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ALLMENDINGER MAKES IT TWO WINS IN A ROW
Monday, 26 June 2006
US driver A.J Allmendinger made it consecutive round wins this morning in the Champ Car World Series after he battled back from an early spin to win round six in Cleveland, Ohio.
The recently-drafted Forsythe Championship Racing driver was only two turns into the race before he was spinning in circles, having gone off course in a madcap start to today’s event.
Then 95 laps later he was spinning in circles again, only this time in jubilation, turning celebratory donuts after winning the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland.
Allmendinger survived a rough-and-tumble event that saw an event-record nine cautions, to come back and claim his second consecutive Champ Car victory – just one week after taking his first win with a romp in Portland.
The 24-year-old became the first US-born driver since Michael Andretti to win back-to-back Champ Car races with his victory, and more importantly, got back in the title hunt as the top-two drivers in the standings suffered their worst results of the season.
Allmendinger beat Bruno Junqueira (Newman/Haas Racing) to the line by 3.279 seconds to take the win with PKV Racing’s Oriol Servia coming home less than a quarter-second behind Junqueira to round out the podium.
“I thought last week’s car in Portland was really good,” said Allmendinger. “This one topped that one. The car was just absolutely brilliant, as was the whole Forsythe team.
“The way the yellows fell, it got me back in the lead - I was able to pull a huge gap because my car was so good. But so many times I thought I had the race won, a yellow would come out at the wrong time - I thought it was over for us. The last 20 laps I was just saving as much fuel as I could because it was going to be close.”
The crowd of 51,426 had barely gotten a chance to sit down when things started to spiral out of control.
The field got through the first turn with relatively little trouble, but the short straight on the way to Turn Two saw a number of problems. Andrew Ranger (Mi-Jack Conquest Racing) spun, Cristiano da Matta (RuSPORT) was clipped and Alex Tagliani (Team Australia) suffered light contact in avoiding the spinning Charles Zwolsman (Mi-Jack Conquest Racing).
Further ahead, Paul Tracy (Forsythe Championship Racing) tried to split the Newman/Haas cars of Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais, but ended up flying up and over the Bourdais car as the three got together leading into Turn Three.
Bourdais was immediately knocked out of the race while Junqueira survived with only the loss of the rear wing. Tracy landed hard but was able to continue on in the top five before his damages eventually triggered a later accident.
With Bourdais out on the opening lap and England’s Justin Wilson (RuSPORT) making an exit on lap 78, it provided an opportunity for Allmendinger to make inroads into the championship standings.
Bourdais continues to lead with 166 points, while Wilson is 26 behind with Allmendinger only another five points further back.
It was a good round for Team Australia with Canadian veteran Alex Tagliani finishing fourth and Toowoomba rookie Will Power ending up ninth.
The result moved Tagliani up to sixth in the standings, while Power dropped to 15th overall and fourth in the Rookie-of-the-Year points because three other rookies finished ahead of him in Cleveland.
However only 32 points separate the fourth placed Andrew Ranger and 15th placed Will Power in the overall standings.
“It was a crazy race,” said Tagliani. “The positive thing is that I was really impressed with the setup of the car. We are making baby steps and have definitely made some improvements.
“I don’t think that we had really good luck because we were running first and there was one yellow flag that cost us the race. If that yellow flag hadn’t come up we would have had the chance to come home with the win.
“Strategy played a huge part in the outcome of the race. Overall I’m very happy with the performance of the team. Now we just have to regroup. We are back in the game and in the championship.”
An untimely mistake proved costly for Power.
“The car was really good in the race,” said Power. “We got up into a good position. I was running with Servia and Wilson, having really good pit strategy.
“I was pushing hard to pass Dominguez and made a mistake - I used ‘push to pass’ and curved too much speed into the chicane and came out the other side into the grass - it took the front wing off and put us a lap down.
“When we came out in the restart I got taken out by Philippe in turn three and four. I lost another position. That was it, the car felt very unstable after that. Overall we ran a good race and unfortunately ran into some bad luck in the end.”
The next round of the Champ Car World Series is scheduled for Toronto on July 9. Queensland will host Round 14 of the Champ Car World Series with the Lexmark Indy 300 to be held from October 19 to 22. The annual Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast is a partnership between the Queensland Government and IMG.
Round 6 – Cleveland - Race Results
1 - A.J. Allmendinger (Forsythe Championship Racing) 95 laps Active
2 – Bruno Junqueira (Newman Haas Racing) 95 laps Active
3 - Oriol Servia (PKV Racing) 95 laps Active
4 - Alex Tagliani (Team Australia) 95 laps Active
5 – Jan Heylen (Dale Coyne Racing) 95 laps Active
6 - Mario Dominguez (Dale Coyne Racing) 94 laps Contact
7 – Dan Clarke (CTE Racing – HVM) 94 laps Off Course
8 – Katherine Legge (PKV Racing) 94 laps Active
9 – Will Power (Team Australia) 94 laps Active
10 - Nelson Philippe (CTE Racing – HVM) 93 laps Active
11 - Andrew Ranger (Mi-Jack Conquest Racing) 92 laps Active
12 – Tonis Kasemets (Rocketsports Racing) 91 laps Active
13 - Justin Wilson (RuSPORT) 77 laps Contact
14 - Cristiano da Matta (RuSPORT) 75 laps Active
15 – Charles Zwolsman (Mi-Jack Conquest Racing) 68 laps Mechanical
16 - Paul Tracy (Forsythe Championship Racing) 41 laps Contact
17 – Nicky Pastorelli (Rocketsports Racing) 22 laps Contact
18 - Sebastien Bourdais (Newman Haas Racing) 0 laps Contact
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The recently-drafted Forsythe Championship Racing driver was only two turns into the race before he was spinning in circles, having gone off course in a madcap start to today’s event.
Then 95 laps later he was spinning in circles again, only this time in jubilation, turning celebratory donuts after winning the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland.
Allmendinger survived a rough-and-tumble event that saw an event-record nine cautions, to come back and claim his second consecutive Champ Car victory – just one week after taking his first win with a romp in Portland.
The 24-year-old became the first US-born driver since Michael Andretti to win back-to-back Champ Car races with his victory, and more importantly, got back in the title hunt as the top-two drivers in the standings suffered their worst results of the season.
Allmendinger beat Bruno Junqueira (Newman/Haas Racing) to the line by 3.279 seconds to take the win with PKV Racing’s Oriol Servia coming home less than a quarter-second behind Junqueira to round out the podium.
“I thought last week’s car in Portland was really good,” said Allmendinger. “This one topped that one. The car was just absolutely brilliant, as was the whole Forsythe team.
“The way the yellows fell, it got me back in the lead - I was able to pull a huge gap because my car was so good. But so many times I thought I had the race won, a yellow would come out at the wrong time - I thought it was over for us. The last 20 laps I was just saving as much fuel as I could because it was going to be close.”
The crowd of 51,426 had barely gotten a chance to sit down when things started to spiral out of control.
The field got through the first turn with relatively little trouble, but the short straight on the way to Turn Two saw a number of problems. Andrew Ranger (Mi-Jack Conquest Racing) spun, Cristiano da Matta (RuSPORT) was clipped and Alex Tagliani (Team Australia) suffered light contact in avoiding the spinning Charles Zwolsman (Mi-Jack Conquest Racing).
Further ahead, Paul Tracy (Forsythe Championship Racing) tried to split the Newman/Haas cars of Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais, but ended up flying up and over the Bourdais car as the three got together leading into Turn Three.
Bourdais was immediately knocked out of the race while Junqueira survived with only the loss of the rear wing. Tracy landed hard but was able to continue on in the top five before his damages eventually triggered a later accident.
With Bourdais out on the opening lap and England’s Justin Wilson (RuSPORT) making an exit on lap 78, it provided an opportunity for Allmendinger to make inroads into the championship standings.
Bourdais continues to lead with 166 points, while Wilson is 26 behind with Allmendinger only another five points further back.
It was a good round for Team Australia with Canadian veteran Alex Tagliani finishing fourth and Toowoomba rookie Will Power ending up ninth.
The result moved Tagliani up to sixth in the standings, while Power dropped to 15th overall and fourth in the Rookie-of-the-Year points because three other rookies finished ahead of him in Cleveland.
However only 32 points separate the fourth placed Andrew Ranger and 15th placed Will Power in the overall standings.
“It was a crazy race,” said Tagliani. “The positive thing is that I was really impressed with the setup of the car. We are making baby steps and have definitely made some improvements.
“I don’t think that we had really good luck because we were running first and there was one yellow flag that cost us the race. If that yellow flag hadn’t come up we would have had the chance to come home with the win.
“Strategy played a huge part in the outcome of the race. Overall I’m very happy with the performance of the team. Now we just have to regroup. We are back in the game and in the championship.”
An untimely mistake proved costly for Power.
“The car was really good in the race,” said Power. “We got up into a good position. I was running with Servia and Wilson, having really good pit strategy.
“I was pushing hard to pass Dominguez and made a mistake - I used ‘push to pass’ and curved too much speed into the chicane and came out the other side into the grass - it took the front wing off and put us a lap down.
“When we came out in the restart I got taken out by Philippe in turn three and four. I lost another position. That was it, the car felt very unstable after that. Overall we ran a good race and unfortunately ran into some bad luck in the end.”
The next round of the Champ Car World Series is scheduled for Toronto on July 9. Queensland will host Round 14 of the Champ Car World Series with the Lexmark Indy 300 to be held from October 19 to 22. The annual Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast is a partnership between the Queensland Government and IMG.
Round 6 – Cleveland - Race Results
1 - A.J. Allmendinger (Forsythe Championship Racing) 95 laps Active
2 – Bruno Junqueira (Newman Haas Racing) 95 laps Active
3 - Oriol Servia (PKV Racing) 95 laps Active
4 - Alex Tagliani (Team Australia) 95 laps Active
5 – Jan Heylen (Dale Coyne Racing) 95 laps Active
6 - Mario Dominguez (Dale Coyne Racing) 94 laps Contact
7 – Dan Clarke (CTE Racing – HVM) 94 laps Off Course
8 – Katherine Legge (PKV Racing) 94 laps Active
9 – Will Power (Team Australia) 94 laps Active
10 - Nelson Philippe (CTE Racing – HVM) 93 laps Active
11 - Andrew Ranger (Mi-Jack Conquest Racing) 92 laps Active
12 – Tonis Kasemets (Rocketsports Racing) 91 laps Active
13 - Justin Wilson (RuSPORT) 77 laps Contact
14 - Cristiano da Matta (RuSPORT) 75 laps Active
15 – Charles Zwolsman (Mi-Jack Conquest Racing) 68 laps Mechanical
16 - Paul Tracy (Forsythe Championship Racing) 41 laps Contact
17 – Nicky Pastorelli (Rocketsports Racing) 22 laps Contact
18 - Sebastien Bourdais (Newman Haas Racing) 0 laps Contact
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