Home-town heroes Team Australia have enjoyed a successful preliminary hit-out towards next month’s Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast as Queensland’s own Will Power (51.51 seconds) topped the time sheets during final testing at Florida’s Sebring International Raceway.

There’s little doubt the familiar green and gold DP01 Champ Car machines will be hot property during the October 18-21 event with fellow Team Australia driver, rookie Frenchman Simon Pagenaud (51.71 seconds) also slotting his car into fourth quickest during a hot and humid final test day on the 1.67-mile (2.69km) circuit.

Power’s best time was the fastest of the two-day test, eclipsing yesterday’s fastest time of series leader Sebastien Bourdais (52.15 seconds) (Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing) by over half a second.

As has been the case for the bulk of this season Power and three-time champion Bourdais appear to be the front-runners leading into this year’s Lexmark Indy 300.

Queensland native Power scored his first pole position at the Lexmark Indy 300 last season and was in control of the race before he was crashed out of contention.

Since then the Toowoomba-born driver has scored two Champ Car wins and a further three pole positions, rising to the status as one of the leading drivers in the Champ Car World Series.

Power enters this year’s Lexmark Indy 300, the penultimate round of the 2007 Champ Car World Series, in fourth position after mechanical woes saw him lose vital points over recent rounds.

Bourdais once again finds himself on top leading into the Australian showdown on the streets of Surfers Paradise and as the winner of the event in 2005 he will be looking to become the first driver to have won two titles on the Gold Coast.

With his points lead, Bourdais is once again in a position to claim the coveted Vanderbilt Cup Champ Car World Series spoils for an unprecedented fourth successive time during the Lexmark Indy 300.

Coming off two straight podium finishes, Bruno Junqueira and Dale Coyne Racing are certainly on a roll. On Monday, the Brazilian was second quickest on day one at Sebring and yesterday, with just a small number of laps, continued to show improvement. With his strong performances over the last two events, Junqueira is currently ninth in the standings, sitting just 18 points outside of fifth position.

Last year’s Lexmark Indy 300 runner-up and 2002 winner Mario Dominguez has switched to the Pacific Coast Motorsports team and turned in the third fastest time of the day in Sebring. His teammate Alex Figge was also quick during the two days running a best lap of 51.73 seconds, which was good enough for fifth.

As the teams continue to learn about the new DP01, one of the areas they were concentrating on at Sebring was the braking system. With the tight and rough layout at Surfers Paradise, getting a handle on braking is of the utmost importance.

Final confirmation of the Champ Car driver line-up for this year’s Lexmark Indy 300 sees a couple of changes occurring since the last round at Assen, Holland which was won by British driver Justin Wilson.

Rookie Mexican driver David Martinez will take over driving duties from Oriol Servia at Forsythe Championship Racing while Dominguez slots back into the pilots seat at Pacific Coast Motorsports.

Entry List – 2007 Lexmark Indy 300
Round 13 of the Champ Car World Series
#1 Sebastien Bourdais – France (Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing)
#2 Graham Rahal – USA (Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing)
#3 Paul Tracy – Canada (Forsythe Championship Racing)
#4 Dan Clarke – England (Minardi Team USA)
#5 Will Power – Australia (Team Australia)
#7 David Martinez – Mexico (Forsythe Championship Racing)
#8 Alex Tagliani – Canada (Rocketsports)
#9 Justin Wilson – England (RuSPORT)
#11 Katherine Legge – England (Dale Coyne Racing)
#14 Robert Doornbos – Netherlands (Minardi Team USA)
#15 Simon Pagenaud – France (Team Australia)
#19 Bruno Junqueira – Brazil (Dale Coyne Racing)
#21 Neel Jani – Switzerland (PKV Racing)
#22 Tristan Gommendy – France (PKV Racing)
#28 Mario Dominguez – Mexico (Pacific Coast Motorsports)
#29 Alex Figge – USA (Pacific Coast Motorsports)
#34 Jan Heylen – Belgium (Conquest Racing)

2007 Champ Car World Series Points Standings
After Round 12 of 14
1. #1 Sebastien Bourdais 301
2. #9 Justin Wilson 243
3. #14 Robert Doornbos 238
4. #5 Will Power 228
5. #2 Graham Rahal 209
6. #7 Oriol Servia 204
7. #21 Neel Jani 203
8. #15 Simon Pagenaud 192
9. #8 Alex Tagliani 191
10. #19 Bruno Junqueira 180

2007 Roshfrans Champ Car Rookie of the Year
After Round 12 of 14
1. #14 Robert Doornbos 238
2. #2 Graham Rahal 209
3. #21 Neel Jani 203
4. #15 Simon Pagenaud 192
5. #22 Tristan Gommendy 140
6. #28 Ryan Dalziel 116
7. #29 Alex Figge 77
8. #42 Matt Halliday 18

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