Rahal is left frustrated

Fresh off making history in his first IndyCar Series race on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., Graham Rahal, 19, looked like a contender to make it two in a row Sunday.

The youngest winner of a major North American open-wheel race had a chance to score major points in the unified open-wheel series while racing in the finale of the Champ Car World Series.

Instead, prosperity became poverty in the 34th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

He drove brilliantly most of the 83 laps yet finished 13th in a field of 20 for team owners Paul Newman, Carl Haas and Mike Lanigan.

“If you win, you get a lot of points, but if you’re much further back than that in this points system, you get a pat on the back and they send you on your way,” said Rahal, who won in his IndyCar debut two weeks ago.

Rahal was tapped on the back by Franck Montagny’s nose cone on Lap 47. Montagny went on to finish second and gain 40 points, 10 fewer than race winner Will Power. Rahal was credited with 18 points.

The son of three-time series champion Bobby Rahal qualified ninth. He improved to fourth and was passing Montagny for second place when they made contact.

Rahal spun and dropped to 12th. He wasn’t impressed with the Turn 10 skirmish.

“We knew coming in that we were going to have to watch people like Franck,” said Rahal, referring to those drivers with nothing at stake points-wise. “I didn’t feel I was taking a risk that was going to bite me like that. I knew I was past him. Any time someone hits you with a nose cone in your left rear, you know you’re by him.”

Rahal said he gave the former Formula One driver “plenty of room.”

“He blocked me all the way down the back straight, but I got inside of him anyway,” Rahal said. “He could have easily run over the curb . . . and that wasn’t the way he wanted to go, unfortunately.”

Rahal moved through the field a second time and consistently posted some of the race’s fastest laps. He was seventh, hoping to force Enrique Bernoldi into a mistake, when his day finally ended on Lap 83 when he hit a tire wall.

“On the last lap I was on the car in front of me . . . and the rears locked up,” Rahal said. “We worked so hard to catch up after contact with Montagny that you just feel like an idiot for all that hard work to be wasted.”

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Rahal’s teammate, pole-sitter Justin Wilson, also had dreadful luck for Champ Car’s most successful team. He was the fastest driver in both qualifying sessions, and Rahal switched Wilson’s setup for the race.

Wilson was in second place when his engine let go on Lap 13. He finished 19th.

“It’s heartbreaking to be in such a dominant position all weekend,” said Wilson, one of the favorites among the Champ Car drivers making the transition to the IndyCar Series. “It’s like a kick between the legs.”

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Simona De Silvestro took advantage of Jonathan Bomarito’s mistake in Turn 1 midway through the 38-lap Mazda Atlantic race and became the second woman to win a series race at Long Beach.

De Silvestro, 20, a Swiss driver in her second season, gave owners Eddie Wachs and Newman their first series victory. Her previous best finish was seventh. Katherine Legge, who won three races in 2005, is the only other woman to win a Formula Atlantic race.

De Silvestro qualified second and trailed pole-sitter Bomarito by 7.5 seconds before he braked too late and went into the runoff on Lap 23. She survived the restart and beat Alan Sciuto of Orange to the line by 1.28 seconds. Bomarito finished fifth.

“She got a great restart and drove a perfect race,” Sciuto said.

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martin.henderson@latimes.com