Cristiano da Matta returned to winning ways with victory in the 60-lap Championship Auto Racing Teams (Cart) Motorola 220.

Da Matta had won four straight races before failing to finish the last three.

But he bounced back on Sunday to win his sixth race of the season, the 10th of his career and the eighth in his last 14 Cart races.

"We had an objective before the race to finish in the top five," Da Matta said.

"We knew we had the car to do better than that, but we tried to be very conservative in our objective."

The Brazilian driver increased his lead to 42 points over Bruno Junqueira and Patrick Carpentier in the series standings.

Da Matta finished 0.805 seconds in front of Alex Tagliani of Canada and 1.53 seconds ahead of Junqueira, who started from pole and led between laps 25 to 38.

"I'm very pleased with the way things went and that our strategy worked.

"We were able to stay on track and do quick laps," added Da Matta.

Pit stops proved to be the key to da Matta's victory.

He started second but dropped to third at the start after being passed by Canadian Paul Tracy in the KOOL Honda/Lola.

Yellow flag

Tracy then passed Junqueira for the lead as the field headed into turn five and stayed in front for the first 24 laps.

He eventually surrendered the lead when he made his second stop ahead of the leading pack.

That put Junqueira in front and after he and Da Matta made their second stops, both were able to rejoin the race ahead of Tracy.

Tracy's day came to a halt on lap 40 when Kenny Brack's passing attempt failed and his Target Toyota/Lola spun and took both cars out.

When the yellow flag came out on lap 50 for Shinji Nakano's spin, the leaders pitted for the final time.

Junqueira lost time after his rear tyre knocked a wrench out of the hands of one his pit crew.

The time spent retrieving the wrench allowed Tagliani to rejoin the race in second, behind Da Matta.

Scotland's Dario Franchitti was 12th after a mechanical failure of his Honda/Lola ended his race at the 43-lap mark.

Motorola 220 results

1 Cristiano da Matta (Bra), Toyota/Lola 60 laps, 1hr 56 mins 43 secs, 124.856mph
2 Alex Tagliani (Can), Ford-Cosworth/Reynard 0.805 secs
3 Bruno Junqueira (Bra), Toyota/Lola, 60, running
4 Tony Kanaan (Bra), Honda/Lola, 60, running
5 Jimmy Vasser (USA), Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 60, running
6 Christian Fittipaldi (Bra), Toyota/Lola, 60, running
7 Patrick Carpentier (Can), Ford-Cosworth/Reynard, 60, running
8 R-Mario Dominguez (Mex), Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 60, running
9 Michel Jourdain (Mex), Ford-Cosworth/Lola, 60, running
10 Michael Andretti (USA), Honda/Lola, 58, running

Overall standings

1 Da Matta 143 points
2 Carpentier 101
3 Junqueira 101
4 Dario Franchitti Honda/Lola/Bridgestone 85
5 Fittipaldi 82
6 Jourdain 80
7 Tagliani 80
8 Andretti 77
9 Paul Tracy Honda/Lola/Bridgestone 69
10 Kenny Brack Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone 68

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