Surfers Paradise, Australia—Sunday, October 21, 2007—Paul Tracy was poised for a strong result today in Surfers Paradise, Australia after qualifying third on the grid, but a first-turn incident led to an alternate fuel strategy that fell one lap short of working to perfection.
In third spot with one lap left, Tracy was forced to pit and fell down the field to ninth at the checkered flag. Teammate David Martinez moved steadily up the field and came home with his second top ten result in two Champ Car starts and looks forward to the next event in his home country of Mexico.
Paul Tracy
#3 Indeck
Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone
Finished 9th
“I made a good start, got off the line well, and then got squeezed in the first corner by Servia. We touched just a little bit and I spun and that put us at the back, so we basically had to get on a different strategy. We did that and were able to get back towards the front, lead a little bit, try to make the strategy work. We just needed half a lap more of yellow and it never came. The yellows were all falling our way in the beginning and the strategy was working well. We were maybe in a position to win the race. We were going to try to go for it, just try to run. We thought we could make it around maybe two-thirds of the last lap, but it ran out coming onto the front straightaway on the white flag lap, so I came into the pits and by the time I got into the pits I had run out of fuel in the pit box and it wouldn’t start again. It’s disappointing, but we were up there, we made something happen. We made good out of a bad start. The team is working really hard and we’re getting back to where we should be finishing up on podiums. We just need some good luck.”