Despite encountering early race dramas during the Grand Prix of Cleveland, 2003 Champ Car World Series champion Paul Tracy and his Forsythe Championship Racing team have played the ideal fuel strategy to claim victory.
Tracy’s coming together with Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing) and then Bruno Junqueira (Dale Coyne Racing) on successive laps required him to pit three times during the opening five laps of the race.
While all this was going on behind them, reigning series leader Sebastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing) and the Team Australia duo of Will Power and Simon Pagenaud pulled away from the rest of the field and looked to be cruising to an easy podium.
Mechanical problems brought about Bourdais’ exit, before victory also slipped from Power’s grasp when he suffered a flat tyre as a result of a broken tyre valve on lap 75 of the 89-lap event.
It was only the timing of caution periods in relation to pit strategy that gave others the jump on Pagenaud, with Tracy leading home rookies Robert Doornbos (Minardi Team USA) and Neel Jani (Red Bull PKV Racing).
For Doornbos, who drives for the team owned by Australian Paul Stoddart, the second place result marks his fourth podium finish in five races, while Jani earned his first career podium.
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