Bourdais pounces on foe's mistake
Tampa resident Sebastien Bourdais tightened his hold on the Champ Car series points lead with his win at the Grand Prix of Denver.
By Times wire
Published August 15, 2005
DENVER - Defending champion Sebastien Bourdais took advantage of a late crash by Paul Tracy, then pulled away from the pack to win the Grand Prix of Denver on Sunday, his third straight Champ Car series victory and fourth of the season.
Bourdais, the points leader and a Tampa resident, won the race last year from the back of the pack, winding his way from 13th to first after getting bumped in Turn 1. This time he avoided another pileup on the first corner, then waited for his chance.
That came on Lap 62, when Tracy hit a wall after cutting the corner too close. Bourdais took the lead after that and was never seriously challenged, finishing 15.27 seconds ahead of Mario Dominguez on the 1.657-mile temporary street course.
"When I saw PT in the wall, I was very surprised because PT makes very few mistakes and that's not the kind of mistake he makes when he's up front like that," Bourdais told Champcar.com. "I am just glad we did it."
Bourdais, who won in Edmonton and San Jose the previous two races, increased his lead over Tracy to 53 points with five races left.
Tracy, the pole-sitter who led from the start except during a brief pit stop, was coming around Turn 4 and closing on a lapped car when he brushed the inside wall and knocked his front suspension loose. The impact threw Tracy's car across the track and he hit a concrete wall, destroying the front end.
"The car was great. I just basically just handed the championship to Sebastien," Tracy said. "It's devastating for the whole team."
INDYCARS: Former IRL champion Scott Sharp won for the first time in more than two years, holding off Vitor Meira to win the Amber Alert Portal Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.
Sharp, driving a Honda for Delphi Fernandez Racing, became the second driver of that car to win at Kentucky in as many years, following Adrian Fernandez.
The 37-year-old Sharp took the lead on Lap 134 of 200, passing Dan Wheldon. Wheldon, a St. Petersburg resident and the series points leader, regained the lead twice, but Sharp passed him for good on Lap 169.
Meira, winless in his third full season, earned his fourth career runnerup finish. Wheldon was third and, with 455 points, leads Sam Hornish, who finished seventh, by 90.
Meira's teammate at Rahal Letterman racing, rookie Danica Patrick, started on the pole but surrendered the lead to Tony Kanaan on the first lap, soon fell out of the top five and never led. She stalled her car during a pit stop on Lap 71, and six laps later had to return to the pits because of a problem with her Honda's gearbox. She finished 16th, 16 laps behind the leaders.
NHRA: Top Fuel points leader Doug Kalitta won at the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., defeating Larry Dixon in the final. Kalitta completed a quarter-mile run in 4.593 seconds at 325.92 mph. In Funny Car, Eric Medlen defeated his car owner, John Force, in the final. The other winners were Kurt Johnson in Pro Stock and GT Tonglet in Pro Stock Motorcycle.