Carpentier wins CART race

CLEVELAND, July 14 (UPI) -- Patrick Carpentier of Canada took advantage of an early exit by pole-sitter Cristiano da Matta Sunday and went on to win the CART Grand Prix of Cleveland at Burke Lakefront Airport.

Trying to become the first CART driver to win five consecutive races, da Matta led the first 19 laps before developing electronic difficulties on his Toyota/Lola.

"I'm not disappointed about not setting a new CART record with five straight wins," said the Brazilian, who has all but turned the CART series into a one-driver circuit. "The streak doesn't mean anything to me, the championship is my goal. I'm disappointed that we didn't score any points and get closer to our goal."

The series points leader made a stop, went back out and struggled around the bumpy track back into the pits to retire with a mechanical problem on lap 21.

"Tha car started losing power so I came in and the team changed some electronics," da Matta said. "I went back out, but heard the same noise, so we had to come back in and retire."

Carpentier averaged 120.998 miles per hour in his Ford-Cosworth/Reynard and led 66 of 115 laps en route to his first career victory on a road course and second overall.

"This is my first road course win since I've been in CART and this weekenend was fantastic," said Carpentier, who won the Michigan 500 last year. "This weekend it was our team that had everything perfect."

The Canadian took the checkered flag by more than 17 seconds over veteran Michael Andretti in a Honda/Lola.

"We tried really hard but I just didn't have the whole package today," Andretti said. "We needed this finish bad, so I'm happy for the team."

Andretti posted his best finish since winning the second race of the season at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. It was his fourth second place finish here and seventh podium result in Cleveland.

Paul Tracy was third, Kenny Brack took fourth and Alex Tagliani finished fifth.

"We needed to get these points and we're starting to move up," said Tracy, who has 50 points and scored his 46th career podium finish. "I had a really good middle stint of the race and I was catching Michael (Andretti). I just didn't have it on the third set of tires."

Carpentier also benefited when last year's winner Dario Franchitti of Scotland retired on lap 69. Franchitti led between laps 20-48 once da Matta dropped out and was running second when the engine on his Honda/Lola expired. He made it to the pits where he climbed out of his car. Franchitti remained third in the standings.