One last blast of champagne under the Champ Car umbrella. (LAT photo)

Indeed. Although Tagliani initially brought the gap to Power down to three seconds, that was as close as he would get. He fell back, gradually at first, then lost a couple of seconds a lap while Power -- on primary Bridgestones -- sailed serenely onward.

“The car was nice,” he said. “It just all fell together, you know? It was a nice relaxing race. I was very focused on what I was doing. At the end it was just like, ‘Don’t make any mistakes, bring it home.’”

Tagliani soon had more than Power on his mind. His lap times soaring, and he soon came under pressure from Montagny who duly passed the Walker car on Lap 69. The Frenchman and his Forsythe/Pettit Racing crew had spent the balance of practice and qualifying focused on race setup and were rewarded with a car that Montagny found to his liking in race conditions even if there were a couple of new wrinkles to Champ Car racing that gave him pause.

“The car was very good, good traction, good balance,” he said. “My only worries were that I had never saved fuel before. That and driving on cold tires was very scary. It was a very difficult race for the mind.”

Next up was Dominguez. Apart from missing his qualifying setup on Saturday, the Mexican had enjoyed an outstanding weekend with the Pacific Coast Motorsports team, seldom out of the top five on the time sheets. In the opening segment of the race he moved from 10th to sixth despite saving fuel, gained another spot when Graham Rahal spun after a clash with Montagny and took over fourth when Perera had a problematic pit stop. Finally, he pounced on the crippled to secure PCM’s first podium finish.

A spectacular start won him the lead, and Power dominated thereafter.(LAT photo)

Nor were Perera’s woes at an end. Desperately short on fuel, he slowed in the final laps and was passed by Conquest Racing teammate Enrique Bernoldi and Oriol Servia (the latter mounting a fine recovery drive after stalling at the start), but benefiting profiting from Rahal’s last-lap gaffe that planted the second Newman/Haas/Lanigan entry in the Turn 10 tire wall. As for Tagliani, he at least managed to stave off the last-lap advances of David Martinez to secure a seventh-place finish in what was, of course, history’s final Champ Car race.

Which made Power’s finish all the better.

“Ever since I’ve joined Champ Car, my career has been good,” he said. “I was given a great opportunity by Craig Gore, and I took the ball and ran with it. I love Champ Car racing. I love the cars. I love the engines. It’s great to win here in Long Beach for the last Champ Car race. It is pretty special, to be honest.”

Toyota GP of Long Beach results:

1) Will Power, Team Australia, 83 laps
2) Franck Montagny, Forsythe/Pettit Racing, 83 +5.094sec
3) Mario Dominguez, Pacific Coast Motorsports, 83, +15.516
4) Enrique Bernoldi, Conquest Racing, 83, +25.677
5) Oriol Servia, KV Racing Technologies, 83, 26.276
6) Franck Perera, Conquest Racing, 83, 28.067
7. Alex Tagliani, Walker Racing, 83, 36.518
8) David Martinez, Forsythe/Pettit Racing, 83, 37.127
9) E.J. Viso, PDVSA HVM Racing, 83, 44.944
10) Jimmy Vasser, KV Racing Technologies, 83, 48.635
11) Paul Tracy, Forsythe/Pettit Racing, 83, 55.956
12) Bruno Junqueira, Dale Coyne Racing, 83, 1:07.553
13) Graham Rahal, Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, 82, Accident
14) Alex Figge, Pacific Coast Motorsports, 82
15) Nelson Philippe, Minardi/HVM Racing, 80
16) Antonio Pizzonia, Rocketsports Racing, 80
17) Roberto Moreno, Minardi/HVM Racing, 63, Mechanical
18) Juho Annala, Rocketsports Racing, 42, Mechanical
19) Justin Wilson, Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, 12, Engine
20) Mario Moraes, Dale Coyne Racing, 5 Accident