It wasn’t much of a race as many teams ran into refuelling or electrical or gearbox problems with the brand new Panoz DP01 spec car, but it was great to see Will Power score his first Champ Car victory in Las Vegas on Sunday.
The 26-year old Australian - last season’s Champ Car rookie-of-the-year- drove an almost perfect race, winning from the pole after an early battle with Paul Tracy as Power showed he will be a serious championship threat this year. It was also nice to see Derrick Walker’s outfit - Team Australia as it’s now known - get its first win in eight years since Gil de Ferran won at Portland in 1999, and to do it on Walker’s birthday.
Also impressing was 25-year old Dutch rookie Robert Doornbos who finished second for Minardi Team USA. An
F1 test driver for the
Red Bull team, Doornbos qualified an excellent third and drove a very good race to beat Paul Tracy into second after Tracy ran into refuelling trouble.
The other winners from the weekend were promoters Dale Jensen and Jim Freudenberg and Champ Car’s street track construction manager Chris Kneifel who produced the best new street circuit since Surfers Paradise made its debut back in 1990.
The track surrounds Las Vegas’s traditional Strip and is the longest, fastest street track in the United States constructed from top quality walls and fences with plenty of run-off in most corners. The Vegas track is a vast improvement on the narrow, bumpy street tracks we’ve seen recently in places like San Jose and Houston.
![Will Power on the Vegas podium with Robert Doornbos and Paul Tracy [Pic credit: BAM Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/308075.jpg)
