Scotland's Dario Franchitti held off the attentions of his team-mate Paul Tracy to take the Cart Molson-Indy race in Vancouver.

It was Franchitti's second victory in the Canadian city and his first victory since July 2001 in Cleveland.

Only seven of 18 starters were running at the end of the 100-lap race on the 1.781-mile temporary street course.

Mexican Adrian Fernandez had to be cut from his car by safety workers and taken to hospital on a stretcher after an accident nine laps from the end.

'A bit worried'

Fernandez's crash brought out a red flag that lasted 16 minutes and 40 seconds but he sustained only bruising.

Franchitti had an 11-second advantage over Tracy but when the green flag was waved again on lap 96, the gap had disappeared.

"Everything was looking great until that last yellow and the red flag," Franchitti said.

"I was a bit worried on the restart, but I got on it really hard on the restart trying to get a gap from Paul.

"I don't know if he would have made a challenge and risk our finishing 1-2, but I didn't want to let him get close enough to try."

Franchitti's Honda-powered Lola pulled away to a 2.6-second lead at the end of the first lap and he cruised to the eighth win of his career.

He crossed the finish line 1.239 seconds - about 10 car-lengths - ahead of Tracy.

Tony Kanaan was third, followed by Michel Jourdain and Patrick Carpentier.

Cristiano da Matta, who started from the pole but finished 12th after a gearbox failure for the second race in a row, still holds a healthy championship lead.

The Brazilian leads Franchitti 122-84 in the points race. Mexican Michel Jourdain and Brazil's Bruno Junqueira share third at 74.