2001 Honda Indy 300

The Honda Indy 300 was confirmed as part of CART's 2001 schedule for the series in August 2000.^[1] It was the 11th consecutive year the race was held as part of the series,^[2][3] and the seventh (and last) round of 2001 to be held outside the United States.^[4] 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 2.795 mi (4.498 km) 12-turn Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, Queensland.^[4][5] The Australian press anticipated that 300,000 people would visit the track during the weekend.^[2] After organisers of the race voiced concerns over the possibility that it would be cancelled if the Government of the United States barred air travel to Australia had the invasion of Afghanistan deteriorated, CART executives stated that the round would proceed as scheduled but with increased security.^[6] The chairman of the race Geoff Jones stated, "CART's outlook has been business as usual, they won't be bowing to terrorism."^[6] The Gillette Young Guns, GT Performance, Nations Cup, V8 Brutes and V8 Supercars held support races during the weekend.^[7]

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 Kenny Bräck of Team Rahal in second. With 141 points, Hélio Castroneves in the second Penske car was third, with Team Motorola's Michael Andretti placed fourth with 125 points and Dario Franchitti of Team Green fifth with 105 points.^[8] There were 44 points available for the final two rounds of the season, which meant de Ferran could win his second successive championship if he was 23 or more points ahead of Bräck leaving Australia.^[9][10] Honda had already won the Manufacturers' Championship at the Honda Grand Prix of Monterey as it had an unassailable lead of 316 points.^[8][11] Ford Cosworth and Toyota were equal on points with 266 apiece in second place.^[8] With 345 points, Reynard led the Constructors' Championship with an unchallenged advantage of 51 points over Lola.^[8]

De Ferran began his charge to the Drivers' Championship lead at the Grand Prix of Chicago in July. He achieved consecutive wins at the Rockingham 500 and the Grand Prix of Houston in the second half of the season to claim the points lead.^[5] Although he had not completed a single lap of the Surfers Paradise circuit in 1999 and 2000, 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."^[12] Bräck commented he had not conceded the championship despite having won all four of his races on oval tracks in 2001.

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 (32 points versus 26 points). 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."^[12]

There was one change of driver going into the round. Alex Barron, the 1997 Atlantic champion, replaced Max Wilson in the No. 25 Arciero-Blair Racing car for the final two races of the season.^[13] Team owner Larry Blair made the change based on Barron's performance in the final two rounds of the 2000 season at Surfers Paradise and Fontana and because his experience and input were required to help the team advance.^[13][14] 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."^[14]

There were three practice sessions preceding Sunday's race. The first practice session on Friday lasted 105 minutes, the second practice running for 90 minutes was held in the afternoon, and the final session took place on Saturday morning lasting 75 minutes.^[15] A rain shower on Thursday night made the track slightly wet.^[16] 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.^[17][18] Jimmy Vasser set the fastest lap of the session with a time of 1 minute, 36.911 seconds, 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.^[19] Carpentier braked too late for the third corner and slid onto a run-off area but avoided striking the wall 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 the barrier and stalled his car, 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.^[17][18]

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 15 minutes before second practice commenced and yellow flags were necessitated when it began, leading 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.^[20] 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.^[19] Five drivers elected to venture onto the track while the rest of the field stayed in the pit lane to be conservative.^[18][19][21] Casey Mears was fastest with a 1-minute, 57.751 seconds lap on his fourth try, 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 completed the lap-setting drivers.^[20][21]

The rain continued until 02:00 Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10:00) 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 15 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 vehicle damage.^[22] De Ferran led the third practice session with a late lap time of 1 minute, 33.511 seconds, followed by Moreno, Franchitti, Castroneves, da Matta, Alex Tagliani, Max Papis, Oriol Servià, Vasser and Nakano.^[23]

Saturday afternoon's 75-minute qualifying session saw cars were divided 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.^[15][24] 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.^[25] Gugelmin was transported to hospital for a fractured bone in his right wrist.^[26] 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 car's front-left wheel.^[25]

In his 100th CART start, Moreno took his second career pole position with a time of 1 minute, 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.^[27][28] 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.^[28] Tracy took fourth on his final timed lap while Franchitti over-drove and locked his brakes for fifth.^[26][28] 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.^[29] Tagliani was on a new set of tyres towards qualifying's end when his engine lost around 100 hp (75 kW) due to a wedged butterfly engine valve leaving him seventh. Dixon was the highest-placed rookie in eighth and Carpentier qualified ninth.^[30] Vasser took tenth and Castroneves eleventh with Serviá 12th. Bräck qualified 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.^[26][28]

Qualifying results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Speed	Gap
1	20	Roberto Moreno (BRA)	Patrick Racing	1:32.095	109.257	—
2	1	Gil de Ferran (BRA)	Team Penske	1:32.406	108.889	+0.311
3	6	Cristiano da Matta (BRA)	Newman/Haas Racing	1:32.552	108.717	+0.447
4	26	Paul Tracy (CAN)	Team Green	1:32.605	108.655	+0.510
5	27	Dario Franchitti (GBR)	Team Green	1:32.760	108.473	+0.665
6	39	Michael Andretti (USA)	Team Motorola	1:32.971	108.227	+0.866
7	33	Alex Tagliani (CAN)	Forsythe Racing	1:33.137	108.034	+1.042
8	18	Scott Dixon (NZL)	PacWest Racing	1:33.209	107.951	+1.114
9	32	Patrick Carpentier (CAN)	Forsythe Racing	1:33.360	107.776	+1.265
10	40	Jimmy Vasser (USA)	Patrick Racing	1:33.447	107.676	+1.352
11	3	Hélio Castroneves (BRA)	Team Penske	1:33.476	107.643	+1.381
12	22	Oriol Servià (ESP)	Sigma Autosport	1:33.738	107.342	+1.643
13	8	Kenny Bräck (SWE)	Team Rahal	1:33.753	107.325	+1.658
14	7	Max Papis (ITA)	Team Rahal	1:33.843	107.227	+1.748
15	11	Christian Fittipaldi (BRA)	Newman/Haas Racing	1:33.947	107.103	+1.852
16	16	Michel Jourdain Jr. (MEX)	Bettenhausen Racing	1:33.998	107.045	+1.903
17	51	Adrián Fernández (MEX)	Fernández Racing	1:34.035	107.003	+1.940
18	52	Shinji Nakano (JPN)	Fernández Racing	1:34.143	106.880	+2.038
19	55	Tony Kanaan (BRA)	Mo Nunn Racing	1:34.319	106.681	+2.224
20	5	Toranosuke Takagi (JPN)	Walker Racing	1:34.355	106.640	+2.260
21	4	Bruno Junqueira (BRA)	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:34.476	106.503	+2.381
22	77	Bryan Herta (USA)	Forsythe Racing	1:34.721	106.228	+2.626
23	12	Memo Gidley (USA)	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:34.754	106.191	+2.659
24	66	Casey Mears (USA)	Mo Nunn Racing	1:35.401	105.471	+3.306
25	17	Maurício Gugelmin (BRA)	PacWest Racing	1:35.567	105.287	+3.471
26	25	Alex Barron (USA)	Arciero-Blair Racing	1;36.867	103:874	+4.772
Source:[28]

The cars took to the track in dry, warm and clear weather at 10:00 local time for a half-hour warm-up session.^[15][31] Gugelmin was cleared to partake in the event by CART director of medical affairs Steve Olvey following fitness tests.^[31] Although he glanced the turn two left-hand barrier and punctured his front-left tyre five minutes in, Jourdain lapped fastest at 1 minute, 34.934 seconds. The Brazilian pair of Castroneves and Moreno were second and third.^[31] Serviá, da Matta, Carpentier, Vasser, Dixon, Bräck and Tracy made up positions four to ten.^[32] Carpentier ended the session two minutes early when he slid onto a run-off area at the third turn and stalled his engine.^[31]