=== Hunter-Reay wins race, Tracy clinches title ===

Surfers Paradise, Australia (My Sportsbook) - Ryan Hunter-Reay won CART's Lexmark Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast of Australia. Hunter- Reay crossed the finish line 1.546 seconds ahead of Darren Manning.

Meanwhile, Paul Tracy clinched the championship when rival Bruno Junqueira crashed late in the race.

The 22-year-old rookie won the race when his American Spirit race team had him pit just before a caution flag on lap 32. That turned out to be the winning strategy as the caution resulted in the No.31 Reynard being in front of the field on the restart. With numerous cautions over the final 15 laps (the race was shortened to 47 laps), no one was able to mount a charge against the young American.

The victory was the first of Hunter-Reay's Champ Car career. He is the second straight rookie to win in Australia and the 13th different driver to win in 13 years.

"Words can't even describe how I feel," said Hunter-Reay. "I'm on cloud nine."

For the second consecutive year, Surfers Paradise produced a bizarre race. This one again included a rain storm with hail and a lot of foolish racing.

The action began on lap 1 when Tracy attempted to pass Sebastien Bourdais in the first chicane. It was a foolish attempt as Bourdais chopped down on him and sent him spinning. Tracy should have known that Bourdais would not give an inch as he was the teammate of Tracy's rival for the championship - Junqueira.

Tracy fell to 18th place while Junqueira sat comfortably on the lead. By lap 11 when the rain first started to fall, Tracy had charged through the field to ninth place. When the hail began to fall on lap 13, CART officials halted the race. The delay lasted 45 minutes.

Seven laps after the race was restarted, Tracy crashed again, this time in a low-speed incident. His No.3 Players/Forsythe Racing Lola seem undamaged until Tracy in frustration slammed into the wheel of Alex Tagliani while leaving the scene. Tracy limped to the pit and when he returned to the track he was three laps down.

That left Junqueira in complete control with Tracy almost assured of a non- points producing race. Junqueira seemed to slow down on lap 29 as first Michel Jourdain Jr. and then Adrian Fernandez passed him. He had fallen to sixth- place on lap 34 when disaster struck. Junqueira was too quick into the Turn 1 chicane and slammed into the wall, ending his day and his chance for the Vanderbilt Cup.

Tracy owns a 27-point margin entering the final race with a maximum of 22 points available to the race winner.

"I have to thank the team," said Tracy. "The job that they have done for me this year...they and I have worked so long to get to this point. Its fantastic."

Hunter-Reay's teammate Jimmy Vasser finished third with Jourdain Jr. and Patrick Carpentier completing the top-five.

The final race of the season is scheduled for Sunday, November 2nd at the California Speedway.