Team Australia maintains Triple Crown lead

With a first and fourth place finish today at the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto, Team Australia teammates Will Power and Simon Pagenaud increased their lead in the Champ Car Canadian Triple Crown standings. The duo, who announced the team competition in Montreal prior to the first race in Mont-Tremblant, now head to Edmonton with a narrow lead over Canadian driver Alex Tagliani and his teammate Justin Wilson of RSPORTS.

Power, who started the race seventh on the grid, made his way to the front and dominated the latter part of the race to score his second win this season. His Aussie Vineyard stablemate, Pagenaud, spent most of the race midfield but patiently worked his way through the field to a second consecutive fourth-place finish.

For the second consecutive time in the Champ Car Canadian Triple Crown, rain fell and turned the Canadian event into a thrilling, action-packed race.

The Team Australia average finish of 3 keeps them in the lead over Wilson and Tagliani, who with their third and eighth positions moved up from third to second place with an average finish of 6. Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing drivers, Sebastien Bourdais (ninth) and Graham Rahal (11th), dropped to third place in the standings with an average finish of 7.25. Rounding out the top five in the Canadian team competition are Team Minardi USA’s Robert Doornbos and Dan Clarke (8.25) and PKV Racing’s Neel Jani and Tristan Gommendy (8.75).

“A lot of mayhem in the race once again, but I’m stoked to be leading the Triple Crown," expressed Power during the post-race press conference. “Today proved once again that anything can happen in a Champ Car race but hopefully we can finish it off in Edmonton with both of us on the podium 1, 2. That would be perfect."

The final leg of the Champ Car Canadian Triple Crown team competition takes place in two weeks at the Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton and will be broadcast live on ESPN in the United States and on Global in Canada starting at 3:00 p.m. The competition, which pits teams against each other over the three Canadian races, will see the top team take home original Inuit carvings created by renowned artist Ohito Ashoona. The carvings are known as Inuksuk and represent cooperation and team building as well as leadership, achievement, direction and strength.