Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais needed only to start the 15th running of the Surfers Paradise Champ Car event in order to become Champ Car World Series champion for a second consecutive year, but the driver of the winning Newman Haas Lola did so in grand style, leading the most laps (38), setting a record-breaking fastest tour of the 2.795-mile street course (109.295mph) and becoming the 15th different victor in the events history. source: lolacars.com Bourdais was elated to have won and taken possession of the Vanderbilt Cup for a second straight year after winning by 9.130 seconds from Ru Sports A.J. Allmendinger. Recovering from a near-calamitous first lap collision with teammate Oriol Servia, Bourdais said that he "really had to win this race because it would have been terrible" if nemesis Paul Tracy had won after leading 19 laps. Bourdais was able to stick with Tracy, catch and pass him with excellent fuel mileage. "My Lola was responding really well and it was just like a flying lap every lap" before his final pit stop, "I really wanted to win and win in style," he commented. BOURDAIS WITH THE FAMOUS VANDERBUILT CUP Allmendinger held onto fifth in the title standings by taking runner-up position for a third time this year. "It was a great race for us and our Lola was awesome. My crew did a great job and gave me the best Lola on the track except for Sebastien, who seemed to be on another planet," the Californian explained. Racing conservatively in the first part of the race gave Allmendinger the opportunity to push harder but Bourdais was already gone.
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