SURFERS PARADISE, Australia - Gil de Ferran's late-season run for a second consecutive CART series championship could end with Sunday's Honda Indy 300 on the streets of Surfers Paradise. It's a course that de Ferran says he enjoys racing on.

Unfortunately, the 2.75-mile 12-turn temporary street course that winds its way around high-rise apartments and along the Pacific Ocean doesn't return the accolade - for the past two races here, the Brazilian hasn't managed to complete a lap.

"Heading into Australia last year, we were also in a good position but didn't get through the first corner," de Ferran said Thursday at a driver breakfast.

"Despite the fact that I haven't completed more than a lap in the Australia race over the past couple of years, I really enjoy it. The track itself is probably one of the most challenging street circuits - it's definitely the longest and most intricate."

De Ferran has helped his cause in the past six weeks with two wins - at Houston and in England, ending a yearlong victory drought - and a third placing at Laguna Seca, Calif., on Oct. 14 that consolidated his series lead.

Sweden's Kenny Brack, who trails de Ferran by 26 points with two races to go, has the only realistic chance of catching the defending FedEx CART series champion. De Ferran's Marlboro Penske Honda Reynard teammate, Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, is the only other driver close to the leading pair, sitting 38 points behind de Ferran.

Brack, who had led the series for most of the year, didn't finish at Laguna Seca, going out with mechanical problems on the sixth lap.

He had a second-place finish behind Adrian Fernandez in last year's Australian race. But to repeat last year's strong finish here, Brack will have to overcome his problems this season on road courses.

Brack has three wins this year on ovals at Motegi in Japan, at Chicago and in Germany. Of his 153 points, 116 have been scored on ovals and just 37 on road or street tracks.

De Ferran, meanwhile, has scored 133 on road or street courses and 46 on ovals.

Brack will be looking for a strong performance this weekend when 22 points are available - 20 for a first-place finish, one for leading for the most number of laps in the 65-lap race and another point for winning the pole on Saturday.

He'll then hope that de Ferran does what he's done the past two years and finish out of the points, sending the championship to the final race of the season Nov. 4 at Fontana, Calif. It's on a super speedway, where Brack has felt most comfortable this year.

Fernandez came from 17th place to win last year's Australian race when only 13 of 25 starters finished after most of the leaders crashed into walls, each other or had mechanical breakdowns.

The race got off to a spectacular start with a first-turn collision between front-rowers Juan Montoya and de Ferran, knocking both out of the race.

One driver who will have to be on his best behaviour is Paul Tracy of Toronto, who is on probation for the final two races after being fined $50,000 US for an outburst at Laguna Seca.

After a pit lane incident with Castroneves, CART blamed Tracy for the dustup even though Castroneves had accepted responsibility.

Tracy, in a later television interview, complained that Castroneves wasn't penalized and heavily criticized CART chief steward Chris Kneifel, saying "we would be better off with a circus clown running the series."

The fine was the largest for a CART driver since Alex Zanardi was fined the same amount in 1998.

Zanardi is recovering in hospital after having both legs amputated above the knee following a high-speed crash at the American Memorial 500 in Germany in September.

Zanardi's last CART win was at Surfers Paradise in 1998, prompting the Italian to ask something special of Mo Nunn Racing teammate Tony Kanaan of Brazil.

"He said, 'Hey, you have to do it for me over there because that was my last win,"' Kanaan said Zanardi told him during a phone call. "If I win that's the only reason - I would dedicate my race to him."