2000 Rio 200

The Rio 200 was confirmed as part of CART's 2000 series schedule in November 1999.^[1] It was the fifth consecutive year the Rio 200 was part of the series,^[2] the first of four straight oval track events,^[3] and the first round held outside of the United States.^[1] The Rio 200 was the third of twenty scheduled races for 2000 by CART,^[4] and was held at the 1.864-mile (3.000 km) four-turn Autódromo de Jacarepaguá trapezoid-shaped speedway on April 30.^[1][2] Drivers regarded the Autódromo de Jacarepaguá as "demanding" due to braking and shifting down gears being prioritized for the first and third turns. This led CART to mandate all teams run the high-downforce specification of the Handford MkII wings to attempt to alleviate stress placed on the car's brakes and gearboxes by increasing the amount of drag produced to slow vehicles. Additionally, sand was blown on the track by local wind conditions for most of the year, reducing grip and visibility.^[3]

Coming into the race from Long Beach two weeks earlier, Team Green driver Paul Tracy led the Drivers' Championship with 34 points. His nearest rival Jimmy Vasser of Chip Ganassi Racing was eight points adrift in second. Team Rahal's Max Papis and Roberto Moreno for Patrick Racing tied for third with 20 points apiece with the latter given priority in the points standings because of him winning the season-opening round at Homestead–Miami Speedway. Gil de Ferran of Team Penske was fifth with 18 points.^[3] In the Manufacturers' Championship, Honda were leading with 38 points, six ahead of the second-placed Ford Cosworth. Toyota were third with 26 points and Mercedes-Benz were fourth with eight points.^[5] Reynard topped the Constructors' Championship with 44 points, followed by Lola and Swift with 26 and 10 points, respectively.^[5] In terms of driver changes, Memo Gidley filled in for Patrick Carpentier at Forsythe Racing for the second successive round after Carpentier broke his left wrist at his Las Vegas home prior to Long Beach through losing his balance while carrying a heavy suitcase.^[6]

Tracy, the 1997 race winner, was circumspect about the prospects but spoke his belief he would keep the championship lead until the season-finale at California Speedway by employing a race-by-race approach: "We're only two races into a very long season, but I've got say that I like the way things have gone so far for the Team KOOL Green crew. Leading the championship makes you think about winning the title, but we know we've got a long way to go to reach that goal."^[7] Vasser stated he was comfortable with his new car package and aimed to continue his recent form into the Rio 200: "Obviously, it's way too early to be looking at the point standings but, as you learn pretty quickly, every point is important."^[8] Alex Tagliani aimed to maintain Forsythe Racing's strong form after Tracy's and Greg Moore's success at Rio in the late 1990s and would attempt to use this to maintain the team's strong record at the track, "We're all pulling in the same direction and I think that spirit of collaboration is evident in the results that we've been able to produce so far."^[8]

There were three practice sessions preceding Sunday's race: two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session ran for 90 minutes, the second 60 minutes, and the third 75 minutes.^[9][10] Conditions during the Friday practice sessions were hot and sunny.^[9] De Ferran set the first practice session's fastest lap at 39.610 seconds, followed by Tagliani, Tracy, Hélio Castroneves, Kenny Bräck, Vasser, Papis, Cristiano da Matta, Moreno, and Christian Fittipaldi.^[11] Five yellow flags were waved. The first was for Takuya Kurosawa whose engine failed on the exit of turn four. He turned left to leave the main straight and allow safety officials to extinguish a fire in the engine compartment. The next two cautions were necessitated when Luiz Garcia Jr. and Mark Blundell stalled on the track separately. Both were towed back to pit road by circuit officials. Gualter Salles caused the fourth yellow flag with a heavily crash against the right-hand barrier at the first corner. Salles was not injured but his car sustained heavy damage to its right-side suspension. He stopped in the centre of the circuit in turn two. The last caution was activated for Fittipaldi who stalled on track.^[9]

In the second practice session, Juan Pablo Montoya set the day's fastest lap with a time of 38.922 seconds and was the only driver to go below 39 seconds. He was almost three-tenths of a second faster than Bräck in second and Tagliani was third. Fittipaldi, Castroneves, Vasser, Da Matta, Papis, de Ferran, and Michael Andretti were in positions four through ten.^[12] The first three cautions came within half an hour of each other because debris and fluids were observed lying on the track and separate track inspections were needed to inspect and clean it. De Ferran caused the fourth caution by spinning in the third turn but avoided car damage. The final caution came out after Maurício Gugelmin spun in turn four and collided against a left-hand tire barrier with the rear of his car. Gugelmin was unhurt.^[9]

Conditions remained hot and sunny during Saturday morning's practice session.^[10] The first caution came out for debris on the backstraight that needed clearing. Montoya prompted the second caution when he spun 360 degrees in turn four but did not damage his car. Bräck caused a third yellow flag after he stalled on the exit of pit road. Six minutes later, a fourth caution was waved for debris leaving the pit lane that course officials removed. The fifth yellow flags were necessitated after Moreno broke his right-front wheel and wing endplate in a collision with the turn one outside barrier. Bryan Herta stalled on the backstraight and triggered the final caution with 14 minutes to go.^[10] Tagliani continued to perform well with the fastest lap of the session at 38.694 seconds. Montoya was one-tenth of a second slower in second, and Tracy replicated his first practice result in third. Bräck, Fittipaldi, Papis, Tony Kanaan, Castroneves, Vasser, and Adrián Fernández completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.^[13]

Saturday afternoon's 135 minute qualifying session began with the slowest driver in the weekend's combined practice sessions going out first and the quickest competitor ventured out last. Each driver was restricted to two timed laps and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest lap times. One point was awarded to the pole position winner.^[10] Tagliani took the first pole position of his career with a lap of 38.587 seconds.^[14] He was joined on the grid's front row by Montoya who was 0.109 seconds slower because of an oversteer in the first corner. Tracy's car steeped out of him once he accelerated out of turn one and took third.^[15] Bräck was fourth, and the fastest Brazilian was Fittipaldi in fifth.^[16] Vasser changed the set-up of his car to go sixth.^[15] Castroneves was unhappy with the set-up of his vehicle and took seventh.^[16] Dario Franchitti ran slightly wide by driving too fast into turn four on his fastest lap and was eighth. Rounding out the top ten were Kanaan and Papis.^[15]

Gidley was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten; his fastest time of 39.246 seconds was nearly seven-tenths of a second slower than Tagliani because he had to control his car from spinning going off turn four.^[10][16] Moreno went to his back-up car to suit his driving style and set the 12th-fastest time.^[17] A car setup fault restricted De Ferran to 13th. Oriol Servià, Andretti and Fernández qualified in positions 14 to 16. Da Matta (17th) and Norberto Fontana (18th) were required to qualify with a second run after mechanical issues hindered them on their first tyres. Kurosawa and Herta took 19th and 20th.^[16] Gugelmin and his PacWest teammate Blundell had a large amount of push in the centre of the corners and too much oversteer coming out of them left them in 21st and 23rd.^[18] The pair were separated by Michel Jourdain Jr. in 22nd after he lost some straight line speed but was faster in the turns despite an oversteer leaving them.^[19] Garcia's lack of on-circuit time in his car meant he began from 24th. Salles did not set a lap time because his team continued to repair his car following his first practice session crash.^[16] After qualifying, Garcia's best lap time was annulled because his car failed post-race inspection for minimum weight requirements. Garcia was consequently ordered to start from the back of the grid.^[10]

Final qualifying classification

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Speed	Gap
1	33	Alex Tagliani (CAN)	Forsythe Racing	38.587	173.903	—
2	1	Juan Pablo Montoya (COL)	Chip Ganassi Racing	38.696	173.403	+0.109
3	26	Paul Tracy (CAN)	Team Green	38.843	172.757	+0.256
4	8	Kenny Bräck (SWE)	Team Rahal	38.876	172.610	+0.289
5	11	Christian Fittipaldi (BRA)	Newman/Haas Racing	38.879	172.597	+0.292
6	12	Jimmy Vasser (USA)	Chip Ganassi Racing	38.943	172.313	+0.356
7	3	Hélio Castroneves (BRA)	Team Penske	38.985	172.128	+0.396
8	27	Dario Franchitti (GBR)	Team Green	39.026	171.947	+0.439
9	55	Tony Kanaan (BRA)	Mo Nunn Racing	39.101	171.617	+0.514
10	7	Max Papis (ITA)	Team Rahal	39.227	171.066	+0.640
11	32	Memo Gidley (USA)	Forsythe Racing	39.246	170.983	+0.659
12	20	Roberto Moreno (BRA)	Patrick Racing	39.265	170.900	+0.678
13	2	Gil de Ferran (BRA)	Team Penske	39.298	170.757	+0.711
14	96	Oriol Servià (ESP)	PPI Motorsports	39.306	170.722	+0.719
15	6	Michael Andretti (USA)	Newman/Haas Racing	39.340	170.574	+0.753
16	40	Adrián Fernández (MEX)	Patrick Racing	39.391	170.354	+0.804
17	97	Cristiano da Matta (BRA)	PPI Motorsports	39.419	170.233	+0.832
18	10	Norberto Fontana (ARG)	Della Penna Motorsports	39.504	169.866	+0.917
19	19	Takuya Kurosawa (JPN)	Dale Coyne Racing	39.590	169.497	+1.003
20	5	Bryan Herta (USA)	Walker Motorsport	39.620	169.369	+1.033
21	17	Maurício Gugelmin (BRA)	PacWest Racing	39.682	169.104	+1.095
22	16	Michel Jourdain Jr. (MEX)	Bettenhausen Racing	39.856	168.366	+1.269
23	18	Mark Blundell (GBR)	PacWest Racing	40.073	167.454	+1.486
24	34	Gualter Salles (BRA)	Dale Coyne Racing	No time	No speed	—
25	25	Luiz Garcia Jr. (BRA)	Arciero Racing	No time	No speed	—1
Source:[16][20]

Notes

• ^1 — Luiz Garcia Jr. was sent to the rear of the field for failing a post-qualifying weight check.^[10]

A half hour warm-up session was held in hot and sunny weather on the Sunday morning of the race.^[21] Although de Ferran was suffering from a head cold, he set the session's fastest lap at 39.289 seconds.^[21] Vasser was 0.002 seconds slower in second. The third-fastest time was set by Bräck while the fourth position was the pole position winner Tagliani. The quartet of Brazilians of da Matta. Kanaan, Fittipaldi and Gugelmin filled positions five through eight, with Tracy and Montoya ninth and tenth.^[22] Castroneves caused the session's first caution when he stopped with a faulty transmission between turns one and two. Bräck lost control of his car in the fourth corner, and he slid into a right-hand side tire barrier with his right-front wheel, damaging his front wing and suspension.^[23]