Gil de Ferran won the Champ Car race at the Rockingham Speedway on Saturday with a superb manoeuvre on the last corner of the last lap.

In a breathless finish, the Brazilian, who had led most laps, lost the lead two laps from the end when he was passed by championship leader Kenny Brack after he was held up by a backmarker.

But De Ferran, the reigning champion, fought back and made a slingshot move on the last lap, scything round the outside of Brack on the very last corner.

The two were centimetres apart at 200mph as the Brazilian chopped across to claim the corner.

The Brazilian led until lap 45, when he was held up in traffic and Brack found a way past.

The Swede held on to the lead, with De Ferran tracking him, until the second and final pit stops.

The Penske pit crew did a superb job at the stop to get their man out ahead.

"It was a very exciting race for us," De Ferran said. "The traffic was very difficult and that move [just before he lost the lead two laps from the end] didn't come off.

"But I wasn't about to give up. The car was very good and then Kenny had to deal with the traffic. I got a run on him and we went side-by-side into Turn Four.

Quality racing

"I had the slightly better line and could carry more throttle. I certainly enjoyed going wheel-to-wheel with Kenny. It was a hard fight but I never thought we would end up in the wall."

Brack said: "These are very unpredictable races. We were very hard with each other, but very fair."

De Ferran added: "This is a very emotional time for me. We are still racing under a little bit of a cloud with the events in the US and the horrific accident suffered by Alex Zanardi last week.

"But we have to keep going and try to return to some sort of normality.

"This means a lot to me. I have strong connections with this country. I lived here for six years, my wife is British and I have a lot of family and friends over here."

The quality of the racing also helped quash the memory of the chaos caused by the problems with water seeping up on to the track that forced the cancellation of practice and qualifying.

But the organisational confusion continued in the race, which was shortened from 168 laps to 140 laps shortly before the second stops on lap 99.

1. Gil de Ferran (Brz) Reynard-Honda one hour 20 minutes 59.050 seconds 2. Kenny Brack (Swe) Lola-Ford 1:20:59.684
3. Cristiano da Matta (Brz) Lola-Toyota 1:21:13.713
4. Helio Castroneves (Brz) Reynard-Honda 1:21:05.385 (demoted one position for overtaking under a yellow flag)
5. Michael Andretti (US) Reynard-Honda 1:21:16.106
6. Paul Tracy (Can) Reynard-Honda 1:21:17.969
7. Jimmy Vasser (US) Reynard-Toyota 1:21:18.110
8. Tony Kanaan (Brz) Reynard-Honda 1:21:18.790
9. Dario Franchitti (GB) Reynard-Honda 1:21:19.331
10. Oriol Servia (Spa) Lola-Ford 1:21:25.481
11. Max Papis (Ita) Lola-Ford 1:21:25.844
12. Townsend Bell (US) Reynard-Toyota 1 lap
13. Roberto Moreno (Brz) Reynard-Toyota 1 lap
14. Alex Tagliani (Can) Reynard-Ford 1 lap
15. Bryan Herta (US) Reynard-Ford 1 lap
16. Patrick Carpentier (Can) Reynard-Ford 2 laps
17. Shinji Nakano (Jap) Reynard-Honda 2 laps
18. Memo Gidley (US) Lola-Toyota 3 laps
19. Michel Jourdain (Mex) Lola-Ford 3 laps
20. Mauricio Gugelmin (Brz) Reynard-Toyota 5 laps
21. Max Wilson (Brz) Lola-Ford 6 laps

Non-runners at finish:
22. Scott Dixon (NZ) Reynard-Toyota
23. Adrian Fernandez (Mex) Reynard-Honda
24. Christian Fittipaldi (Brz) Lola-Toyota
25. Bruno Junqueira (Brz) Lola-Toyota
26. Toranosuke Takagi (Jap) Reynard-Toyota

Leading CART standings
(after 17 of 21 rounds):

1. Brack 147 points
2. De Ferran 141
3 Castroneves 125
3 Andretti 125
5. Da Matta 90
6. Franchitti 89