A barnstorming drive from Toronto's James Hinchcliffe saw him fire his #9 NOCO/ProWorks entry from 26th, and last, following an opening lap incident, to sixth place when the checkered fell after 42 laps around the Burke Lakefront Airport road course in Cleveland on Sunday in Round 6 of the Cooper Tires Presents The Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda. source: hinchtown.com The Sierra Sierra Enterprises racer had again showed his pace earlier in qualifying at the 2.106-mile track. With a best lap of 1m05.545s (115.670mph), set in Saturday's qualifying session, 'Hinch' was only beaten to his third straight pole position by his team-mate and current series leader, Raphael Matos. The Brazilian captured his third pole of 2007, his advantage over James a mere tenth of a second, the Sierra Sierra duo sharing the front-row of the Atlantic grid for the second time in six races. Sunday's 50-minute race meeting, the halfway stage of the 12-round series, saw the 26-strong field launch themselves from a standing start into the notorious funneling first turn. Initially dropping down to fourth from second, James clawed back a spot only for disaster to strike two turns later. Having run three wide approaching turn three with J.R. Hildebrand and Franck Perera, it was Hinchcliffe and Hildebrand that held out for the turn but the pair would clash at the next one with the American collecting the right side of the Canadian's car and looping him around while the field darted past. Having dropped back to dead last the 20-year-old began his charge through the field in one of the drives of the season. Enjoying the fastest car on the track, setting fastest lap of the race along the way, James steadily progressed through the tail-end order, climbing to 13th by lap 16 when the only full-course caution of the day presented itself. This quickly wiped Matos' race lead and when racing resumed a few laps later it was game on as the pack gave chase. James wasted little time in cracking the top-ten and by lap 26 he was hot on the heels of former Champ Car racer Ronnie Bremer in seventh. Passing the Danish veteran for seventh on the next lap James soon lined up Jonathan Bomarito in sixth. The American fended Hinchcliffe's advances for four laps but succumbed to the #9 entry with James' stunning recovery placing him sixth with 10 laps to go.
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