The race for the Champ Car drivers' title is going to Mexico City in two weeks.
Bruno Junqueira won yesterday's Lexmark Indy 300 ahead of teammate Sebastien Bourdais, stalling Bourdais' run to the 2004 championship in a battle between Newman/Haas teammates.
The race finished under a slow-speed yellow caution flag in its scheduled 57 laps after Canadian Patrick Carpentier was injured when his car crashed heavily into a tire barrier four laps from the finish following a collision with the wall when his nosecone came off.
Carpentier was taken to Gold Coast Hospital and underwent at CT scan, which showed no injuries, a Champ Car official said.
The official said Carpentier suffered no other injuries, but would be kept in hospital overnight because he was unconscious for a period immediately after the crash.
It was Junqueira's second win of the season and seventh of his career. He becomes the 14th different winner of the Australian race.
Bourdais came into the race with a 28-point lead over Junqueira and needing only to pick up seven points more than his teammate to clinch the title. But Junqueira picked up 31 points for winning and two more for posting the fastest lap during the race and for leading a lap.
Bourdais picked up 27 for finishing second, giving the French driver a 22-point lead going into the final series race Nov. 7.
Junqueira finished 1.321 seconds ahead of Bourdais. Mario Dominguez, the 2002 winner, was third, and Canadian Paul Tracy, the pole-sitter who led for most of the first half of the race, was fourth.
"The weekend started really difficult for me, we had gearbox troubles and I nearly didn't qualify," said Junqueira. "It feels good to have the points race still going. The last two years here I led but didn't win."
Bourdais said the race could have finished better.
"It was a pretty good result, but not exactly the one we wanted," said Bourdais. "We wanted to finish in front of Bruno, but we were both on the podium so I'm happy with that."
Tracy, the 1995 winner here, lost the lead when he locked his brakes on the 40th lap, putting Junqueira in the lead for good.
Last year's winner, Ryan Hunter-Reay of the US was fifth, followed by another American driver, A.J. Allmendinger.
The placing clinched the rookie-of-the-year title for Allmendinger, who also won rookie honors and was champion of last year's Toyota Atlantic series.
After rain had affected the race three out of the last four years, and a number of major accidents at the start, this race was relatively incident-free over the first 40 laps of the 4.498km temporary street circuit.
Tracy won the pole Saturday, his third of the year, while Bourdais had guaranteed himself a front-row spot by winning Friday's opening qualifying session.
Another overall attendance record was set for the four-day event. Organizers said a record 107,321 attended the race.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the Singaporean government to provide land for new homes. Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the last race, the last-ever Grand Singapore Gold Cup. The winner, South African jockey Muzi Yeni, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
RSS