Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais needed only to start the 15th running of the Surfers Paradise Champ Car event in order to become Champ Car World Series champion for a second consecutive year, but the driver of the winning Newman Haas Lola did so in grand style, leading the most laps (38), setting a record-breaking fastest tour of the 2.795-mile street course (109.295mph) and becoming the 15th different victor in the events history.

Bourdais was elated to have won and taken possession of the Vanderbilt Cup for a second straight year after winning by 9.130 seconds from Ru Sports A.J. Allmendinger.

Recovering from a near-calamitous first lap collision with teammate Oriol Servia, Bourdais said that he “really had to win this race because it would have been terrible” if nemesis Paul Tracy had won after leading 19 laps.  Bourdais was able to stick with Tracy, catch and pass him with excellent fuel mileage.  “My Lola was responding really well and it was just like a flying lap every lap” before his final pit stop, “I really wanted to win and win in style,” he commented.

Allmendinger held onto fifth in the title standings by taking runner-up position for a third time this year.  “It was a great race for us and our Lola was awesome.  My crew did a great job and gave me the best Lola on the track except for Sebastien, who seemed to be on another planet,” the Californian explained.  Racing conservatively in the first part of the race gave Allmendinger the opportunity to push harder but Bourdais was already gone.

Champ Car veteran and 1996 Surfers Paradise victor Jimmy Vasser brought the PKV Lola home third, 31.852 seconds in arrears to lie sixth in the points, just one behind Allmendinger going in to the final race in Mexico City.  “We are in a tight race with A.J. and Mario Dominguez for fifth in the championship, so it looks like it’s going to come down to the final race,” Vasser acknowledged. 

Alex Tagliani finished fourth in the Team Australia Lola after recovering from an incident with new teammate Will Power, while Oriol Servia rounded out the top five with his Newman Haas Lola, coming back from 17th after the first lap altercation with Bourdais.  Ten of thirteen finishers were on the lead lap; four of the five retirements were due to contact. 

The Champ Car 2005 season finale takes place November 6th at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez with the Gran Premio de Mexico City.

RACE RESULTS

Pos  -  Driver       -       Team       -          Time

 1.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman Haas            1:39:26.671

 2.  A.J. Allmendinger   RuSPORT                +     9.130

 3.  Jimmy Vasser        PKV                    +    31.852

 4.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia         +    36.420

 5.  Oriol Servia        Newman Haas            +    43.968

 6.  Timo Glock          Rocketsports           +    45.616

 7.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT                +    59.630

 8.  Ronnie Bremer       Dale Coyne             +  1:05.852

 9.  Ricardo Sperafico   Dale Coyne             +  1:16.292

10.  Andrew Ranger       Mi-Jack Conquest       +  1:33.488

11.  Marcus Marshall     Team Australia         +     1 lap

12.  Michael McDowell    Rocketsports           +     1 lap

13.  Rodolfo Lavin       HVM, Inc.              +     4 laps

RETIREMENTS:

Driver -  Team  - On Lap

Nelson Philippe     Mi-Jack Conquest         47

Will Power          Team Australia           29

Fabrizio del Monte  HVM, Inc.                28

Paul Tracy          Forsythe                 24

Mario Dominguez     Forsythe                  1

Cristiano da Matta  PKV                       0

Fastest lap: Bourdais, 1:32.063 on lap 39