Justin Wilson made no mistakes this time, bouncing back from a disappointing finish in last year's Edmonton Grand Prix to pull away at the end Sunday for his first Champ Car victory of the season.
The 27-year-old Englishman, who lost a shot at victory when he crashed on a restart late in last year's race on the 3.17km, 14-turn temporary circuit, caught and passed last year's winner, Sebastien Bourdais, just past the halfway point in the 85-lap race.
Wilson may have had flashbacks to that inaugural Edmonton race at City Center Airport when the fourth caution flag of the race waved for Nelson Philippe's crash into a tire barrier just 16 laps from the end, bunching the field and putting Bourdais right behind his rear wing.
PHOTO: AFP
But Wilson never gave the two-time defending series champion a chance to challenge him, pulling away after the green flag came out on lap 73 and moving steadily away before beating Bourdais to the finish line by 5.319 seconds -- nearly the entire final straightaway.
A.J. Allmendinger, who came into Sunday with a three-race winning streak, ran a strong race to finish third. He was followed by Oriol Servia, Paul Tracy and rookie Will Power, the last driver on the lead lap.
"My car was just awesome all day," said Wilson, who now has three career victories, all for the RuSport Racing team.
"It was a great strategy by my engineers. It allowed me to run hard and catch Sebastien. Then he made a mistake and I was able to get past him," he said.
Wilson got past Tracy to take second place by taking a short load of fuel on his first pit stop on lap 37.
He came out of the stop 7.404 seconds behind Bourdais and moved steadily closer to the leader, who was struggling after his first pit stop with a set of tires that unbalanced his car.
Finally, Wilson drove past Bourdais, darting under the leader on lap 54 in the 10th turn, a fast left-hander.
Bourdais got the lead back briefly when Wilson made his second and final pit stop on lap 61, but the Frenchman had to make his final stop on lap 64 after colliding with Alex Tagliani, and Wilson led the rest of the way.
"I thought it was going to be a really good day," said Bourdais, who won the first four races of the season and hasn't won since.
"That second set of tires just didn't work on my car," Bourdais said.
Still, Bourdais goes to San Jose, California, for next week's race leading Wilson by 23 points and Allmendinger, who fell to third, by 28.
Allmendinger, who also crashed late in last year's race, then hit the wall again in qualifying on Friday and spun during time trials on Saturday, was happy with his uneventful third-place finish and gratified to still be in the title hunt.
"We had a tough weekend, but that was a third-place car and that's how you stay in contention for a championship," said the 23-year-old Californian, the only US driver in the Champ Car series.
AJ FOYT 225
Brazil's Tony Kanaan survived a frantic challenge from reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Sam Hornish Jr on Sunday to win the Indy Racing League AJ Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile.
It was the first victory this season and the seventh career win for Kanaan, who pulled away down the stretch to win by 1.827sec.
Hornish finished second and maintained his lead in the drivers' standings, while South African Tomas Schecker gave Vision Racing its first-ever podium place with an impressive charge in the closing laps for third place.
Starlet Danica Patrick equaled her career best for the second straight race, finishing fourth.
She also finished fourth in last year's Indy 500.
Rookie driver Marco Andretti rounded out the top five, giving Andretti Green Racing two cars in the top five.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB