It was a formula for disaster.

Heading into Champ Car's lone oval-track race of 2006, there were six rookies who had never raced on an oval and they were making their debut on the flat, tricky, daunting Milwaukee Mile.

The smart money said at least half of them would taste concrete.

And there were several big accidents during the weekend but, incredibly, none of them involved any of the newcomers.

Katherine Legge, Dan Clarke, Charles Zwolsman, Nicky Pastorelli, Will Power and Jan Heylen all kept their noses clean and their cars left State Fair Park with all four wheels in tact.

Legge turned in the best showing of her four-race career by qualifying eighth, finishing sixth and becoming the first female to ever lead a Champ Car race.

"If someone would have told me I was going to finish sixth in my first oval race I would have been happy with that but I'm a little disappointed because we had a car for the podium early in this race," she said.

"We had a little problem with our front wing about 50 laps into the race and I picked up a massive push and I was just holding on trying not to hit the wall. But my team did an awesome job and it was a good experience."

The 27-year-old Brit was running fifth when the leaders pitted on Lap 27 under caution so she assumed the point in her Bell Micro Lola/Cosworth. Many times in the past this was a good way for a backmarker to get some TV time but that wasn't the case Sunday.

Legge took off when the green flag waved again on Lap 30 and she stayed ahead of Justin Wilson and A.J. Allmendinger as she led the next 12 circuits before Wilson finally got her in traffic.

"My job is to lead races and it was a nice feeling," she continued. "We had a good strategy and I was racing with Justin so I think I proved we could be competitive and run leader's speeds.

"I felt kinda helpless the last 100 laps because my car just wouldn't turn and it was a handful but it was a good learning experience. I know what people mean now when they say the car is pushin.

"It was a tough race but my pit stops were awesome and I can't thank Jimmy (Vasser) and Oriol (Servia) enough. Our goal was to creep on things all weekend and not do anything drastic so it went pretty good."

Power, who started fifth for Team Australia, was doing a good job and running in the top six before being KO'd by driveshaft problems on Lap 155.

"The more I ran in traffic, the more confident I got and I was making adjustments in the cockpit as the day went on," said Power. "Our driveshaft broke when I was leaving the pits so that was a kick in the stomach.

"But at least it happened leaving the pits and not on the track so we didn't hit the wall and tear anything up."

Clarke spun out on Lap 25 but didn't hit anything and soldiered home in eighth place for HVM, who got a great run from Nelson Phillipe in third.

"I lost the air and spun but this oval stuff is all new to me so I'm happy to get to the end," said the Englishman. "It's very hard to come in here and race with all these experienced guys.

"But it could have been a lot worse."

Zwolsman stayed out of trouble and finished ninth.

"My car went from understeer to oversteer and it was pretty terrible," said last year's Atlantic champion. "I just didn't have the confidence to push it so I just tried to bring it home in one piece."

Pastorelli had no previous testing so he was satisfied with 10th.

"I wasn't fast enough, I had some loose moments out there and it was very hard," he said. "I was just trying to stay out of trouble and I'm looking forward to getting back on a road course."

That seemed to be the general feeling.