Bourdais clinches Champ Car title

Bourdais celebrates his hat-trick of title wins

Sebastien Bourdais won his third Champ Car championship in a row at the Indy 300 at Surfers' Paradise in Australia.

The Frenchman secured the title with one race left in the series when American AJ Allmendinger, his closest rival, crashed out on the 19th lap.

"Once I saw him stopped on the track, I knew we had won. I radioed the team and said, 'OK, let's go racing'," he said.

Nelson Philippe won the race, 0.728 seconds ahead of Mario Dominguez of Mexico, with Alex Tagliani in third.

Bourdais was penalized mid-race by race officials for "avoidable contact" after colliding with pole-sitter Will Power of Australia.

Power stalled after the accident and fell back in the field, finishing 12th.

Derrick Walker, a co-owner of Power's Team Australia, said it was a "bonehead move" by Bourdais.

Bourdais served his drive-through penalty in the pits on lap 33 and finished eighth.

Three championships in a row

Ted Horn is the only other driver in the 97-year history of Champ Car racing to win three championships in a row, from 1946 to 1948.

Katherine Legge, racing for the first time since surviving without injury a serious accident three weeks ago at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, hit the wall on her 43rd lap and did not finish the race.

Britain's Justin Wilson had to withdraw from the race on Friday after breaking his right wrist during a qualifying session accident.