JUNE 19, 2006

Allmendinger ends Bourdais's streak

AJ Allmendinger switched teams last week but in Portland showed that he is not about to allow the change to affect his performance as he swept to a dominant victory in the GI Joe's Grand Prix of Portland at the Portland International Raceway. The 24-year-old led all the way. Allmendinger beat Bruno Junqueira off the line at the start and built up a sensible lead, despite losing time when he was lapping Katherine Legge. Allmendinger overcame the problem to lead home former Rusport team mate Justin Wilson and championship dominator Sebastien Bourdais, who lost the chance to win a record fifth straight victory. Bourdais's team mate Junqueira was fourth with Cristiano da Matta (who switched to Rusport last week to replace Allmendinger) in fifth.

There was much controversy about the start being very disorganised, causing Junqueira and Bourdais to lose places and the Frenchman was frustrated as he reckoned that he had the fastest car but could not use it because of the traffic.