Australian Power surges to victory

It wasn't much more than an hour after Will Power won the Champ Car World Series race Sunday that his thoughts already were on next weekend's event in Long Beach, Calif.

He wasted little time planning ahead, which was the same approach taken by owners and executives of the inaugural Vegas Grand Prix held downtown moments after the race.

While race owners Dale Jensen and Brad Yonover spoke about improving next year's race experience, Power set his sights on winning a Champ Car championship.

The warm Easter afternoon attracted more than 40,000 spectators, according to race president Jim Freudenberg, to the first open-wheel race in the Las Vegas metropolitan area since 1984, when a four-year run of races in a lot adjacent to Caesars Palace ended.

Power was 3 years old when the last Champ Car race was here. More than 20 years later, he has become part of Las Vegas racing history.

"Yeah, it feels really good," Power said of his first Champ Car victory in 17 career starts. "This is the first of a long marathon because, you know, we really want to win this championship."

He's off to a good start after leading the most laps Sunday. The victory is worth $75,000. The season title pays $500,000.

It was an especially memorable day for Derrick Walker, who owns the two-car Team Australia operation. He was celebrating his 62nd birthday and first win in the series since 1999.

Although the Netherland's Robert Doornbos, who raced in Formula One two years ago, finished second to Power, Power's biggest threat was from Paul Tracy.

Tracy, a Summerlin resident and 2003 series champion, seemed to have a car equal to Power's but a lengthy pit stop cost the 38-year-old Canadian.

Tracy started on the outside of the front row and took the lead from Power heading into the first turn at Grand Central Parkway and Bonneville Avenue. Tracy was out front until Power reclaimed it on Lap 11.

They ran nose to tail until both pitted on Lap 28. While Power's team had a flawless stop, Tracy's Forsythe Championship Racing crew had problems with getting the fuel hose to work on the its DPO1 car, which is the new race car being used by all teams for the first time in competition.

"The car didn't take any fuel for us. We spent 15 seconds and ended up getting like four laps of fuel," Tracy said. "So that was a bit frustrating. We came back out and chased, then had to come straight back in and take fuel again.

"We were 45, 50 seconds behind (Power) after doing another stop. We just had to fight, push hard all day.

"We could have put a lot of pressure on him."

Tracy finished 27.3 seconds off the pace.

Power had his own problems.

He pitted late in the race for fuel and tires. As he tried to stop in his pit stall he had to put the brake pedal to the floor and that locked his wheels. A crew member kneeling to change the right-front tire was knocked back but not injured.

"The toughest part of the race is probably the end when the brake pedal was getting long," said Power, the first Australian to win a Champ Car race. "(The pedal) just went to the floor and locked the wheels up. I went in on an angle (and) hit the guy.

"Then it was really hard to get fuel in, it was hard to get that front tire off. We probably went 10 seconds longer than normal."

Without that incident he'd have ran away with the victory by close to half a minute in the 68-lap race limited to 1 hour, 45 minutes.