The pace car team leads the field round for a reconnaissance lap prior to the start of the 26th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Gil de Ferran is on pole for the first time with his new team Penske Racing.

Second up is Jimmy Vasser, who says he is much more comfortable in the Target Chip Ganassi Racing car this season. Is it the switch to Toyota engines or the new Lola chassis? Jimmy thinks that now Firestone doesn't have to compete with Goodyear, who dropped out as a tire supplier at the end of last season, they're making tires that suit his driving style better.

Third on the grid is 1999 CART champion Juan Montoya. Will he be able to give Toyota their first win? As sponsor of the race, they would be sure to be happy!

Adrian Fernandez started in fourth position despite battling a cold and a nasty rash for the past three days. He was still poorly this morning: "I don't want to make any excuses, but I haven't been feeling well and last night I didn't get much sleep.".

Bryan Herta, substituting for Shinji Nakano in the Walker Racing car, surprised everyone by claiming fifth spot on the grid, ahead of both drivers from Team Rahal, the team that let him go at the end of last season.

As the green flag waves and they go racing, Jimmy Vasser mounts an early challenge on Gil de Ferran.

At the starting line Jimmy is almost alongside, but he can't get the pass done before reaching Turn 1.

Gil holds off the attack and by the time he passes Turn 11 again, he seems in control of the lead. He goes on to lead the first 30 laps.

Further back the field is still bunched up, allowing much jostling for places. At the Turn 11 hairpin cars are trying to go through two abreast!

Paul Tracy started in 17th, having had a disappointing qualifying run: "We've been round and round trying to find the right setup on the KOOL car, but we can't get a handle on it. Now we'll have to pull some hero stuff from the back of the Grid." By lap ten he's in 15th spot, right up under Tony Kanaan's gearbox.

At the end of lap ten Cristiano da Matta slows and pulls off line. This coincides with Adrian Fernandez hitting the wall (supposedly also at Turn 11, but I don't see any signs of him in my photos), bringing on a full-course yellow.

Almost immediately the yellow flag comes out again when Mauricio Gugelmin, in 13th place, spins at Turn 11 with a little assistance from Oriol Servia's Telefonica car.

The safety crew turns him to face the right direction and gives him a push to get him started and Mauricio is back in the race, albeit now down a lap in 23rd place.

By now Roberto Moreno is charging. When the race goes green again on lap 17, he hunts down Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser and passes them both two laps later.

On lap 31 de Ferran pits, turning over the lead to Moreno. However, Roberto is soon to pit himself and on lap 34 Patrick Carpentier momentarily takes over before also pitting.

This hands the lead to Michael Andretti, who started 14th and, like Paul Tracy right behind him, runs out of sequence thanks to an early pit stop under yellow on lap 11. However, when on lap 40 Max Papis spins off into the tire wall, Tracy takes advantage for another yellow pit stop, leaving Michael, Christian Fittipaldi and Moreno in the top three places, as we see them here.

This could have been a critical mistake for the Newman Haas team. While Michael led the next five green laps, both he and Christian would soon have to pit under green.

With fresh tires and fuel on board, Tracy was working his way back up through the field, from eighth when the race went back to green to fourth when the Newman-Haas cars went in.

Something was definitely already amiss with Christian's car as he approached the pit entrance. Moreno, Vasser and de Ferran passed him all to easily. Once in his pit box, a fire broke out at the rear of the car and Christian hurriedly jumped out, twisting his ankle in the process. With the car rapidly doused with water, his race was over.

On lap 53 the yellow comes out again when Kenny Bräck and Tony Kanaan collide at Turn 1. The leaders, including Moreno, Vasser, de Ferran and Tracy all choose to pit, as does the blue and red Hollywood car of Luiz Garcia Jr. who is six laps down.

When the race gets back to green on lap 57, we're all surprised to find Takuya Kurosawa out front, the first Japanese driver to lead a Champ Car race! From a starting position of 23rd, he had worked his way up to third at one point earlier in the race and managed to hold onto his lead for four green laps.

At the end of lap 59, a charging Michael Andretti punts into the side of Mark Blundell, causing him to drop to the ninth spot. Meanwhile, Moreno was experiencing gearbox problems and dropped nine places in three laps.

This leaves Tracy all over the back of Takuya, but the spirited rookie hangs on. Tracy finally gets his break on lap 61 and proceeds to run off with the lead.

The yellow comes out again on lap 66 when Norberto Fontana attempts a pass on Kurosawa at Turn 1 and ends up in the tire barrier. The field bunches up and at this stage of the race Tracy is leading, followed by Helio Castroneves, Jimmy Vasser, Alexandre Tagliani and Gil de Ferran.

On the restart, de Ferran loses control and starts to spin. This drops him to ninth place. He had run into the back of Vasser during an earlier restart that had upset his balance for the rest of the race.

Oriol Servia, Bryan Herta and Gil de Ferran all get by Mark Blundell on lap 73.

Michael Andretti pulls off at Turn 10 with a similar fire to the one that took Christian out. See the flames from the engine compartment?

On lap 76 Michel Jourdain Jr. spins right in front of Mauricio Gugelmin as they emerge onto the front straight. This brings out the yellow flag for the sixth and final time.

Also involved in the incident is Takuya Kurosawa. He tagged the inside wall of the hairpin, possibly meaning there's no real connection with Jourdain's situation at all. He has stalled the car and is frantically waving for the safety crew to give him a push to get restarted. But he's not going anywhere with a right rear wheel like that!

With five laps to go, the green flag waves again and Tracy leads Helio Castroneves, Jimmy Vasser, Alexandre Tagliani, Oriol Servia, Bryan Herta and Gil de Ferran into the restart.

Vasser hounded Castroneves for those five laps, making repeated attempts to get by. But to no avail.

Judging his fuel well, Castroneves ran out just past the finish line, where he sat crying, overcome with emotion. His best finish yet, this was also Penske's first podium since Milwaukee in 1998. Bringing Toyota their first podium finish, Vasser said "I think you're going to see a lot more Jimmy Vasser this year".

Paul Tracy waves to the fans on his victory lap. This win marks Honda's 15th successive on street circuits.

Cheers, boys! (It didn't take long for Jimmy to turn his hat round.).