Will Power won the final race of the Champ Car World Series on Sunday on the streets of Long Beach, the last remnant of the 12-year rivalry between the newly unified American open-wheel series. The race was run with Champ Car teams, drivers and equipment, but the points awarded were for the IRL's IndyCar Series, which ran a race earlier Sunday in Japan because of a scheduling conflict. Less than 24 hours after a historic IRL victory by Danica Patrick, the first woman to win an IndyCar race, the final race for the series that began as CART in 1979 was run before a large, appreciative crowd. Power, who started third in the 20-car field, spoiled the show a bit, though, jumping into the lead with a great start and leading most of the 83-lap, 1-hour, 45-minute Long Beach Grand Prix. The Australian, who finished fourth in last year's Champ Car series for Walker Racing, earned his third career victory, this one with the KV Racing Technology team, one of several Champ Car teams that are making the transition to the IRL. In fact, Power and eight other transitional drivers, have already raced twice in the IndyCar Series, but moved back into their old equipment for one last event when the IRL could not get officials in Japan to move their race. Twelve of the drivers in the race do not have rides in the IRL, but two of them, former Formula One driver Frank Montagny, in his first Champ Car start, finished second, followed by longtime Champ Car star Mario Dominguez. Rookie Enrique Bernoldi and Oriol Servia, both transitional drivers, finished fourth and fifth. Graham Rahal, who at 19 became the youngest driver ever to win a major open-wheel race two weeks ago in the IRL event in St. Petersburg, Florida, spun twice and finished 13th. The youngster had moved back up to seventh when he spun trying to pass Franck Perera, another transitional driver, for position on the last lap. __
