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Associated Press 18y

Bad start, good finish for Bourdais, Servio in Australia

SURFERS PARADISE, Australia -- Moments after starting in the
front row of the Lexmark Indy 300, Newman/Haas teammates Sebastien
Bourdais and Oriol Servio lost any advantage they might have had.

Their strong finishes made up for any early disappointments in
the next-to-last Champ Car race of the season.

On the opening lap, Servio was hit from behind by Cristiano da
Matta, spun out and moved to the back of the field after starting
as the pole-sitter. Bourdais could only watch as Paul Tracy, who
started fifth, sped past him and through the first-turn without
penalty to avoid the accident.

But Bourdais caught Tracy after 19 laps and won the street
circuit race. He needed just to start to gain a single point from
the race -- a last-place finish -- to clinch the Champ Car series
title. It gave the Newman/Haas team, owned by actor Paul Newman and
former driver Carl Haas, its first repeat series champion in 23
years of racing.

"I guess it didn't really start the way it was supposed to,"
Bourdais said. "I really wanted to clinch the championship with a
win, and win it in style."

Servio, meanwhile, gradually moved his way back up and finished
in fifth place to clinch second place in the points standings with
one race to go in Mexico City on Nov. 6. Not bad for a replacement
driver who was called in eight weeks ago when the team's other
driver, Bruno Junqueira, suffered serious back injuries in the Indy
500.

As Bourdais came around the final turn, he raised one arm in
celebration. Haas stood and clapped in the pits, with his trademark
cigar in his mouth.

"It was a pretty straightforward deal. We proved we had the
quicker car," Bourdais said after collecting two trophies -- the
race one and the Vanderbilt Cup as series champion.

Bourdais finished in 1 hour, 39 minutes, 26.671 seconds and
averaged 96.123 mph. A.J. Allmendinger was second, 9.13 seconds
behind, followed by 1996 winner Jimmy Vasser and Alex Tagliani.

It was Bourdais' fifth win in his last six races, and 16th
overall in 44 starts. He has finished all 12 races on this year's
schedule, a feat achieved by only four drivers since 1956, most
recently Vasser in 1996.

Tracy, who went out with gearbox failure on lap 24, set a race
lap record of 1 minute, 33.762 seconds on his 19th lap, breaking
the mark of 1:33.780 held by Alex Zanardi in 1998.

Germany's Timo Glock clinched rookie of the year honors by
finishing sixth.

"That's a great accomplishment, considering there were some
tough rookies out there this season," he said.

The Australian race again broke attendance records, with 316,459
over four days, up nearly 7,000 from last year. There were 105,297
spectators Sunday, down 2,000 from 2004.

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