...... at Portland2002 Champ Car titleholder Cristiano da Matta used an alternate fuel strategy early in the 105-lap Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland last night to earn his 12th career win and the first for the PKV Racing team. Driving the Lola/Ford-Cosworth on Bridgestone tyres he won by a dominant 10.127-second margin over reigning champion, Sebastien Bourdais’ Newman Haas Lola. The Brazilian celebrated his second Portland win (he last won in 2002).
Da Matta knew he had “an excellent car and could move up” if given the chance. “I’ve always liked this track and I had a good race car. When it is hot like this, it’s a matter of whoever got the car more balanced for the race.” Today it was Da Matta and PKV. Bourdais found his Lola “quite good today. We had the best lap time of the race and it was quite a consistent performance throughout the day,” despite being forced to try and save fuel throughout
Paul Tracy started and finished third in his Forsythe Championship Racing Lola and noted his team is “very competitive this year. We had a good, clean dice with Sebastien.” Teammate Mario Dominguez was fourth with his similar Forsythe Lola and said of his race; “It was good. It was both quick and consistent which is what we always shoot for.” Second starter A.J. Allmendinger took fifth with his RuSPORT Lola.
PKV team co-owner Jimmy Vasser earned sixth place in his Lola and rookie Andrew Ranger was the final driver on the lead lap, seventh in his Conquest Racing B2/00.
It was a clean contest on the reconfigured 1.964-mile Portland International Raceway road course with a single, five-lap caution period for polesitter Justin Wilson, who was one of only three drivers who failed to finish the contest. The Sheffield born racer was distraught that his race ended prematurely after taking his first ever Champ Car pole and leading the first 43 laps of the race. “The car was so good in fact that the walk back to pits was harder on me than driving the car,” he said. “The good thing is that we’ve showed all weekend long that RuSPORT can do this and be competitive. We’ll make those same opportunities going forward.”
HVM’s drivers once again scored points with Danish racer Ronnie Bremer heading home his team maet Bjorn Wirdheim in 8th place. This was after a heavy accident in qualifying for Bremer who was taken to hospital after an estimated 60 G impact with the wall.
"I was heading into turn seven and I didn't come out,” said a shocked Bremer. “On the way in I think I touched the grass and lost the rear end while downshifting and went straight into the wall. I am sorry for my team, they had a lot of extra work to do.”
Heading to next week’s Cleveland round, Bourdais holds first place in the chase for the Vanderbilt cup with 106 points; Tracy moves up to second with 95 points, Wilson is third with 77 points, Allmendinger holds 74 fourth place points and da Matta vaults to fifth in the standings with 73 points.
