Nikon Indy 300

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Lexmark Indy 300)
Jump to: navigation, search
Flag of Australia.svg Nikon Indy 300
Surfers Paradise Street Circuit
Surfers Paradise Street Circuit.svg
Race information
Laps 60
Circuit length 4.47 km (2.79 mi)
Race length 269.88 km (167.70 mi)
Most wins (drivers) 2 by France Sébastien Bourdais
Most wins (constructors) Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (6)
Last race (2008):
Pole position Australia Will Power
KV Racing Technology
1:34.9451
Podium 1. Australia Ryan Briscoe
Team Penske
1:45:50.3868
2. New Zealand Scott Dixon
Target Chip Ganassi Racing
+0.5019s
3. United States Ryan Hunter-Reay
Rahal Letterman Racing
+9.1179s
Fastest lap United Kingdom Dario Franchitti
Target Chip Ganassi Racing
1:35.1552

The Nikon Indy 300 was an open-wheel motor race event that took place at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in south east Queensland, Australia. Known generically as the Gold Coast Indy 300, Japanese camera giant Nikon was announced as new naming rights sponsor in early August, 2008[1]. The challenging 4.47 kilometre track has several fast sections and four chicanes.

The race had been an annual event since 1991 originally as part of the CART IndyCar World Series. Then, following the split between CART and the newly formed Indy Racing League (IRL) in 1996 and the subsequent dissolution of CART in 2003, as part of the Champ Car World Series.

Following the merger of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series in February 2008 the future of race had been secured until 2013 as an IRL IndyCar Series event, however the race was omitted from the 2009 IndyCar Series season calendar[2], and subsequently dropped by the IRL completely.

In the first sixteen years of the event, there were sixteen different winners. In 2007 Sébastien Bourdais became the first driver to win the race twice, adding to his 2005 victory.

Contents

[edit] History

The races early years were dogged by controversy as Australia's motor sport governing body the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) initially refused to sanction the event. The Queensland State Government has been largely supportive of the event while the Gold Coast City Council support at local level has varied in its level of support, even occasionally openly hostile to the event. However by the late 1990's the race had become a well attended and popular event on the Gold Coast calendar with tens of thousands of spectators attending each of the four days of the IndyCarnival.

In the 2002 event there was a frightening incident when a 9 car pile-up occurred at the start in very wet conditions - however no significant injuries were sustained. In 2003 a massive hailstorm struck the area during the race leading to a red flag. Again no injuries were sustained.

The event lost much of its lustre from 2004 as the split between American open wheel racing series started to draw teams from the Champ Car World Series across to the IRL IndyCar Series whose calendar was considerably more domestic than the well travelled Champ Car World Series. The falling popularity of open wheel racing in America has further devalued the event in recent times with NASCAR dominating the U.S. racing scene to the point where the growing influence of support category V8 Supercar removed Champ Car from top billing of the event into an equal top billing not seen at any other Champ Car event. Traditionally the CART/Champ Car race was the final event of the programme, but in recent years the final V8 race has held this place.

On March 5, 2008 it was announced that the IndyCar Series would travel to Australia for the first time, but due to contractural issues the race would not count towards the 2008 championship and would be a stand-alone demonstration event, in light of the recent merger between Champ Car and the IRL.[3]

On Tuesday, November 11, after extensive negotiations with the IRL broke down, the Queensland Government reached a new five year deal with A1 Grand Prix to stage a race at Surfers Paradise, severing its eighteen year history with American open wheel racing.[4][5] On February 25, 2009 it was announced that the event which combine one of the first few rounds of the 2009/10 A1GP and the 11th round of V8 Supercar Series would be produced through a partnership between IMG and the Queensland's local government. The event which formally known as the Gold Coast Indy 300 would be renamed as the SuperGP.[6]

However, on October 17, 2009, A1GP Chairman Tony Teixeira announced that the UK operating arm of the series went into liquidation in June. Access to the A1GP cars and the ability to pay its suppliers has been impeded. That caused the cars could not leave the UK to be on track in Surfers Paradise on the 22 October. A1GP had been forced to withdraw from participation in the Nikon SuperGP. Contractors engaged directly by A1GP who have already incurred expenses on their behalf will be fully reimbursed. A1GP will refund to Gold Coast Motor Events Co the sanction fee paid, and will donate AUS $50,000 to a charity designated by them.[7] Since A1 Grand Prix subsequently withdrew from the event and for 2009, it become a V8 Supercar only headline event.[8]

[edit] Previous winners

2006 Lexmark Indy 300
2006 Lexmark Indy 300. Miss Indy and Runners-up being interviewed in the pits.
2006 Lexmark Indy 300
Season Date Winning Driver Car Team Report
1991 March 17 United States John Andretti Lola T91/00 Chevrolet-Ilmor A Hall/VDS Racing Report
1992 March 22 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Penske PC21-92 Chevrolet-Ilmor B Penske Racing Report
1993 March 21 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Lola T93/06 Ford XB Cosworth Newman/Haas Racing Report
1994 March 20 United States Michael Andretti Reynard 94I Ford XB Cosworth Chip Ganassi Racing Report
1995 March 19 Canada Paul Tracy Lola T95/00 Ford XB Cosworth Newman/Haas Racing Report
1996 March 31 United States Jimmy Vasser Reynard 96I Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Report
1997 April 6 United States Scott Pruett Reynard 97I Ford XD Cosworth Patrick Racing Report
1998 October 18 Italy Alex Zanardi Reynard 98I Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Report
1999 October 17 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti Reynard 99I Honda Team Green Report
2000 October 15 Mexico Adrian Fernandez Reynard 2KI Ford-Cosworth Patrick Racing Report
2001 October 28 Brazil Cristiano da Matta Lola B01/00 Toyota Newman/Haas Racing Report
2002 October 27 Mexico Mario Dominguez Lola B02/00 Ford-Cosworth Herdez Competition Report
2003 October 26 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay Reynard 02I Ford-Cosworth American Spirit Team Johansson Report
2004 October 24 Brazil Bruno Junqueira Lola B02/00 Ford-Cosworth Newman/Haas Racing Report
2005 October 23 France Sébastien Bourdais Lola B02/00 Ford-Cosworth Newman/Haas Racing Report
2006 October 22 France Nelson Philippe Lola B02/00 Ford-Cosworth CTE-HVM Racing Report
2007 October 21 France Sébastien Bourdais Panoz DP01 Cosworth Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing Report
2008 October 26 Australia Ryan Briscoe Dallara IR8 Honda Penske Racing Report

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 27°59′17.9″S 153°25′42.1″E / 27.988306°S 153.428361°E / -27.988306; 153.428361