Triple crown to Team Australia

It was a bitter sweet day for Team Australia. On one hand, their top driver, Will Power, fell 25 points behind in the drivers' standings after placing 15th at the Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton yesterday. Yet the team still took home the Champ Car Canadian Triple Crown title as rookie driver Simon Pagenaud finished fourth.

"Honestly Canada is a great country. I love coming here," Pagenaud said. "They have great tracks here, especially in Edmonton, although it's a torture. It’s fun to come here, we had a very good attendance and it's very enjoyable for the drivers."

The Triple Crown combines the team results from the three Canadian events. After the final event held here yesterday at the Rexall Speedway, Power and Pagenaud had combined to average the lowest finish at 5.2.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing finished second with a combined 5.5.

"I think it's a great move by Champ Car to have this championship," Pagenaud said. "I think we've been by far the strongest combination since the beginning of the year. It's great. I think we're working well together."

Pagenaud finished fourth in all three Canadian races, starting in Mont-Tremblant, Que., then moving on to Toronto before ending here.

Power was fourth in Mont-Tremblant and first in Toronto before steering problems forced him out of the race in Edmonton.

"Up until this point, Canada has been very friendly to us," Power said. "It's a great country, all the tracks are awesome and there have been massive crowds. It's very good that they have this championship; it makes it a little more interesting.

"I'm very happy to win the Triple Crown. Simon has been very consistent and up to this point so had I, so it's very good for Team Australia."

TRIPLE CROWN

(AVERAGE FINISH)
1. Simon Pagenaud, Will Power (Australia) – 5.2
2. Sebastien Bourdais, Graham Rahal (Newman Haas Lanigan) – 5.5
3. Alex Tagliani, Justin Wilson (RSPORTS) – 6.7
4. Dan Clarke, Robert Doornbos (Minardi) – 8.7
5. Oriol Servia, Paul Tracy (Forsythe) – 9.8
6. Tristan Gommendy, Neel Jani, (PKV) – 10.2
7. Bruno Junqueira, Katherine Legge (Dale Coyne Racing) – 12
8. Ryan Dalziel, Alex Figge (Pacific Coast Motorsports) – 12
9. Jan Heylen (C'quest) 13 Edmonton Sun