2001 Honda Indy 300


The 2001 Honda Indy 300 was a Championship Auto Racing Teams motor race held on 28 October 2001 at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, in front of a crowd of 110,187 people. It was the twentieth and penultimate round of the 2001 CART season, the eleventh iteration of the Honda Indy 300 and the last race of 2001 to be held outside the United States. The 65-lap race was won by Cristiano da Matta of the Newman-Haas Racing team who began from third. Michael Andretti finished second for Team Motorola and Forsythe Racing driver Alex Tagliani took third.
Roberto Moreno won the second pole position of his career by recording the fastest lap in qualifying but lost his start-line advantage to de Ferran on the approach to the first corner. De Ferran pulled away from the rest of the field and retained the lead until the first round of pit stops. Moreno retook first by staying on the track for a lap longer than de Ferran. He lost the first position when his car developed a gear selection problem that led to his retirement on the 54th lap. Da Matta assumed the lead and remained there for the remainder of the race to claim his second victory of the season and the fourth of his career. Andretti drew closer to da Matta, but he was instructed to manage his fuel usage and took second place. There were two cautions and eight lead changes among five drivers during the race.
The result meant de Ferran won his second CART Drivers' Championship in a row as his nearest title rival Kenny Bräck could not match his points total this late in the season. Hélio Castroneves maintained third despite not scoring any points and Andretti's second-place finish tied him with Castroneves on points. Da Matta's victory moved him past Dario Franchitti in the battle for fifth. Honda had already won the Manufacturers' Championship at the preceding Honda Grand Prix of Monterey as Toyota moved ahead of Ford Cosworth in the duel for second. Reynard still led the Constructors' Championship but their advantage over Lola was lowered by two points with one race remaining in the season.

Background

The Honda Indy 300 was confirmed as part of CART's 2001 schedule for the series in August 2000. It was the eleventh consecutive year the race was held as part of the series, and the seventh round of 2001 to be held outside the United States. The 2001 Honda Indy 300 was the 20th and penultimate race scheduled for 2001 by CART. It was held on 28 October 2001 at the 12-turn Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Queensland. The Australian press anticipated that 300,000 people would visit the track during the weekend. After organisers of the race voiced concerns over the possibility of its cancellation if the Government of the United States barred air travel to Australia in the event its invasion of Afghanistan deteriorated, CART executives stated that the round would proceed as scheduled but with increased security. The chairman of the race Geoff Jones stated, "CART's outlook has been business as usual, they won't be bowing to terrorism."
Entering the race from Laguna Seca two weeks earlier, Team Penske driver Gil de Ferran led the Drivers' Championship with 179 points, 26 ahead of his nearest championship rival Kenny Brack of Team Rahal in second. With 141 points, Hélio Castroneves in the second Penske car was third and Team Motorola's Michael Andretti placed fourth with 125 points. Dario Franchitti of Team Green rounded out the top five with 105 points. 44 points were available for the final two rounds of the season. This meant de Ferran could win his second championship in a row if he left the round with a points advantage of 23 or higher over Bräck. Honda had already won the Manufacturers' Championship at the Honda Grand Prix of Monterey as it had an unassailable lead of 316 points. The battle for second place in the championship was closer with Ford Cosworth and Toyota equal on points with 266 apiece. With 345 points, Reynard led the Constructors' Championship with an unchallenged advantage of 51 points over their sole rivals Lola.
De Ferran began his charge to the top of the points' standings at the Grand Prix of Chicago in July. He later won two consecutive races at the Rockingham 500 and the Grand Prix of Houston during the second half of the season to claim the Drivers' Championship lead. Although he had not completed a single lap of the Surfers Paradise circuit in the previous two years, de Ferran said he was aware that the race would be of a significant performance to the title battle noting, "The situation is looking relatively good for Marlboro Team Penske, but it's not decided by any means. Heading into Australia last year, we were also in a good position but didn't get through the first corner. Hopefully, we'll be more successful this year." Bräck stated that he had not conceded the championship despite having won all four of his races on oval tracks in the season.
This thing is not over 'til it's over. Sure I'd like to be leading, but I have been in enough championship races to know that we can still pull it off. Actually, we were further behind Gil last year going into Surfers Paradise than we are this year. So nothing is out of the question. But I would like to score a win and go to California with a strong shot at the championship."

There was one change of driver going into the round. 1997 Atlantic Champion Alex Barron was announced as replacing Max Wilson in the No. 25 Arciero-Blair Racing car for the final two races of the season. Team owner Larry Blair made the change based on Barron's performance during the last two rounds of the 2000 season at Surfers Paradise and Fontana and because his experience and input were required to help the team advance. Barron said in a press release that he was looking forward to competing for Arciero-Blair Racing. "Last year, I was in contention to win both events – then we had a mechanical problem. 2001 has been a long year not racing a Champ Car. But I have kept myself in shape by working out, testing the 2002 Atlantic chassis and testing for Firestone at the new tracks in Germany and England. It will be good to be back in CART competition and to race for this new team."

Practice and qualifying

Three practice sessions were held before the race on Sunday. The first practice session ran on Friday and lasted 105 minutes. The second practice was held in the afternoon and ran for 90 minutes, and the final session took place on Saturday morning lasting 75 minutes. A rain shower during the Thursday night made the track slightly wet. Most drivers began on dry slick tyres with a few using wet-weather tyres as they optimised the set-up of their cars. Light drizzle returned to the area 41 minutes into practice, which later turned to a deluge and flooded the track. Jimmy Vasser set the fastest lap of the session with a time of 1 minute and 36.911 seconds. He was almost one tenth of a second faster than Castroneves in second. Adrián Fernández, Roberto Moreno, Christian Fittipaldi, Cristiano da Matta, Patrick Carpentier, Bryan Herta, Memo Gidley and Michel Jourdain Jr. filled positions three to ten. Carpentier braked too late for the third corner and slid onto a run-off area. He did not hit the wall lining the circuit and reversed onto the track. The first red flag was waved for two minutes as Scott Dixon lost traction at the rear of his vehicle and went broadside into the turn one chicane. Dixon made minor contact with a barrier and his car stalled, requiring assistance from course officials. Carpentier spun for a second time at turn seven and briefly went airborne after driving over a kerb, breaking a front suspension wishbone. Da Matta ran deep at the turn fourteen hairpin and stalled, stopping the session for four minutes as course officials restarted his car.
The rain eased during the interval between the end of the first practice session and the start of the second session and it appeared that efforts to dry the track would commence. However, heavy rain returned to the area fifteen minutes before second practice commenced and yellow flags were necessitated when it began. That led CART and track officials to try to stem the amount of running water on the track by sweeping it to the gutters and using a jet dryer to push it off the groove. The track was made drive-able as a consequence of the officials' work. The green flag was waved by series starter Jim Swintal 50 minutes after the session began to signal the start of practice at racing speeds. Five drivers elected to venture onto the track while the rest of the field stayed in the pit lane to be conservative. Casey Mears set the fastest time with a 1-minute and 57.751 seconds lap on his fourth try. It was more than 20 seconds slower than Vasser's first practice session lap. Tony Kanaan checked the functionality of his gearbox and was second-quickest, and Fittipaldi rounded out the drivers who set a lap.
The rain continued until 02:00 Australian Eastern Standard Time and the track was entirely dry with sunny skies before the start of the third practice session. Shinji Nakano and Kanaan went onto the run-off areas at turns eight and nine before the first red flag came for the latter when he slid entering turn two and collided heavily with the left-hand tyre barrier with his car's left-front corner and broke the suspension. A second red flag was necessitated when Tora Takagi slid through the left-hand turn four and glanced the right-hand barrier with his vehicle's right-front corner. Carpentier triggered the third stoppage after stalling in the centre of the circuit between turns four and five and his car was extricated by course officials. The final red flag was needed with fifteen minutes left when Herta ran out of fuel and stalled leaving the fourth turn. Paul Tracy spun onto the turn three run-off area but avoid stalling his engine and continued without damaging his vehicle. De Ferran was the pace setter of the third practice session with a late lap time of 1 minute and 33.511 seconds, followed by Moreno, Franchitti, Castroneves, da Matta, Alex Tagliani, Max Papis, Oriol Servià, Vasser and Nakano.
took the second pole position of his career in his 100th start in CART.
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session lasted 75 minutes. The cars were split into two groups of thirteen: group one had drivers ranked 13th through 26th in the points standings and those in 1st to 12th with the fastest non-top-12 drivers from the previous road course race in group two. Both groups were allowed half an hour of on-track time with a 15-minute interval between the two groups recording their fastest lap times to determine the event's starting order. Vasser was the first driver to record a benchmark lap when the first of five red flags was necessitated for Takagi who slid straight across the turn eight left-hander and into the right-hand tyre wall, damaging his car's right-front corner. The second came five minutes after the session restarted when Maurício Gugelmin lost traction in his car on the run into the eighth corner and made broad contact with a retaining wall with his car's right-hand side. Gugelmin was transported to hospital for a fractured bone in his right wrist. Barron went airborne when he rode the kerbs at the turn seven chicane and over-corrected en route to hitting the right-hand barrier. His car trailed fire with a broken oil line and the third red flag was consequently waved. The fourth stoppage was caused by Vasser who lost control of his car on the turn five kerbing and slid broadside into the left-hand wall, breaking his car's left-rear suspension and gearbox. Papis caused the final stoppage when he slid into the turn eleven tyre wall, removing his vehicle's front-left wheel.
In his 100th CART start, Moreno took his second career pole position with a time of 1 minute and 32.095 seconds which he set on the session's final lap. He was joined on the grid's front row by de Ferran whose best time was 0.311 seconds slower and had the pole until Moreno's lap as de Ferran served an eight-minute penalty. Da Matta used his best tyres early on but it left him third since the maximum amount of tyre grip was lost due to the session's disruptions. Tracy took fourth on his final timed lap while Franchitti over-drove and locked his brakes for fifth. Andretti talked to his chief engineer Eddie Jones about changing his car setup during the interval between third practice and qualifying. He was cautious because he did not want to make an error and had not set a fast enough lap en route to sixth. Tagliani was on a new set of tyres towards qualifying's end when his engine lost around due to a wedged butterfly engine valve and it left him seventh. Dixon was the highest-placed rookie in eighth and Carpentier qualified ninth. Vasser rounded out the top ten starters. Castroneves was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten; his best lap time was almost 1.4 seconds slower than Moreno. Serviá started 12th with Bräck 13th after changing his car's front wheel and front-left suspension wishbone due to damage from an accident on his first lap. Behind them the rest of the field lined up as Papis, Fittipaldi, Jourdain, the Fernández Racing duo of Fernández and Nakano, Kanaan, Takagi, Bruno Junqueira, Herta, Gidley, Mears, Gugelmin and Barron.

Qualifying classification

Warm-up

The cars took to the track in dry, warm and clear weather at 10:00 local time for a half-hour warm-up session. Gugelmin was cleared to partake in the event after fitness tests were conducted by CART director of medical affairs Steve Olvey. Although he glanced the turn two left-hand barrier and punctured his front-left tyre five minutes in, Jourdain set the session's fastest lap at 1 minute and 34.934 seconds. The Brazilian pair of Castroneves and Moreno placed second and third. Fourth position was occupied by Serviá, and da Matta was fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Carpentier, Vasser, Dixon, Bräck and Tracy. Carpentier ended the session two minutes early when he slid onto a run-off area at the third turn and stalled his engine.

Race

Weather conditions at the start were dry and sunny. The ambient temperature ranged from and the track temperature was between. Approximately 110,187 people were in attendance. Starter Jim Swintal waved the green flag at 13:57 local time to signal the start of the race from its rolling start. De Ferran accelerated faster than Moreno off the line and was ahead of him on the approach to the first corner. On the lap, the first caution was displayed when Mears tried to overtake Gidley on the right but braked too late and locked his tyres to avoid piling into the rear of Herta's car. He spun on the outside line at the turn one chicane and damaged the right-front corner of his car in an impact with a wall. Mears retired due to the damage to his car. He was transported to Allamanda Private Hospital for a precautionary x-ray and treatment to his swollen right index finger. Racing resumed at the start of the third lap as de Ferran maintained first over Moreno. On that lap, da Matta out-braked Tracy for a pass around the left for fourth at turn three. De Ferran and Moreno began pulling away from the rest of the field, increasing their lead over da Matta to 3.473 seconds by the start of lap ten. Da Matta in turn drew clear from Tracy and Franchitti as Tagliani could not match the Team Green cars' pace. He was 12 seconds adrift by lap 12.
' took his second victory of the season and third of his career.
In the meantime, eleventh-placed Serviá informed his race engineer Phil Howard of a mechanical failure and stopped his car between turns five and six with a gearbox failure on lap eleven. Five laps later, Castroneves tried to pass Carpentier at the fifth corner but locked his tyres and narrowly avoided running into the rear of his car. He braked hard to pull back in line to protect eleventh from Bräck. Green flag pit stops began on lap 20 when Junqeuira entered the pit lane. Franchitti did the same on the next lap when a fuel pressure problem caused his engine to misfire forcing him to make his first stop three laps early. He glanced a barrier alongside the circuit at turn eight on lap 22 but continued without sustaining major car damage. De Ferran made his pit stop from first on the lap and gave the lead back to Moreno. He led lap 23 before entering the pit lane and relinquishing the lead to Dixon. The extra lap Moreno spent on the circuit got him ahead of de Ferran. On lap 24, the second caution was shown for an incident at turn four. Franchitti sought to recover lost ground when he glanced the turn four left wall and pirouetted under heavy acceleration leaving the corner. He could not reverse out of the area and his car overheated. Franchitti's car was extricated by course officials so he could continue driving.
CART chief steward Chris Kneifel barred entry into the pit lane to all racing traffic until the pace car picked up the race leader. Third-placed Carpentier was caught out by this and he was consequently sent to the rear of the pack. Takagi did the same but avoided a penalty because he drove through pit road. Moreno retook first place when Dixon made his pit stop for fuel and tyres on the 25th lap. Two laps later, the pace car was withdrawn and Moreno retained the lead with de Ferran second and da Matta third. Moreno began pulling away from the rest of the field. A frustrated Bräck attempted to pass Castroneves on the right but he was forced onto the inside of the first chicane. This manoeuvre did not lose or gain any time for Bräck who overtook Castroneves soon after. Franchitti became the third retirement with an engine failure on lap 36. He pulled off onto the turn three run-off area so he could leave his car. On the 40th lap, Castroneves was in seventh when he spun onto the turn eight outside run-off area as a result of brake locking. CART safety officials moved Castroneves' vehicle behind the wall, so his engine could be restarted. He fell to 22nd and went a lap down to Moreno. De Ferran lowered Moreno's advantage to 4.6 seconds by lap 46. Moreno slowed greatly on the backstraight leaving the fourth corner because he lost the use of second gear after he felt a vibration.
' won his second consecutive CART Drivers' Championship by finishing fourth.
The second round of green flag pit stops began on the same lap when de Ferran and Tracy entered the pit lane. On lap 47, Moreno lost the lead to da Matta who overtook him on the left of turn five. Andretti and Tagliani made their pit stops from fourth and fifth on lap 48. They emerged in sixth and eighth respectively. Da Matta and Moreno entered the pit lane the lap after and returned to the track in fourth and sixth respectively. Vasser led the next two laps until he made his pit stop and Dixon took over the position for one lap. After the pit stop cycle ended on the 52nd lap, da Matta regained the lead with a 6.3 second advantage over Andretti. On lap 53, Moreno began to slow because his gearbox lost oil pressure and he was instructed to retire for safety reasons on the following lap. Tagliani overtook de Ferran for second leaving turn four on lap 54 as the Penske experienced brake fade. Tracy passed de Ferran to take over fifth on the 55th lap. Team Penske owner Roger Penske suggested to de Ferran that he fall behind Bräck; de Ferran was hesitant to do so as he felt he was faster than Bräck despite his braking problems. Two laps later, Junqueira crashed heavily into a right-hand barrier going into turn three and, onto a nearby run-off area and retired due to heavy car damage. He was unhurt. By this point, Andretti reduced da Matta's advantage to 4.6 seconds, but he was told by his team over the radio that he needed to conserve fuel to finish.
With two laps remaining, Dixon slowed with a gearbox problem coming out of turn three and fell from eighth to fifteenth. On the final lap, Tracy's car had a sudden rear bay fire on the run to turn eight and he stopped on the start/finish straight. Tracy exited his vehicle, and the fire was extinguished quickly by CART safety officials. Unchallenged in the final five laps, da Matta crossed the start/finish line after 65 laps to claim his second victory of the season and the third of his career. Andretti followed 5.786 seconds later in second and Tagliani completed the final podium finishers in third. Off the podium, de Ferran took fourth and he won the CART Drivers' Champion for the second year in a row as Bräck could not catch his points total with one race left in the season. Bräck, Vasser, Jourdain, Fittipaldi, Papis and Gidley rounded out the top ten. Carpentier, Nakano, Barron and Tracy filled positions eleven to fourteen. Although Dixon came 15th and scored no points, the result earned him the Rookie of the Year award. The final finishers were Takagi, Kanaan, Herta, Fernández and Castroneves. There were eight lead changes among five different drivers. Moreno led the most laps of any other driver, with 24. Da Matta led twice for a total of 16 laps.

Post-race

Da Matta appeared in victory lane to celebrate his second victory of the season in front of the crowd; the win earned him $100,000. After winning the race, he said, "I think my performance is related to the number of people at the races. There were a lot of people in Mexico as well as here today. I think I'm the kind of guy that likes to show off. It's awesome to win in front of a bunch of people. You can feel the excitement. I'm still looking for my big win of the season in the United States though. I'll go back to Fontana for my last chance to do it this season. The team really needed the win and we hope to carry the momentum to the end of the year." Andretti had mixed feelings over finishing in second but congratulated de Ferran on his championship victory, "It was a pretty good day. It was a pretty quiet day, but we got pretty lucky before that first yellow. A lot of guys got caught when they closed the pits, but that helped us a little bit." Third-placed Tagliani spoke of his satisfaction with his performance, "I worked real hard for this one, and my crew did its usual outstanding job. Over the last eight qualifying sessions, I’ve been able to be in the fast group and that has enabled me to start closer to the front. Plus, we’ve had a very competitive car for practically every race. If we start next season the way we’re ending this year, we should be in for a great season."
After finishing the race, de Ferran began celebrating his second consecutive CART Drivers' Championship. The achievement earned him $1 million. During the celebration, team owner Roger Penske commended de Ferran's perseverance, "Gil did a super job. He came from behind in the points and was fast and consistent when he needed to be. Gil had a lot of pressure on him. It's nice that the championship didn't go down to the wire." De Ferran stated that he was "living in a dream" and he saw his CART success as comparable to winning the Formula One World Championship, "Certainly, my career was all geared toward going F1, but I can't complain because any driver wants to drive for an operation such as Penske or Williams, Ferrari and McLaren. In a way, I see the Penske organization in a similar light. Penske has not operated in F1 since 1976, but it's a great racing group." Bräck said he was disappointed to lose the championship and put it down to his lack of road course success. Nevertheless, he praised de Ferran and the operation of his rival's team and stressed he was happy with his four victories. He vowed to return to contention in the 2002 season, "We came up short and that's not good, but there are still have a lot of good things from this season that will carry through for me. We'll have to try to win it next year.
The result of the race won de Ferran the Drivers' Championship with 191 points. Bräck was second with 28 less than points than his rival. Castroneves maintained the third position, but Andretti's second-place finish tied him with Castroneves on points in the battle for the position. Da Matta's victory advanced him past Franchitti for fifth with 120 points. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Toyota moved past Ford Cosworth in the duel over second as leaders Honda held a 34-point advantage over them. Reynard still led the Manufacturers' Championship with an unchallenged lead of 49 points over their sole rivals Lola with one race remaining in the season.

Race classification