FEBRUARY 24, 2003

Tracy has it all his own way

Paul Tracy won the opening round of the CART Champ Car series in St Petersburg, Florida on Sunday, taking his Players Forsythe Racing entry to victory by 12 seconds over Michel Jourdain Jr of Team Rahal.

Sebastien Bourdais made a great impression on his CART debut, taking pole position in his Newman Haas entry and he led the race for the first 30 laps before a poor strategy call left him at the back of the field. Another Formula 3000 refugee Tiago Monteiro took the lead briefly but Tracy soon took command and led the race of the event. It was Tracy's first win since Milwaukee last year.

Bourdais's Newman-Haas team mate Bruno Junqueira also had problems in the pits and dropped back to 14th place but charged back to claim third place. He was followed home by Mario Haberfeld, Roberto Moreno and Jimmy Vasser.