Kill switch error costs Ranger Toronto top six.

Canadian teenager Andrew Ranger was just a handful of laps away from finalising a superb weekend in front of a large and supportive Toronto crowd when a bizarre mistake left him stranded on the track in the final few yellow flag laps to the chequers.

Running in seventh place and keeping defending Champ Car World Series Champion Sebastien Bourdais honest as Sunday's Molson Indy Toronto headed towards its conclusion, a top six finish seemed academic when AJ Allmendinger crashed out of third place on lap 80 of 88. However as the field circled under yellow towards a premature lap 86 conclusion, Ranger seemed to accidentally flick the kill switch on his Mi Jack-Conquest Racing Lola-Ford, leaving him helpless and without power almost within sight of the chequered flag.

"Andrew was in a good position late in the race, but it looks like he accidentally hit a switch in the cockpit that shut the engine down," said team co-owner Eric Bachelart after the Mi-Jack Conquest team did a thorough inspection after the race. "The car ran normally after the race. It was a tough day for us because we had two cars that were both very fast, but unfortunately, they both had problems that kept them from scoring the points that they could have."

Ranger, who led the Roshfrans Rookie of the Year standings heading into the Toronto race was eventually classified eleventh on the day, dropping him three points behind fellow series rookie Timo Glock in eleventh place overall.

"The car was faster than it had been all weekend, and we had great pit-stops and good strategy," said Ranger. "Unfortunately, nothing happened when I tried to downshift going into turn five with just a couple of laps remaining, and it ended the race for me. I'm disappointed because I could have finished 6th and kept the lead in the rookie standings, but we'll race again in Canada in a week, and I hope we can be fast again and get to the finish."