Walker Racing – Team Australia as it was rebranded with Aussie Vineyards backing – had only ditched its Reynard 02Is at the end of 2004, one of the last two Champ Car teams to do so, and so 2005 was very much a learning year for Derrick Walker’s team with the ageing Lola B2K. It wasn’t until 2006 that it got a real handle on the chassis’ finer points, by which time the majority of its rivals had been running with that equipment for several years. Allowing teams as great as Newman Haas Racing, Forsythe Championship Racing and relative newcomers RuSPORT a headstart made life tough.
Still, rookie Will Power came on increasingly strong in the second half of the year to score his first ever pole position in a U.S. open-wheel car, around Surfers Paradise. Sadly, come the race, he was sent down an escape road by champion Sebastien Bourdais.
