Champ Car Highs And Lows At Long Beach

Australian driver Will Power maintains the championship lead in the Champ Car World Series following his third place at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, but most thoughts were with veteran driver Paul Tracy after the series regular suffered a serious back injury during practice.

On a weekend that also saw the return to the winner s list of reigning Vanderbilt Cup titleholder Sebastien Bourdais, teams were visibly deflated after Tracy s exit from the event when he suffered frontal impact in his Forsythe Championship Racing #3 Champ Car at turn one.

While the full extent of the injury won t be known until further tests are carried out, initial x-rays and MRI scans confirmed the injury as a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebrae.

It s hoped the crowd favourite is able to recover in time for the Gold Coast s Lexmark Indy 300 on October 18-21, where the 1995 event winner will have the opportunity to race in front of family and friends now based in Queensland.

Tracy was replaced in the Forsythe Championship Racing entry by 2005 Champ Car World Series runner-up Oriol Servia who had only been attending the Long Beach round in the hope of securing a full-time drive in the Series.

Capping off an emotional weekend for Servia he managed to pilot his ride to a first up podium behind Bourdais and just ahead of Power.

“Well, as you can only imagine, I wasn t expecting to be here when I came to the track on Friday, ” said Servia.

“If I wasn t too rusty I knew I could do a good job, too. So, you know, I took the opportunity. ”

Starting from pole position, Bourdais led 58 of the 78 laps completed to earn his third consecutive win in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The Frenchman s effort was a marked improvement on last weekend s first outing for season 2007 where he failed to finish in Las Vegas.

“It feels really good for the whole McDonald s team, ” said Bourdais.

“They worked their tails off all winter and I really, really couldn t feel any worse than what I was feeling after Vegas, making all those mistakes.

“I think we worked a little bit on the car to make me a little more comfortable and we got things figured out. ”

Team Australia s Will Power made a sensational pass on the final lap of the race to grab third position from Justin Wilson and score his third Champ Car podium in succession.

Power, who hails from Toowoomba, was third in the season finale in Mexico City last year and won the opening round of this year s championship in Las Vegas one week ago.

The Australian now holds a 15-point lead over former team-mate Alex Tagliani in the series standings, with Long Beach race winner and defending series champion Sebastien Bourdais in third, 19 points behind Power.

“For me it was a busy day sitting behind cars, ” said Power.

“It was a good result in the end, we earned a solid haul of points and another podium.

“We now look forward to the next race in Houston still holding the championship lead. ”

The third successive weekend of the Champ Car World Series gets underway this Saturday (AEST) during the Grand Prix of Houston.