TORONTO, Canada, 15 July 2003 — Paul Tracy called it the biggest win of his 13-year career in the Champ Car World Series.
The 33-year-old Canadian led all 112 laps on Sunday in a dominant performance to win the Molson Indy Toronto in front of the hometown fans and earn his fourth triumph of the season.
“I think it’s probably one of the most dominant races I’ve had in my whole career,” Tracy said. “It’s the biggest win of my career, and it’s just an unbelievable feeling. The car was perfect and the Bridgestone tires were great.”
Driving a Ford Lola, Tracy averaged 96.189 miles per hour around the 1 3 4-mile Exhibition Place street circuit to claim his 23rd career checkered flag. He was never threatened, winning by a comfortable 4.533 seconds over Michel Jourdain of Mexico and scoring the maximum 22 points.
“It’s unbelievable to win here because of the importance of the race,” Tracy added. “It was kind of frustrating when the yellow came out (lap 84) because we had such a lead on second place (35 seconds). We had a great pit stop and I was able to pull away again to win.”
Tracy became just the third driver to win this race from the pole in its 17-year history. Michael Andretti claimed one of his seven Toronto wins from the pole in 1991 and Cristiano da Matta also led wire-to-wire last year. Tracy has been mobbed by his fans since arriving here earlier in the week. It should be more of the same at the next race in Vancouver.
Jourdain’s team owner, Bobby Rahal, won the inaugural race in Toronto in 1986. The Mexican driver earned his fifth podium finish of the year, including a victory at Milwaukee.
Bruno Junqueira of Brazil was third, followed by rookie Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais and Oriol Servia of Spain. All were more than 10 seconds behind Tracy.
