Franchitti wins CART Rockingham 500

CORBY, England, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Dario Franchitti of Scotland won Saturday's CART Rockingham 500 for his first career victory.

Franchitti was 0.986 seconds ahead of CART points leader Cristiano da Matta of Brazil more than 2.7 seconds in front of Canadian Patrick Carpentier at Rockingham Motor Speedway.

Oriol Servia of Spain and Bruno Junqueira of Brazil rounded out the top five.

With four races remaining, the top six drivers in the points standings are unchanged. Da Matta leads with 191 points, 58 ahead of Junqueira and 65 in front of Franchitti.

English rookie Darren Manning gave the local crowd a reason to cheer as he started 17th and even led some laps before finishing ninth. Manning, a former Formula One test driver, made his CART debut as an entry for Dale Coyne Racing/Team St. George.