader in victories (28), poles (22), laps led (3,672) and starts (223), Tracy is the two-time defending winner at Long Beach and has four total Long Beach victories on his resume, second only to Al Unser Jr.’s six. Tracy stormed to the front on the first lap in 2004, using the push-to-pass feature on his Ford-Cosworth XFE engine to move up from his third-place starting spot, and led 78 of the day’s 81 laps to score the win. One of the two men that Tracy passed on that opening-lap move would shake off the effects of pass and go on to put together one of the strongest seasons ever by a second-year driver en route to the 2004 Champ Car title. Sebastien Bourdais (#1 McDonald’s Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) carries the Vanderbilt Cup to Long Beach after a year that saw him win seven races and eight poles. He earned his first Long Beach podium a year ago with a third-place run and began a remarkable qualifying string that saw him start in the top-three spots in every race in the 2004 season. He has started in the first two rows in each of the last 18 races and has gridded in the top-five in both of his previous Long Beach starts. Last year’s polesitter also has a strong streak going, but Bruno Junqueira’s (#2 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) string is based on finishes instead of starts. The fifth-year Champ Car pilot – and teammate to defending champion Bourdais - brings a streak of six consecutive podium finishes to Long Beach. The Newman/Haas Racing driver could become the 11th driver in series history to score seven straight trips to the podium if he can reprise his second-place Long Beach finish from a year ago. Possibly the most impressive streak of all comes to Long Beach courtesy of another former series champion. PKV Racing’s Jimmy Vasser (#12 Gulfstream Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) will look to make his 198th consecutive Champ Car start when the green flag drops at Long Beach, extending the longest such skein in series history. The 1996 Long Beach winner, Vasser had an uncharacteristic off day in SoCal last year when his 16th-place finish snapped a streak of eight consecutive top-10 Long Beach runs. Vasser will partner with the other former series champ in 2005 as PKV racing looks for its first series victory. Cristiano da Matta (#21 PKV Racing Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) makes his return to Champ Car racing after two seasons in Formula 1, and comes back to a Long Beach course that saw him start on the front row and lead 30 laps in 2002. The popular Brazilian has four previous Long Beach starts to his credit with a podium finish coming in 2001. Changes have abounded in the Champ Car paddock during the offseason with some teams still considering last-minute changes even as the transporters roll for the opener. But some of the teams have had their programs in place despite making changes and expect to make a lot of noise once the engines fire for Friday’s first practice. One of those teams is the Colorado-based RuSPORT squad, who will field a pair of sophomore shoes in its quest for a maiden Champ Car victory. Reigning Roshfrans Rookie-of-the-Year A.J. Allmendinger (#10 RuSPORT Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and the man that finished second in the rookie chase Justin Wilson (#9 RuSPORT Ford-Cosworth/Lola Bridgestone) will carry the RuSPORT banner into Long Beach as they head into their second seasons. Allmendinger made his series debut at Long Beach a year ago, but knows the way to Victory Lane after winning the 2003 Toyota Atlantic event on the SoCal streets. Wilson made a stirring debut a year ago, coming from 11th on the grid to place sixth, the highest finish for a driver making his Champ Car debut in 2004. Mario Dominguez (#7 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) will have a new seat in 2005 as he moves to Forsythe Championship Racing to partner with Paul Tracy after running his first three seasons with Herdez (now HVM). Dominguez put together the best season of his three years in Champ Car last season, finishing fifth in the championship. He started the year with a fifth-place run in Long Beach, marking the second consecutive season that he has placed fifth on the tricky California street course. Long-time Champ Car competitors Walker Racing will have a new look across the board this year as Australians Craig Gore and John Fish have joined Walker as owners of what will now be known as Team Australia Racing. The lineup will feature veteran Alex Tagliani (#15 Aussie Vineyard Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) along with rookie Marcus Marshall (#5 Aussie Vineyards Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone). Tagliani has started in the first two rows in his last two Long Beach visits and has a pair of Toyota Atlantic Long Beach wins on his resume. He also comes off his best-ever Champ Car season, after a 2004 campaign that say him score his first victory and finish a career-best seventh in the season standings. Rocketsports Racing will attack 2005 with a pair of new drivers as well as former Herdez driver Ryan Hunter-Reay (#31 Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) moves to the Michigan-based team along with former Formula 1 driver Timo Glock (#8 Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone). Hunter-Reay enters his third year of Champ Car competition and has tallied wins in each of his previous two seasons. He has also run well at Long Beach, finishing seventh in each of his two starts. Glock comes to the team after a year of F1 duty where he competed with Jordan. One of the more intriguing lineups comes out of the Mi-Jack/Conquest Racing stable as Nelson Philippe (#34 Mi-Jack Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and Andrew Ranger (#27 Mi-Jack Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) make up the youngest driver duo in Champ Car history. Philippe became the youngest driver ever to start a Champ Car event last year when he finished 13th in his Long Beach debut, while Ranger will be the second-youngest driver ever when he takes the green flag. Ranger put himself on the radar screen a year ago when he finished second at Long Beach in his Toyota Atlantic debut. The former Herdez Competition squad will have an entirely new look in 2005 as the team becomes HVM Inc. and attacks with former FIA International F3000 champion Bjorn Wirdheim (#4 HVM Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and 2004 Toyota Atlantic competitor Ronnie Bremer (#55 HVM Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone). Both drivers have logged substantial miles in preseason testing and bring a deep and diverse racing background to the Champ Car World Series. Veteran Oriol Servia (#19 American Medical Response Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) returns to the Dale Coyne Racing squad for a second year in 2005, rejoining the Illinois-based team after giving it one of the most successful seasons in its 21 years of Champ Car competition. The Spaniard became the first driver ever to take a Dale Coyne car to the top 10 in the season standings, finishing in a tie for ninth in the final standings. The quest for the Vanderbilt Cup gets underway this weekend with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Practice begins Friday morning with qualifying sessions both Friday and Saturday, with the 81-lap race getting underway on Sunday. The race can be seen live on NBC beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern Time.

New Team for Champ Car         Aussie owners and driver in Champ Car World Series Australia’s sole entry in the US-based Champ Car World Series will be sponsored by a new wine company that aims to put 80,000 cases of Australian wine on the tables of American homes this year. Queensland businessmen Craig Gore and John Fish today officially confirmed they had purchased a controlling interest in the US-based Walker Racing team to compete in the international Champ Car World Series. The announcement, made in association with Queensland Premier Peter Beattie in Brisbane, is a coup for Australian motorsport. It guarantees a fulltime Australian entry into the prestigious US-based series, with the Gold Coast’s Marcus Marshall and Canadian Alex Tagliani to be the two-car team’s drivers for the 2005 season. The Walker Racing team will be re-badged under the Team Australia name with major sponsorship from Aussie Vineyards, a new Queensland company established by Gore and Fish to export Australian wine into the US market. Aussie Vineyards has also been awarded the rights as the ‘official wine supplier’ to the Champ Car World Series. Walker Racing founder Derrick Walker retains an equity interest in the newly-named team and will oversee its day-to-day operation. The purchase by Gore and Fish flowed from relationships built in last year’s Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast, where Gore’s Wright Patton Shakespeare Financial Group linked with Walker Racing to give Australian David Besnard a one-off drive in the event. Walker was impressed by the commitment and professionalism of Gore and his WPS Racing team and has maintained contact with a view to building on the successful partnership. An in-principle deal to sell a controlling interest in the Walker Racing team was reached in February, with Gore and Fish travelling to the US this month to finalise terms. “The partnership with Craig in last year’s Indy event on the Gold Coast produced a seventh-place finish for a driver who had never raced in a Champ Car,” said Walker. “That result, and the dealings we had with Craig and his team, gave us all the enthusiasm to maintain a relationship and explore ways we could continue to work together. “We investigated a number of options but ultimately concluded there were greater benefits in a partnership arrangement with Craig and his partner in this venture, John Fish. “I will continue to focus on the day-to-day operation of the team from my base at Indianapolis, while Craig and John will focus on broader management issues such as sponsorship and team development.”   It is the first time Fish has been involved in motorsport but he has keenly watched Gore build his Wright Patton Shakespeare Financial Group through his two-car team in Australia’s V8 Supercar Championship Series. “I’ve watched Craig use motorsport as a marketing platform for his businesses and when we started exploring business models for Aussie Vineyards we felt the Champ Car World Series provided us with a perfect entry into the US market,” said Fish. Gore said the Champ Car deal was too big for him to pursue independently so he approached Fish to gauge his interest in a partnership arrangement. “John immediately saw the value and we have spent considerable time working towards bringing this to fruition,” said Gore. “We see great potential to build a business through ownership in a series which is currently undervalued.   “It is an exciting opportunity for Aussie Vineyards but it is also exciting for other Australian companies that may also be seeking to gain a foothold in the American market. “We envisage a number of other companies will be joining us to promote a diverse range of Australian goods and services under the umbrella of Team Australia.”   CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES ANNOUNCES MULTI-YEAR EXTENSION OF PRESENTING SPONSORSHIP AGREEMENT WITH FORD MOTOR COMPANY  INDIANAPOLIS (April 5, 2005) - The Champ Car World Series and Ford Motor Company today announced a multi-year extension of their agreement that will see the fabled auto manufacturer continue as one of the presenting sponsors of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.                                           The extension of the contract ensures the continuation of one of the longest-running partnerships in the Champ Car World Series, maintaining a relationship that began when Ford returned to the series with Cosworth Racing in 1992. Since then, Ford has scored 91 victories and notched four championships in Champ Car competition. "Ford Motor Company has been one of the cornerstones of the Champ Car World Series in the last decade and we are very pleased to be able to extend our relationship." said Champ Car President Dick Eidswick. Ford Motor Company will retain its presence on the Ford-Cosworth XFE engines that power every car in the Champ Car World Series, continuing as the exclusive engine supplier to the series - a relationship that enters its third season with the 2005 campaign. The Ford Motor Company will also continue to provide many of their high-performance machines to the popular Champ Car Fast Lap Program. Specialized SVT cars such as the Mustang Cobra, Focus and the F150 Lightning truck will be part of the Fast Lap Program which paces each of the Champ Car sessions as well as providing high-speed thrill rides to customers on each stop on the 2005 series schedule. In addition, highly-specialized Ford F-150 trucks are provided as part of the state-of-the-art Champ Car Safety Team, which provides immediate medical response to any incident that takes place on the race track. "We're very happy with this extension and look forward to our continued relationship with the Champ Car World Series," said Dan Davis, director of Ford Racing Technology. "Champ Car's ownership is committed to expanding the series and we believe that their ability to successfully stage high-profile events internationally will allow us to showcase the many new and exciting products that Ford has in its lineup." The agreement allows for the stars of the Champ Car World Series to sport the legendary Blue Oval off the track as well, as Ford Motor Company will provide an allotment of vehicles to each of the Champ Car teams and drivers for their use. The 2005 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford campaign gets underway April 8-10 as the 750hp turbocharged Champ Cars take to the streets of Long Beach. Sunday's season-opener takes place at 4 p.m. Eastern Time and can be seen live on NBC. The Champ Car World Series features some of the greatest race car drivers in the world competing in the most diverse and exciting series in the world. Champions Sebastien Bourdais, Jimmy Vasser, Cristiano da Matta and Canadian Paul Tracy along with 2004 Roshfrans Rookie of the Year A. J. Allmendinger, Bruno Junqueira, Alex Tagliani and Mexican Mario Dominguez are among the drivers who battle for the Vanderbilt Cup, which is awarded to the winner of the Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. The title is contested on oval circuits, temporary street circuits and permanent road courses.