Will Power wins Indy race in Detroit

Australian Will Power has won the first race on the Detroit circuit in the IndyCar double header.

Will Power of Australia

Aussie Will Power closing in on his first IndyCar crown, earns pole position for the Wisconsin 250. (AAP)

Australian Will Power gave Roger Penske and Chevrolet what they desperately wanted by winning the first of two races at the Detroit Grand Prix on Saturday.

Power finished 0.3308 seconds ahead of Graham Rahal on the bumpy, 13-turn, 2.36-mile street circuit on Belle Isle.

Power, who started a season-worst 16th, took the lead for good with just more than 10 laps to go when he passed countryman Ryan Briscoe.

The Australian held off Rahal to join Indianapolis 500 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay as the IndyCar drivers with two victories through six races.

Power, who won IndyCar's season-opening race, has 23 career victories to break a tie with Emerson Fittipaldi and Tony Bettenhausen for 19th.

His latest victory had to be especially sweet for Penske and Chevy.

Penske had not won an open-wheel race in the area he calls home since Helio Castroneves finished first in 2001. And for Chevy, which sponsors the race, it was relegated to watching Honda dominate the previous three races in the shadow of its world headquarters.

Before the race on a sun-splashed afternoon, Honda executives talked about how they could walk around rival Chevy officials with their chests puffed out. After the 70-lap race, they had to settle for Rahal's second-place finish.

Tony Kanaan was third followed by Justin Wilson and pole-sitter Helio Castroneves.

Hunter-Reay, meanwhile, failed to follow up the biggest win of his career with a 16th-place finish. He was on the last lap, but did not make it to the finish line because he spun into a tire wall to end the race. He started 21st in the 22-car field because he brushed a wall on his second lap during Saturday morning's qualifying session.

Simon Pagenaud and Mike Conway each won last year on Belle Isle and both lost their shot to win early Saturday.

Pagenaud damaged his front left suspension when he ran into the back of Power, leading to a yellow. Conway did not have any one around him when he appeared to understeer into a wall on Lap 15, putting the race under caution.

Both will get another shot to repeat at the Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday as part of IndyCar's first of three doubleheaders this season.


Share

3 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world