AJ Allmendinger emerged victorious on Champ Car's return to Road America to keep his faint title hopes alive, but the main talking point was a terrible accident for Briton Katherine Legge, from which she was lucky to emerge unscathed.
Allmendinger's win on the spectacular four-mile Elkhart Lake road course may have seemed unlikely following
Sebastien Bourdais' early race domination, but a third place finish for the Frenchman means he needs just a handful of points over the final two races to secure a historic third straight championship.
While the first Champ Car race at Road America since 2004 allowed the series' 750hp machines to really stretch their legs on one of the country's finest natural road courses, the fearsome Wisconsin track also tested the series' Lola chassis to their extremes, after a horrific looking crash for rookie driver Legge left many fearing for her life.
Incredibly, Legge was able to walk into the waiting ambulance after the Champ Car safety team extracted her from the mangled remains of her PKV Racing Lola and later conduct a TV interview in front of a stunned, but relieved, crowd.
Legge's crash, which occurred on lap 47 of 51, brought out the red flag as the emergency services rushed into action and the crimson banner stayed out for nearly three-quarters of an hour as the circuit staff repaired the fencing ripped down by Legge's wildly flipping car.
While many thought that Champ Car would call the race four laps short of the intended distance, the series chose to push on for a restart, the usual one-hour 45-minute time limit obviously not applying on this occasion. Nearly one hour after the completion of lap 46, Allmendinger led the field back out onto the track for what would be a two-lap sprint to the finish.
