American rookie Ryan Hunter-Reay won Sunday's thunderstorm-shortened Gold Coast Indy and Paul Tracy clinched the CART series drivers' championship when closest rival Bruno Junqueira crashed with 10 laps to go.
Hunter-Reay beat fellow rookie Darren Manning of England by 1.546 seconds in the race that featured crashes on the first turn and marble-sized hail after 12 laps that forced a 75-minute delay and the race to be shortened to 47 laps from 65 because of the crazy weather.
Tracy finished 13th Sunday -- two laps behind the winner -- but his 28-point lead over Junqueira going into Sunday's race meant that Junqueira had to pick up at least seven points in order to send the race to the final event at Fontana, California on Nov. 2.
"I can't believe it, it was just such a battle," said Hunter-Reay as he held the American flag behind him at the trophy presentations. "The last bunch of laps I had to drive my rear end off to hold on."
Tracy had tears in his eyes at the presentations when he was handed the Vanderbilt Cup for winning the drivers title.
Jimmy Vasser, Hunter-Reay's teammate and who won the Australian race in 1996, was third, followed by a Michel Jourdain Jr., who led the race briefly with 20 laps to go. Patrick Carpentier of Canada was fifth.
It was the first CART race win for the 22-year-old Hunter-Reay, who led last year's Formula Atlantic series with three wins.
It was also the 13th year in a row that a different driver has won the Australian race and the first time that rookies have finished one-two in a CART race since Teo Fabi and Al Unser Jr., were one-two at Pocono, Pennsylvania in 1983.
The action started early in the warmup lap when Tracy had to pull into the pits to have his seatbelt tightened. Starting third, he caught the field to start in his proper spot, only to have another lap under yellow when Junqueira jumped the start, forcing another warmup lap. On the first turn under green, Junqueira's teammate and pole sitter Sebastien Bourdais clipped Tracy's car, causing the Canadian to spin out and go to the back of the field.
Tracy's spinout caused the field to slow, and Oriol Servia was hit by Adrian Fernandez and suffered suspension damage, putting Servia out of the race.
"So that's the game they want to play," Tracy was heard to tell his pit crew by radio, indicating Tracy felt that Bourdais had deliberately bumped him.
When heavy rain hit the track on the 12th lap, Bourdais was out. The French driver spun out in the rain, smashing into the wall and was lucky to escape being hit broadside by following cars.
That was just before hail hit the track, forcing the cars off the track after 14 laps. The race restarted after hail was plucked from the floor of some of the car's cockpits, drivers changed their wet socks and shoes and standing water was squeezed off the street course.
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