Brack breaks his duck at Motegi.

Kenny Brack continued Ford's stranglehold on victory lane at the Honda-owned Twin Ring Motegi circuit by taking a well deserved win in a gripping Firestone Firehawk 500 despite a contentious late caution period caused that resulted in a one-lap dash to the flag.

Sweden's Kenny Brack scored his first career CART victory after a full season running at or near the front with a finely judged performance at the Honda owned Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan.

Brack's Team Rahal Lola-Ford had better fuel mileage than the rest of his closest rivals, including Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Gil De Ferran, and he looked set to take a comfortable win when Kanaan made a late race splash and dash until De Ferran's Team Penske Reynard-Honda began spewing oil onto the track and despite being shown the black flag, the Brazilian driver stayed out on the track for several laps with Castroneves in second place and marginal on fuel mileage.

Apparently looking for a late race caution flag that would negate Castroneves' fuel worries, De Ferran's oil eventually caught out rookie Nicolas Minassian who made heavy contact with the Turn Four wall on lap 195 bringing out what was only the second caution flag of the day.

The Japanese CART team worked near miracles not only to safely remove the uninjured Frenchman from his wrecked Target Chip Ganassi Lola-Toyota but they managed to clear up the worst of the oil quickly enough for the 201st and final lap of the day to be run under green flag conditions in order to give the passionate Japanese fans at least a racing finish.

The lapped car of Oriol Servia proved to be too much for Castroneves to overcome on the final re-start and Brack cruised home for Team Rahal's first victory since Max Papis won the opening round of the 2000 CART series at Homestead.

Castroneves was able to successfully eke the last litres of fuel out of his tank to take a somewhat tarnished second place although De Ferran claimed he did not see the black flag and came in as soon as he was told to do so by Roger Penske.

Tony Kanaan was a persistent threat for the lead but eventually finished a lap down in third spot after using too much fuel in his Mo Nunn Racing Reynard-Honda while consistency rather than speed saw Christian Fittipaldi finish fourth and salvage some pride for Newman-Haas Racing who lost Cristiano Da Matta in an opening lap accident.

Jimmy Vasser was a steady fifth ahead of the new-look Max Papis and Alex Zanardi who looked like a Champ Car driver for the first time since his return to the category and deserved more than seventh after a controlled, pacey performance.

Shinji Nakano, Nazareth winner Scott Dixon, Roberto Moreno, Michel Jourdain Jr and the returning Mauricio Gugelmin completed the point's scorers in a race that claimed 12 of the 25 starters.

Heading the retirement list were all three Team Green entries with Michael Andretti's Team Motorola machine losing a gearbox before the 50 lap mark to be followed shortly afterwards by Paul Tracy who had risen from 16th on the grid to a magnificent second before Dario Franchitti joined them on lap 125 when his engine let go.

Full report to follow.