Sebastien Bourdais took his second victory on the 14-event 2005 Champ Car World Series calendar, winning the inaugural 88-lap Grand Prix of Edmonton on the 1.973-mile Finning International Speedway road course at City Centre Airport.  Benefiting from mistakes by those in front of him, conserving fuel and being aggressive when he could in his Newman Haas Lola, Bourdais beat teammate Oriol Servia to the chequered flag by 0.595 seconds.

The Frenchman increased his point lead over Paul Tracy to 182 to 161 after the Canadian finished third in his Forsythe run Lola.  “My Lola was behaving very, very well,” said the reigning champion of his charge to the front from tenth on the grid.  “I just waited and tried to save fuel when I had to, tried to go fast when I had the clean and clear track in front of me.  That paid off and it feels really good to bring a one-two home.”

Servia’s second straight podium came from fourth on the grid and he “knew it was going to be a little bit of a survival game.  Mistake-free was definitely going to bring me a podium,” the Spaniard reasoned, “so I’m just very happy to finish second.”  It was his fourth podium since deputizing for the injured Bruno Junqueira, in just five starts.

Paul Tracy led 30 laps of the contest after getting past polesitter A.J. Allmendinger’s Ru SPORT Lola on lap 18 when the pair came up to lap Marcus Marshalls’ Team Australia Lola.  “We started off the race really well,” from third grid position.  He had difficulties in the midle of the race, dismaying the 80,000 fans on hand, “but we got lucky in the end, back on the podium” in third, he concluded.

Last week’s Toronto winner, Justin Wilson, nearly took another victory but a self-inflicted spin just before the final restart finished his hopes of victory.  His Ru SPORT Lola was “set for a second place, maybe a win.  The Lola has just been fantastic all weekend.”

The Sheffield born racer fought back superbly to take 4th place, shadowing Paul Tracy across the finishing line.

Mario Dominguez rounded out the top five with his Forsythe Racing Lola, pleased to rebound from a disappointing series of races and a large accident in free practice.  “We raced a bit conservative [after bad luck in the last few races] and I’m just happy to be able to finish.  We knew there would be a lot of incidents today so we just kind of waited for things to happen.” 

Allmendinger, who led the most laps and set the fastest tour of the race retired with a broken transmission after brushing the wall whilst just 10 laps from his first Champ Car win.  He retains fifth place points but was devastated not to have won thee race, saying: “I just threw it away. I can't say anymore than that right now. The crew and car were hooked up all weekend and it just shouldn't have ended like this.

Finishing an excellent 6th overall was Ronnie Bremer, racing this weekend for the Dale Coyne team. The Dane gained his position in the final 5 laps when Justin Wilson and Timo Glock collided, forcing the German,  Rocketsports driver in to retirement.

The Champ cars resume the chase for the Vanderbilt Cup with the Taylor Woodward Grand Prix of San Jose through that city’s streets on July 31st.

RACE RESULTS Pos /Car /Driver / Nat / Team / Laps / Gap / Status 1.  1  Sebastien Bourdais  F  Newman/Haas Racing  88 2.  2  Oriol Servia  E  Newman/Haas Racing  88  0.595  Active 3.  3  Paul Tracy  CDN  Forsythe Racing  88  1.334  Active 4.  9  Justin Wilson  GB  RuSPORT  88  1.614  Active 5.  7  Mario Dominguez  MEX  Forsythe Racing  88  12.041  Active 6.  19  Ronnie Bremer DK  HVM Racing  88  12.397  Active 7.  15  Alex Tagliani  CDN  Team Australia Racing 87  1 lap  Active 8.  5  Marcus Marshall AUS  Team Australia Racin  87  1 lap  Active 9.  34  Nelson Philippe  F  Conquest Racing  87  1 lap  Active 10.  11  Richardo Sperafico  BR  Dale Coyne Racing  87  1 lap  Active 11.  12  Jimmy Vasser  USA  PKV Racing  86  2 laps  Active 12.  55  A lex Sperafico  BR  HVM Racing  86  2 laps  Active 13.  8  Timo Glock GER  Rocketsports Racing  83  6.180  Contact 14.  10  A.J. Allmendinger  USA  RuSPORT  80  22.685  Contact 15.  4  Bjorn Wirdheim S  HVM Racing  74  1 lap  Contact 16.  31  Ryan Hunter-Reay  USA  Rockertsports Racing  51  33.275  Electrical 17.  21  Cristiano da Matta  BR  PKV Racing  7  2 laps  Mechanical 18.  27  Andrew Ranger CDN  Conquest Racing  3  78 laps  Contact 

 SERIES STANDINGS

1. Bourdais             182pts

2. Tracy                  161

3. Wilson                152

4. Servia                 132

5. Allmendinger       122

6. Vasser                115

7. Tagliani               111

8. Dominguez          104

9. Glock                   90

10. Da Matta            88