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"I Did It Again!"
In 2002 Castroneves and the Penske team were not among the fastest in the field. The team played the game, and kept both Castroneves and Gil de Ferran on the lead lap, because, well this is Indy, and anything can happen. The cards started falling their way and with only a few laps to go, the waves parted and Castroneves led. But it was going to be exceedingly close on fuel. Everyone behind him had fuel to burn, but did Helio?
As the last laps wound down it became clear that he may not have enough. Paul Tracy descended on the Penske Dallara like a Hawk spotting a mouse in an open field. Lap 198 would be as long as Castroneves could hold the Canadian out. The world watched Tracy move to the outside of Castroneves, the Brazilian had been more than gallant, but wait...
Laurent Redon and Buddy Lazier were sliding together along the back straight wall just out of turn two, their cars wrecked beyond drivability. The next thing that greeted us was Tracy ahead of Castroneves. Who was the leader? As the white flag came out to greet the leaders it came out with double yellows. The race would be decided behind the safety car. And just as Castroneves lost the lead, he won the race. A clearly emotional Castroneves could say little to the cameras, apart from blubbering "I did it again!" in the direction of every member of the team who came to congratulate. The Penske team then dashed across the straight and climbed the catch fencing alongside their driver. Even the Captain, legendary team owner Roger Penske, celebrating a record twelfth win as an owner, joined his driver on the fence.
After one early look by Buhl, Junqueira started to skip away, the Chip Ganassi car working very well in the conditions. Tony Kanaan was also in good shape moving by teammate Felipe Giaffone and Raul Boesel in the opening laps. Sam Hornish made an excellent start but Eddie Cheever was quickly into the groove repassing the Panther and setting off after Giaffone, who in turn was closing on Boesel. Of the top ten qualifiers all were running well initially except Sarah Fisher, who plunged down the field in the early running. Right from the start her race would be one of survival. Boesel too started to slow having been very quickly gobbled up by Giaffone, Cheever, Tomas Scheckter and Scott Sharp.
By lap 20 Junqueira reached Mark Dismore at the tail of the field. At this point the gap he'd built up over Buhl and Kanaan shrunk instantly. Giaffone, Scheckter and Cheever caught the leading three and gapped the rest as the field settled towards the end of the first stint. Soon after Kanaan would finally claim second, and the first pitstops were upon us. Lap 28 and Shigeaki Hattori and Dario Franchitti were in, Airton Dare following a lap later and stopped under green.
Once the pits were re-opened the field pitted en masse, save for Scheckter and those unfortunates who pitted under green and who now were a lap down, their chances ended prematurely by a twist of fate. Not even Dario Franchitti's pace would save him. Out of the pits the field screamed, now led by Kanaan with Scott Sharp, Gil de Ferran, Felipe Giaffone and Raul Boesel following. Junqueira had stalled, twice attempting to leave his pit bay too early and lost 30 seconds.
At the restart Scheckter, Hornish and Kanaan started to pull away from the rest. Hornish was pressuring the young South African and even led briefly while in dense traffic, but Scheckter did not crack, regaining the lead. The confused traffic situation allowed Kanaan to take second from Hornish. The second stint remained largely uneventful. The second round of pitstops began, with Hornish in first, then Scheckter. Taking their first stops when they did proved extremely fortunate, but also left them slightly behind the bulk of the field on their fuel window.
There was a drama in the pits as the top blew off Robby Gordon's refueling tank. Something had back pressurised the fuel system, the end result was Gordon pits was showered in fuel. Fire crews immediately dumped water on everything in sight including several crew and Gordon's car. Gordon, the only man this year attempting the 'Iron Man Double' of the Indy 500 and the 600 miler at Charlotte, resumed, but most of his allotred tank of methanol was a huge puddle in pit lane. He would run out of fuel long before the finish at this rate.
It was looking to be a good day for Mo Nunn. Giaffone was now second behind Kanaan in the safety car queue and Kanaan's pace was such that now only eleven cars were still on the lead lap. No such luck for another CART outfit, as Jimmy Vasser crawled through the pits in the Team Rahal car for a stop-go penalty after Vasser had run over a hose while in the pits. Meanwhile Robby Gordon's problem was solved when A.J. Foyt offered the vacant pit bay used by Greg Ray.
At the lap 99 restart Scheckter lead from de Ferran, Sharp, Paul Tracy and Michael Andretti. The field stabilised again at this point, although Andretti was keen to move up and did so, passing his 'sort of' teammate Tracy. The Canadian would soon fall to Cheever as well. A lap later on lap 120 and Scheckter signalled a new round of pitstops when he came in under green. Two front runners strike problems. Robbie Buhl tries to leave the pits without his right rear tyre, and Scott Sharp doesn't leave at all, retiring with mechanical dramas.
The leader now was Scheckter. At the lap 150 mark Scheckter had a good lead and was heading for the best possible result a rookie could dream of. 24 laps later the dream was gone. The car suddenly broke away from him and smashed front on into the barriers. At the Brickyard it was just one of those things.
On lap 182 the race restarted for the last time. Castroneves slowly moved away from Barron while the faster cars struggled through the lapped cars to get a shot at the lead. By the end of the lap Barron was swamped, fourth and falling as Giaffone, Tracy and Cheever screamed after the leader. Cheever though brushed the wall. He slowed while checking his car for damage and dropped from the charge. Castroneves took some time trying to get around the lapped car of Franchitti. Was the Scot trying to help his teammate? Giaffone was balked in traffic and had to back off the throttle. By the time he was back up to pace, Tracy was gone and so was his shot. Then Tracy caught Castroneves. He was almost out of fuel. The two second lead he had earlier was now down to nothing.
It was Tracy who would sweep by like Jacques Villeneuve did to Damon Hill in Hungary, but in more controversial and contentious circumstances. Everyone in the Team Green pits was trying to find out, when did the flag fly? Could Helio still make the finish? In the end they would protest the result, claiming they had passed the winner before the flags flew. The protest was dismissed.
The win boosted Castroneves into the IRL series lead with two weeks to the next event at Texas Motor Speedway.
Result of Indy Racing League, Round 5, Indianapolis 500, Indiana, United States:
Standings: Helio Castroneves 195, Gil de Ferran 169, Sam Hornish Jr 159, Felipe Giaffone 140, Alex Barron 109, Scott Sharp 101, Jeff Ward 97, Al Unser Jr 96, Airton Dare 91, Jacques Lazier 90 etc.
Blockbuster Bourdais
From pole position Bourdais bolted to an early lead and moved gradually away from his pursuers. Rodrigo Sperafico (Durango) led the pursuit initially from Friesacher, Enrico Toccacelo, David Saelens and the Arden team of Bjorn Wirdheim and Tomas Enge. Saelens (Minardi) stopped on lap 3 and last start winner Giorgio Pantano (Coloni) crashed after a miserable qualifying performance.
By lap ten seven cars were missing from the field, including Rodrigo Sperafico who pitted with suspension failure and stayed there. The race degenerated into a race of survival as cars stayed in the positions on track, only progressing through other people's retirements, as they continued to build up. Wirdheim disappeared into the pits, Rob Nguyen (Astromega) crashed, as did Alex Sperafico (Minardi) and Nicolas Kiesa (PSM). Ryan Briscoe (Nordic) retired and Toccacelo (Coloni) crashed out of third place.
The only spirited battle of the whole race was for what should have been sixth. Despite more than a few nudges Ricardo Mauricio (Red Bull Junior) kept Alex Muller (Durango) at bay from the second lap until the last when Muller finally got through at Rascasse. A corner later Mauricio crashed, but officials slapped a time penalty on Muller that dropped him out of the points and behind Astromega's Mario Haberfeld. To add insult to injury, Muller was later disqualified when his car was found to be underweight.
Bourdais now leads the series ahead of Enge and Pantano. Formula 3000 gets a rest while its Formula One parent jets off to Canada. The series will be back in action at Hockenheim in a month.
Result of International Formula 3000 Championship, Round 5, Monaco:
Standings: Sebastien Bourdais 24, Tomas Enge 21, Giorgio Pantano 17, Rodrigo Sperafico 16, Mario Haberfeld 13, Patrick Friesacher 10, Antonio Pizzonia 9, Bjorn Wirdheim 8, Ricardo Mauricio 7, Enrico Toccacelo 3 etc.
Bayliss and Edwards Split Silverstone
Troy Bayliss had his second bad weekend for the year at the British round at Silverstone. He fell down twice in the first race, and only won one of the two races. A pretty good weekend as bad weekends go, though the gap between himself and championship rival Colin Edwards did close by nine points, as Bayliss and Edwards gave the rest of the field a riding lesson.
Race one saw a wet track, which was also declared a wet race by the stewards, with dark clouds hanging overhead and rain falling. Polesitter Bayliss made a good start but was led by Haga and Edwards into Copse but emerged out the other side in the lead ahead of Edwards and Haga. Bayliss and Edwards immediately broke away as local rider Michael Rutter moved into third into Priory, and promptly fell, Haga taking it back just ahead of Pierfrancesco Chili and Neil Hodgson on their Ducatis, Hodgson moving to fourth before the end of lap one, and third past Haga early on lap two, Chili following past Haga soon after down the Hangar straight. Riders continued to fall, as they did throughout the race, as the rain continued to fall.
Up front Bayliss held a small lead over Edwards, with the rest of the field dropping away. Exiting the left at Club on lap three, Bayliss grabbed just a little too much throttle, throwing him off the bike. This forced Edwards over the grass as he took the lead, while Bayliss was able to eventually remount, losing 40 seconds and dropping to 23rd place in the process however. Edwards now held a much smaller lead over Hodgson, Chili and Haga, as the rain continued to pour down. Bayliss, back on his bike, was up to 17th as they completed lap four, lapping faster than everyone else, while Haga moved to third past Chili.
Lap five and Bayliss was up to 14th as he lapped two seconds faster than leader Edwards, who had himself stretched the lead over the second place battle between Hodgson and Haga, Haga taking second from Hodgson early in lap six. Hodgson took the place back at the start of lap seven into Copse, as Bayliss continued his run up the field, lapping considerably faster than everyone else. Starting lap seven in 13th, he was up to 11th by Stowe, passed Ben Bostrom for 10th into the left at Club, teammate Ruben Xaus for 9th around the outside at Bridge and again around the outside of Steve Hislop at Brooklands to take eighth place. Unfortunately, at the next corner, Luffield, Bayliss lost the front end of the bike and fell down again, ending his charge which had him on target to be challenging for the podium, if not the win at the end of the race. He still managed to remount however, resuming in 16th place.
Edwards now had a seven second lead over the fighting Hodgson and Haga duo, who had a similar margin ahead of Chili. The situation remained the same next few laps, except for Chili dropping further and further back, as from laps eight to eleven Bayliss moved through the field again, moving from 15th to 14th to 12th to 10th, as he lapped 'only' as fast as race leader Edwards, instead of a couple of seconds faster than him...
On lap thirteen Haga passed Hodgson into Stowe, as Hodgson slowly began to fade away. Lap fourteen say Bayliss move up another two places, as he passed Xaus (again) and Toseland, and Shane Byrne on lap fifteen. Lap seventeen and Bayliss moved ahead of Ben Bostrom (again) at Copse, and Mark Heckles (again) at Stowe. He was now up into fifth place, with Chili less than 10 seconds away. Could he catch him? Although Bayliss closed the gap down to five seconds quickly with two laps remaining, that was basically where it stayed. Edwards took a comfortable win from Haga, well clear of Hodgson in third, who was in turn well clear of Chili, beating comeback man Bayliss to fourth place.
Race two saw slightly better conditions than race one, with a wet track but sunnier and drier skies. On the warm-up lap, Edwards fell at the left at Club when he lost the front end as he attempted to catch up the field as he was riding his spare bike around from pit lane. He got going again and managed to get back to his starting position. After his warm-up lap dramas, Edwards led going into Copse for the first time, ahead of Xaus, Haga, Chili and Bayliss. Haga took second down Hangar Straight as Bayliss moved into third through Stowe, followed by Xaus, Chili and Hodgson. Into the left at Club where he had fallen on the warm-up lap and Edwards was mugged by Haga, Bayliss and Xaus, dropping to fourth! Through the final corner at Woodcote Bayliss got on the inside of Haga to take the lead as they completed an eventful lap one, Xaus following through into Copse.
As they completed lap two Bayliss had a break over a pack of four. As they headed around lap three, Xaus broke away from the rest of them, Edwards moved up to third and started chasing after Xaus, Haga dropped to fifth while Hodgson stayed fourth. By Stowe on lap four Edwards was up to second place, as Haga began to slide further back through the field. Edwards began to close in on leader Bayliss as Xaus remained close but not quite in touch, as Rutter passed Hodgson for fourth on lap five, Chris Walker passing Hodgson for fifth a lap later through Luffield, Hodgson returning the favour two corners later to move back to fifth as Walker had a wobble. They both moved up a place when Rutter crashed on lap eight at Priory. Watching closely behind them was Shane Byrne as Hodgson and Walker continued to fight.
Having followed Bayliss closely for several laps, Edwards took the lead on lap ten, as the track continued to dry, Walker passing Hodgson for good this time. Bayliss sat on Edwards's tail as he attempted to make the move back past, and made the move two laps later at both riders' favourite corner, the left at Club, as they held a six second break over Xaus and thirty over fourth placed Walker. At around the same time, Shane Byrne passed Hodgson for fifth while Haga's slide had seen him drop all the way back to tenth.
Bayliss began to stretch a small advantage over Edwards as the rest of the field continued to lose seconds each lap to the duo, which is how things remained until the end, Bayliss beating Edwards by just under five seconds, just over eleven seconds ahead of Xaus, with the next rider Chris Walker finishing almost a minute behind the winner! After a pit stop at the end of lap three dropping him to last to change the rear tyre, Pierfrancesco Chili made it all the way back up to eleventh place.
Result of World Superbike Championship, Round 6, Silverstone, Great Britain:
Standings: Troy Bayliss 260, Colin Edwards 231, Neil Hodgson 157, Noriyuki Haga 129, Ruben Xaus 120, Ben Bostrom 119, James Toseland 81, Chris Walker 73, Gregorio Lavilla 60 etc.
Marvellous Martin
Polesitter Jimmie Johnson led the first half of lap one before being passed by fellow front row starter Elliot Sadler who led two laps before Johnson retook the lead. On lap twelve Kurt Busch spun in turn four, bringing out the first caution of the day. Johnson led the field away as they resumed racing but was passed by Ricky Craven within a lap. Two laps later and Johnson returned to the lead. Lap 27 and the caution came out again as Jeremy Mayfield spun into the turn four wall. Frank Kimmel took over the lead as he stayed out while most others pitted. It only took a few laps before Craven retook the lead of the race however, and just a couple of laps more for Johnson to take the lead from Craven. After running the Indy 500 only a couple of hours earlier, Robby Gordon was having a good day, running in the top ten.
Kevin LePage spun on his own oil in turn three to bring out the third caution on lap 70. Johnson remained in the lead, edging out a small break over second placed Matt Kenseth. The next caution came out on lap 103 when last week's winner at The Winston, Ryan Newman, had an engine let go, ending his day early after such a great weekend the week before. With a quick pitstop Kenseth led at the restart but was soon under pressure from Ricky Rudd and Mark Kartin, both passing him on lap 113, with Martin passing Rudd for the lead on the next lap. Four laps later and Rudd took the lead back. Ward Burton brought out the next caution when he put his Dodge into the turn three wall.
Johnson was soon on Kenseth's tail however, not allowing the pit stop drama to affect him. Lap 244 and Jonnson was leading once again. Could the rookie score his second win of the year? The next caution came out on lap 258 when Jeremy Mayfield spun in turn four again. During the pit stops Bobby Labonte lost time as he had to back up back to his pits after a rear wheel wasn't tightened when an air wrench failed.
Johnson held on to the lead through the stops. He also led when the race restarted, which didn't stay that way for long as Jeff Burton, who had suffered problems all race, brought out the caution on lap 270 when his engine failed, taking him out of the race for good. Jimmie Johnson pulled away once again when the race resumed as he continued to dominate the race ahead of a quartet of Fords. With around 90 laps remaining Matt Kenseth was forced to pit from third place with a tyre problem, dropping him a lap off the pace.
At this point in the race, some drivers started to conserve fuel as they tried to make the rest of the race without another stop for fuel. Mark Martin, who had run a good and inoffensive race all night, moved up into second place with around 50 laps remaining. The final caution of the night came out with 40 laps to go when Hut Stricklin moved up in front of the leader Johnson, who tapped Stricklin into a lazy spin, both cars emerging unscathed. Everyone piled into the pits for tyres and fuel for the run to the end. Most of the pitstops went as expected except Johnson, who slightly overshot his pit, dropping to ninth, while Mark Martin became the new leader.
Martin opened up a comfortable break over the second place battle which raged between Rudd, Kenseth and Craven, the drivers swapping positions before Kenseth finally won the battle, Rudd dropping to fourth just behind Craven. Further back, Johnson was going nowhere, only up to eighth place. 29 laps to go and Dale Earnhardt retired when his engine failed after all the drive belts failed. With 25 laps to go Jeff Gordon joined the third placed battle between Craven and Rudd, making it a three way dice.
Series leader Sterling Marlin had an up and down day, finishing the day in eleventh place after starting in 35th. Robby Gordon's long day saw him finish in 16th place, a lap down on the winner. After running well all day, Dale Earnhardt Jr's blown motor saw him finish down in 35th after the 600 miles took less of a toll on motors than expected.
Result of NASCAR Winston Cup, Round 12, Lowe's Motor Speedway, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States:
Standings: Sterling Marlin 1775, Matt Kenseth 1688, Mark Martin 1632, Jeff Gordon 1584, Jimmie Johnson 1578, Rusty Wallace 1576, Tony Stewart 1544, Kurt Busch 1529, Ricky Rudd 1495, Bill Elliott 1437 etc.
Stormin' Courtney
Courtney was able to control wheelspin as well as anyone in the field to lead Richard Antinucci away from the grid. Visibility was at a premium with only Courtney able to see much of anything. The opening lap was too treacherous for some and Robbie Kerr spun, striking Mark Taylor on the way.
The wreckage was cleared and the Safety Car left the track, but it was soon back out so Mark Mayall's car could be collected. Courtney though was too good, and built up a 12 second gap over Antinucci, his best ever finish. Courtney's Carlin Motorsport teammate Michael Keohane was third for the day, taking him to second in the championship, just ahead of Bruce Jouanny and Robbie Kerr.
Result of British Formula 3 Championship, Round 9 and 10, Croft, Great Britain:
Standings: James Courtney 134, Michael Keohane 86, Robbie Kerr and Bruce Jouanny 84, Heikki Kovalainen 55, Mark Taylor 54, Rob Austin 48, Richard Antinucci 32, Ernani Judice 31, Ronnie Bremer 26 etc.
IRL
In 1971 Al Unser swept past a field that had no way of staying with him to win back to back Indy 500 victories. Since that day, no-one has repeated the feat. In 2001 Helio Castroneves ran at the front nearly all day and took a not unexpected victory. That day he ran across the hallowed tarmac and climbed the crash fencing in his customary victory dance. Unlike any of his previous CART wins, the entire pitcrew joined him on the fence.
After a month of rain, race day dawned clear sunny and bright, to the overwhelming relief of all. The track however would be green. There had been some overnight rain. The field came around to the start led by polesitter Bruno Junqueira. It was a very disorganised start with cars spread all over the straight, and it certainly wasn't even, but no yellows appeared so Robbie Buhl chased Junqueira into turn one.
As the rest of the field contemplated this, Greg Ray lost the back end of his car and hit the turn one wall hard backwards. This would prove a decisive moment for the race as Tomas Scheckter and Sam Hornish were already on the pit lane entry and allowed into the pits just as the yellow flags closed the pits.
When Kanaan pitted the lead was taken by Sharp, then Al Unser Jr, then Arie Luyendyk as the field pitted under green. With everyone having made their seconds stops Kanaan led and was looking ominously strong, shadowed by Hornish and Scheckter. There was a small drama in the Mo Nunn pits as part of Felipe Giaffone's fuel rig came apart in the socket. It would have to be sorted next stop. Shortly afterwards, Mark Dismore became the first mechancial retirement. Sam Hornish had been pushing hard since he had fortuitously caught the leaders with Scheckter, his continual pushing saw him pay the price when he slapped the wall in turn four hard, just on the exit. He continued but travelled ever more slowly and pitted imemdiately. After replacing all fours tyre he resumed but pitted again when it became obvious there was suspension damage. A yellow was thrown because of debris on the circuit at the same time. Most of the field took advantage and pitted.
The race restarted on lap 89 as Jimmy Vasser coasted into the pits to retire with a broken gearbox. Bruno Junqueira too was coasting in to retire with a broken gearbox in the Chip Ganassi car, dumping oil on the track as he went. As Tony Kanaan came around on that first lap he hit the oil and was gone, smashing backwards into the turn three wall. Rick Treadway too hit the wall, initially squeezed against the wall as cars avoided Kanaan's wreck, his damaged car nosed into the wall further around the next corner. The queue reformed with Giaffone at its head. With six lapped cars between Kanaan and Giaffone on the track, the cars on the lead lap now numbered sixteen. Any of them were still in with a chance. A large portion of the field pitted again at this caution period.
Felipe Giaffone now took up the lead, after giving people palpitations by slowing to a crawl on the back straight. It wasn't until the pace car swept by that it was clear he was only slowing to let the pace car by. The lap the pace car caught Giaffone was when pit lane opened. Most of the field pitted. Alex Barron had fuel for the finish so he stayed out and was looking good. After what must have been some very nervous moments, Team Penske rolled the dice and told Helio Castroneves to stay out while they pitted de Ferran. Initially it seemd a bad idea as on de Ferran's outlap a rear tyre came adrift. Limping back to the pits took de Ferran out of contention. Then just as the race was about to go green, the yellows were extended as a drink can was thrown onto the track surface.
Giaffone was third and must surely have been as disappointed as Tracy. They'd had the pace, but luck was elsewhere. Alex Barron survived to finish fourth. They had played the fuel strategy better than anyone else, but lacked the pace to capitalise on it. Eddie Cheever was fifth. The veteran had the best team, the fastest cars on the day, but some days that ain't enough. You have to stay off the walls. Richie Hearn was a surprise sixth. He had not been seen all day, yet climbed up to finish sixth. Andretti kept the family curse alive and well by finishing seventh ahead of Gordon, who was racing for his helicopter to get him to his flight to North Carolina and his #31 NASCAR. Jeff Ward, Gil de Ferran and Kenny Brack all finished on the lead lap.
Pos Driver Car
1. Helio Castroneves Dallara-Chevrolet
2. Paul Tracy Dallara-Chevrolet
3. Felipe Giaffone GForce-Chevrolet
4. Alex Barron Dallara-Chevrolet
5. Eddie Cheever Dallara-Infiniti
6. Richie Hearn Dallara-Chevrolet
7. Michael Andretti Dallara-Chevrolet
8. Robby Gordon Dallara-Chevrolet
9. Jeff Ward GForce-Chevrolet
10. Gil de Ferran Dallara-Chevrolet
Formula 3000
Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais moved into title favouritism with a dominant lights to flag performance at Formula 3000's blue riband event on the streets of the Principality of Monte Carlo. From when the cars first took to the track, Super Nova's lead driver only opposition was going to be his ability to keep off the walls. Patrick Friesacher (Red Bull Junior) had a best ever finish in second place as he led home the tattered remants of the field.
Using his experience, Tomas Enge cut his way through the chaos to salvage third from what had looked like a very ordinary day. Antonio Pizzonia was next having made just about the only passing move of the race to displace teammate Ricardo Sperafico from what was seventh but became fourth.
Pos Driver Team
1. Sebastien Bourdais Super Nova
2. Patrick Friesacher Red Bull Junior
3. Tomas Enge Arden International
4. Antonio Pizzonia Petrobras Junior
5. Ricardo Sperafico Petrobras Junior
6. Mario Haberfeld Team Astromega
7. Ricardo Mauricio Red Bull Junior
Superbikes
Race One
Pos Rider Motorcycle
1. Colin Edwards Honda VTR 1000 SP2
2. Noriyuki Haga Aprilia RSV 1000
3. Neil Hodgson Ducati 998 F 01
4. Pierfrancesco Chili Ducati 998 RS
5. Troy Bayliss Ducati 998 F 02
6. Mark Heckles Honda VTR 1000 SP2
7. Ben Bostrom Ducati 998 F 02
8. Ruben Xaus Ducati 998 F 02
9. Shane Byrne Ducati 998 RS
10. James Toseland Ducati 998 F 01
Race Two
Pos Rider Motorcycle
1. Troy Bayliss Ducati 998 F 02
2. Colin Edwards Honda VTR 1000 SP2
3. Ruben Xaus Ducati 998 F 02
4. Chris Walker Kawasaki ZX-7RR
5. Shane Byrne Ducati 998 RS
6. Neil Hodgson Ducati 998 F 01
7. Juan Borja Ducati 998 RS
8. Ben Bostrom Ducati 998 F 02
9. James Toseland Ducati 998 F 01
10. Noriyuki Haga Aprilia RSV 1000
NASCAR
Mark Martin took the win at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte in a weekend that saw good news for some of the older drivers in the series, after the 'young guns' dominated The Winston at the same circuit just a week earlier. On top of Martin's win, Ricky Rudd became the new Winston Cup 'Iron Man' by taking the green flag for his 656th consecutive start in the series over a 22 year period, taking the mantle from Terry Labonte. He had a good race too, finishing in fourth place.
Rudd led at the restart, and edged out a small lead over the chasing pack, led by Johnson. The next caution was brought out on lap 164 after Steve Park spun in turn four. Rudd had a slow stop, dropping him to eleventh, while Johnson's quick stop saw him as the new leader. After sitting in the top five most of the night, Johnson began to edge away from the rest of the field. For the first time all night, drivers pitted under green flag conditions. During these stops Johnson overshot his pit, costing him several seconds, and handing the lead to Kenseth after the stops were over.
The second green flag stops for the night began around lap 330, with no major changes except for Kurt Busch, who overshot his pit thanks to Rusty Wallace exiting just in front of him and soon after suffered a drive through penalty for speeding in pit lane and a tyre rolling out into pit lane. A few cars made a few extra laps as they topped off at the end of the previous caution, but eventually normal service was resumed. With around 60 laps ago Johnson returned to the lead five seconds ahead of a quartet of Fords led by Kenseth, who managed to turn his early stop to his advantage.
Up front, Kenseth closed in to within a second of his teammate Martin with 20 laps remaining, and got within a couple of car lengths several times. Although Kenseth could get close, he was never quite in a position to pass, despite some heavy traffic in the last couple of laps, Martin going on to take his first win in 74 races just ahead of Kenseth. Craven finished third, Rudd fourth a few car lengths ahead of Jeff Gordon who beat Tony Stewart by inches as they ran side-by-side across the line. Martin's win also earned him and a fan a million dollar bonus from Winston. The only sour note was that Martin's car was found to be one-eighth of an inch too low in post-race inspection, and subsequently fined US $50,000 by NASCAR.
Pos Driver Car
1. Mark Martin Ford Taurus
2. Matt Kenseth Ford Taurus
3. Ricky Craven Ford Taurus
4. Ricky Rudd Ford Taurus
5. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Monte Carlo
6. Tony Stewart Pontiac Grand Prix
7. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Monte Carlo
8. Michael Waltrip Chevrolet Monte Carlo
9. Bill Elliott Dodge Intrepid
10. Rusty Wallace Ford Taurus
Formula 3
After having not won any races early in the championship, for pre-season favourite James Courtney they are now coming in a rush. In conditions that ranged from merely bad to horribly atrocious Courtney extended his run of consecutive wins to three with a lights to flag victory in the wet of Croft. A fourth win would have to wait as rain thumped down hard enough to make any racing impossible.
Round Nine
Pos Driver Car
1. James Courtney Dallara F302 Mugen-Honda
2. Richard Antinucci Dallara F302 Mugen-Honda
3. Michael Keohane Dallara F302 Mugen-Honda
4. Heikki Kovalainen Dallara F302 Sodemo-Renault
5. Fabio Carbone Dallara F302 Sodemo-Renault
6. Rob Austin Dallara F302 Spiess Opel
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