Milwaukee Mile, Jun 01: Mexican Michel Jourdain Jr held off Spain's Oriol Servia by less than half a second to take his first Cart victory at the Milwaukee Mile on Saturday.
Jourdain dominated the 250-mile event, leading for 233 laps of the first night race for the struggling Champ Car series. His first win came in his eighth year in the series after 126 starts.
Servia's second place was his best career finish and he was followed home by Patrick Carpentier of Canada and Britain's Darren Manning, who is racing in Cart for the first time this year.
The victory gave Jourdain the series points lead. He has 77 points, 10 more than Canadian Paul Tracy, who won this race last year.
Tracy, who won the first three races of the season, was in contention until his final pit stop on lap 213. His Lola-Ford fell off its jacks as the rear left tyre was not properly secured. He lost the tyre on the next lap and had to come back into the pits, losing a lap in the process and eventually finishing 12th.



A crowd of 34,112 braved chilly temperatures to watch the the 250-lap race start under a yellow flag to allow drivers to warm their tyres. When the green flag flew on the third lap, Bruno Junqueira spun and collected Roberto Moreno and rookie Patrick Lemarie in the ensuing crash.



Junqueira was taken away with a neck and back brace support and transported to a hospital for X-rays.



Leading results from Champ Car World Series Milwaukee Mile Centennial 250 (USA unless stated): 1 Michel Jourdain (Mex) Lola, 250 laps, two hours 16 minutes 45 seconds (Avg speed 113.190 mph) 2 Oriol Servia (Spa) at 0.468 sec 3 Patrick Carpentier (Can) Lola 250 laps 4 Darren Manning (GB) Reynard, 250 laps 5 Alex Tagliani (Can) Lola 250 laps 6. Adrian Fernandez (Mex) Lola 250 7 Mario Haberfeld (Bra) Reynard 250 8 Mario Dominguez (Mex) Lola 250 9 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Lola 250 10 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Reynard 250 11 Jimmy Vasser Reynard 250 12 Paul Tracy (Can) Lola 249 laps


Bureau Report