WEST ALLIS, Wis. ? Paul Tracy has been schooled by several masters of oval racing, and Saturday he turned some of that savvy into his fourth victory at the Milwaukee Mile.

Tracy made a gutsy outside pass of pole-winner Jimmy Vasser stick on the 19th of 221 laps and went on to win the Road Runner 225 Champ Car World Series event, holding off tenacious second-year driver A.J. Allmendinger in the waning laps.

“In the beginning of my career, I had Rick (Mears) and Emerson (Fittipaldi) to learn from,” Tracy said. “Then Al (Unser Jr.) came and Michael (Andretti) in ’95. He won here a lot of times.

“I learned how you can push it on cold tires, and I’ve just got a good feel.”

Then Tracy grinned and added, “Of course, last year, I tried that move here and hit the wall.”

There were no slip-ups this time, though, as Tracy, who started fifth in the 17-car field, was second by the end of the first lap. He stayed close to Vasser, who started from the pole for the first time in four years, and finally made his move on a restart following the first of three caution flags in the race.

The Canadian-born Tracy, who lives in Las Vegas, shot to the outside of Vasser on the wide, flat mile oval. Vasser fought hard to hold Tracy off and the two drove side by side for more than half a lap before Tracy finally pulled ahead coming off the fourth turn.

Tracy likened the duel between former champions, the oldest drivers in the series, to a race between “two old salty seadogs.”

“It was going at it like 10 years ago,” he said. “That was fun.”