2002 Honda Indy 300

Australia 2002 Surfers Paradise
Race details
Race 17 of 19 in the 2002 CART season
Map of the track
Date27 October, 2002
Official nameHonda Indy 300
LocationSurfers Paradise Street Circuit
Queensland, Australia
CourseTemporary Street Circuit
2.795 mi / 4.498 km
Distance40 laps
111.800 mi / 179.920 km
WeatherRain
Pole position
DriverCristiano da Matta (Newman-Haas Racing)
Time1:30.204
Fastest lap
DriverCristiano da Matta (Newman-Haas Racing)
Time1:56.457 (on lap 7 of 40)
Podium
FirstMario Domínguez (Herdez Competition)
SecondPatrick Carpentier (Forsythe Racing)
ThirdPaul Tracy (Team Green)

The 2002 Honda Indy 300 was the seventeenth round of the 2002 CART World Series season, held on 27 October 2002 on the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia.

The race was marred by extremely wet conditions. The initial start resulted in a multi-car crash injuring Fernandez and Takagi. CART officials allowed teams to repair their cars or pull out backups. Postponing the race was not an option due to international travel logistics, as cars had to get to Fontana, California by Tuesday US time to allow for conversion to superspeedway configuration and the 500 mile oval race scheduled the following weekend, and logistics of the street course circuit, as organizers were contractually required to have the entire course cleared by the next morning. The race restarted on lap 3 with slightly improved conditions, but went back under yellow at lap 10 where it would remain until the race was called at lap 40.

Michael Andretti's team believed the race would be called once the race passed official race status of the full lap past the halfway point (35 laps plus one) of the original distance (70 laps, but the race was shortened to 50 laps by officials after the start crash), but officials instead waited until lap 40 to force each car to make two pit stops. This gave Domínguez his first career win in the slowest race in CART history. For 2003, rules were changed to allow the race to be called prior to halfway with only half points being awarded. This rule was not implemented by IndyCar after the 2008 reunification.

Qualifying results

[edit]
Pos Nat Name Team Chassis Time
1 Brazil Cristiano da Matta Newman-Haas Racing Lola B2/00 Toyota 1:30.204
2 Brazil Bruno Junqueira Chip Ganassi Racing Lola B2/00 Toyota 1:30.214
3 Brazil Tony Kanaan Mo Nunn Racing Lola B2/00 Honda 1:30.427
4 Sweden Kenny Bräck Chip Ganassi Racing Lola B2/00 Toyota 1:30.616
5 Canada Paul Tracy Team Green Lola B2/00 Honda 1:30.731
6 New Zealand Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Lola B2/00 Toyota 1:30.810
7 Japan Shinji Nakano Fernández Racing Lola B2/00 Honda 1:30.936
8 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti Team Green Lola B2/00 Honda 1:31.040
9 Spain Oriol Servià Patrick Racing Reynard 02i Toyota 1:31.087
10 Mexico Adrián Fernández Fernández Racing Lola B2/00 Honda 1:31.351
11 United States Jimmy Vasser Team Rahal Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:31.369
12 Mexico Michel Jourdain Jr. Team Rahal Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:31.709
13 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing Lola B2/00 Toyota 1:32.223
14 Canada Alex Tagliani Forsythe Racing Reynard 02i Ford-Cosworth 1:32.300
15 Canada Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing Reynard 02i Ford-Cosworth 1:32.367
16 United States Michael Andretti Team Green Lola B2/00 Honda 1:32.439
17 Japan Tora Takagi Walker Racing Reynard 02i Toyota 1:33.922
18 Mexico Mario Domínguez Herdez Competition Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:33.655

Race

[edit]
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/retired Grid Points
1 55 Mexico Mario Domínguez Herdez Competition 40 2:00:06.524 18 20
2 32 Canada Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 40 +2.2 secs 15 16
3 26 Canada Paul Tracy Team Green 40 +2.5 secs 5 14
4 12 Sweden Kenny Bräck Chip Ganassi Racing 40 +2.7 secs 4 12
5 10 Brazil Tony Kanaan Mo Nunn Racing 40 +4.8 secs 3 10
6 33 Canada Alex Tagliani Forsythe Racing 40 +7.8 secs 14 8
7 27 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti Team Green 40 +9.9 secs 8 6
8 1 Brazil Cristiano da Matta Newman-Haas Racing 40 +12.3 secs 1 7
9 39 United States Michael Andretti Team Green 40 +13.5 secs 16 4
10 9 Mexico Michel Jourdain Jr. Team Rahal 40 +13.6 secs 12 3
11 11 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 40 +14.8 secs 13 2
12 8 United States Jimmy Vasser Team Rahal 40 +16.2 secs 11 1
13 52 Japan Shinji Nakano Fernández Racing 40 +17.6 secs 7
14 4 Brazil Bruno Junqueira Chip Ganassi Racing 40 +18.1 secs 2 1
15 44 New Zealand Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 24 Mechanical 6
16 20 Spain Oriol Servià Patrick Racing 11 Mechanical 9
17 51 Mexico Adrián Fernández Fernández Racing 0 Contact 10
18 5 Japan Tora Takagi Walker Racing 0 Contact 17

Caution flags

[edit]
Laps Cause
0–2 Yellow start
10–40 Wet track conditions

Notes

[edit]
Laps Leader
1–10 Cristiano da Matta
11–18 Bruno Junqueira
19–29 Cristiano da Matta
30–35 Michael Andretti
36–36 Christian Fittipaldi
37–40 Mario Dominguez
 
Driver Laps led
Cristiano da Matta 21
Bruno Junqueira 8
Michael Andretti 6
Mario Dominguez 4
Christian Fittipaldi 1
  • Average Speed 55.849 mph
[edit]


Previous race:
2002 Grand Prix Americas
CART Indycar World Series
2002 season
Next race:
2002 The 500
Previous race:
2001 Honda Indy 300
2002 Honda Indy 300 Next race:
2003 Lexmark Indy 300

27°59′14″S 153°25′40″E / 27.98722°S 153.42778°E / -27.98722; 153.42778 (Surfers Paradise Street Circuit)