Patrick Carpentier has won the Grand Prix of Monterey, round seven of the Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. The Canadian resisted pressure first from team mate Paul Tracy, then from Bruno Junqueira, to score his fourth career victory.

"This was fantastic," said Carpentier. "There were a few close calls, but we got this one. Paul gave me a lot of pressure, but we knew that tires would be the issue. At the first start it was obvious Bruno was going to jump the start, so I braked to make it obvious to the starter... and "boom" Paul hit me up the back! But the car was fantastic, and we're going to enjoy this one."

The only black mark on Carpentier's day was his attempt at celebratory donuts at the Corkscrew, which, in his own words, "weren't even croissants!"

Bruno Junqueira had a tough first stint with a flat spotted tire, but was very quick in the second stint and closed up on the Player's/Forsythe cars to make it a three-way fight for the lead.

The first half of the race was a battle between the Player's/Forsythe team mates Carpentier and Tracy, but at the second round of fuel stops, Tracy caught one of Adrian Fernandez's tires exiting the pits. Then as he raced Carpentier to Turn 2, he locked his front tires, causing flat spots that ruined his second stint, and cost him nearly 20 seconds. "I knew my pit stop was better than Patrick's, and I thought I was going to get him. Then I locked up and flat spotted both front tires. I had a really bad vibration after that, I couldn't see, stop or turn... I had to settle for third place."

Michel Jourdain fought back from 13th to finish fourth, and retains his series points lead. While it was a great drive, the Mexican was clearly unhappy, having lost his pole position when his car was found to be underweight after qualifying. "Sure, it was a great race, but so frustrating. We had the fastest car, and if you take here and Long Beach, then we should have so many more points.

"But then I guess from 13th I could have been taken out by someone at the first corner," he continued, "so scoring points is better than nothing. It's frustrating because this is a hard track to pass at, but I could pass cars. It just shows how good my car was."

Round eight of the Bridgestone |Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford is at Portland next weekend, join us here for every lap, and all the news. You won't miss a moment.

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