Paul Gentilozzi's Rocketsports Racing team came very close to wrapping up the 2005 Champ Car World Series season on the podium with 2005 Rookie-of-the-Year Timo Glock as the young German continued to mark himself out as a potential star in the series.

Although Glock eventually came home in fifth spot, clinching eighth overall in the title standings to add to his Rookie of the Year award, his performance in the Gran Premio Tecate/Telmex presented by Banamex was still something Gentilozzi's team can feel good about during what has been a difficult third season on the Champ Car tour.

In addition to Glock's efforts, Champ Car newcomer Michael McDowell successfully completed his second Champ Car event around the bumpy 2.786-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.

On lap 46 of 70, Glock made his second and final pit stop of the day and came out running sixth thanks to a great effort by the #8 DHL Global Mail sponsored crew. On lap 51, the German passed Oriol Servia for the fifth spot and moved into fourth place when he passed a pit-ward Sebastien Bourdais. Glock then began closing in on Mario Dominguez, who was running in the third spot, and made a move to obtain another position on lap 58.

When heading into the first turn, he ducked down to make the pass inside of Dominguez. Dominguez started to slide a bit then locked up his tyres, which caused the two cars to make contact. Glock was able to continue with no major damage and claimed the third spot on the timing and scoring charts.

A subsequent yellow flag would cost the German a podium finish because he had used up all of his Power-to-Pass. He lost two spots on the restart because of that as Servia and Paul Tracy swept by but then latched onto the rear of the Spaniard for the final run to the chequered flag.

Glock crossed the line in fifth spot, three tenths of a second behind Servia and just half a second up on Jimmy Vasser.

“We had a very good race car today, accompanied by great pit stops from my crew and a good race strategy thanks to my engineers,” Glock commented. “As for the incident with Mario (Dominguez) he had been blocking me a little bit, and then when we were heading into turn one I saw the opportunity to try and make a pass on him from the inside. He slid while I was moving in then locked up his brakes and we made contact. I am sorry that had to happen for Mario and all of the fans in Mexico City, we were just racing and I did not mean for that to happen what so ever.”

Dominguez's subsequent drop down the finishing order helped Glock to move ahead of the Mexican born driver from ninth to eighth in the final standings with a four point advantage (202-198).

“After the last restart when I was sitting P3, I had no Power-to-Pass left but (Paul) Tracy and (Oriol) Servia did, so they were able to get around me. Overall, it is a good finish to the weekend and the season for the Rocketsports team. I am sorry I wasn't able to finish on the podium for them but I am happy that we were able to finish in the top five.”