2008 Nikon Indy 300
The 2008 Nikon Indy 300 was a non-championship Indycar exhibition race that was held as the 19th and final race of the
It was the first time the race was held for the
The race was won by an Australian driver for the first time in the 18-year history of the event with
Team changes
With the championship decided, some teams used the race as a prelude to the 2009 season.
Qualifying
Rain fell on early parts of qualifying which caught several cars out, most notably
Will Power continued to show the pace he had shown through practice to top the second group, almost four second faster the Group 1 as the track dried. Tony Kanaan shadowed the local hero with Justin Wilson within a tenth of Kanaan. Scott Dixon and returning teammate Dario Franchitti progressed while again a Penske car sat on the bubble, Hélio Castroneves the last car to make it into Group 2. Marco Andretti was well down on Castroneves while Dan Wheldon made a troubled debut for his new team, missing the cut by almost two seconds.[5]
Dixon topped Section 2 track times improving from over 1:50 to 1:39.2049 for Dixon's best lap. Castroneves improved to second ahead of Kanaan, who would subsequently lose his bets lap and drop out of the top six, Franchitti and Briscoe. Power having led much of the session stopped early and had a nervous wait as his time was rapidly bettered, but made it through with Hunter-Reay joining the Firestone Fast Six.[6]
Dixon, Power and Briscoe swapped top times early until Power started to dominate. With time running out Dixon recorded a 1:35.7672, the fastest lap time recorded in all of qualifying with Briscoe and Franchitti filling the top three when on his last lap Power backed off and found something for a last charge, recording a 1:34.9451, smashing the Fast Six field by eight-tenths of a second.[7]
Qualifying results
Pos | Nat | Name | Team | Group 1 | Group 2 | Top 12 | Firestone Fast Six |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Will Power | KV Racing Technology
|
1:50.4357 | 1:40.4642 | 1:34.9451 | ||
2 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:50.7996 | 1:39.2049 | 1:35.7672 | ||
3 | Ryan Briscoe | Team Penske
|
1:55.4900 | 1:40.3121 | 1:35.8007 | ||
4 | Dario Franchitti | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:51.3389 | 1:39.8594 | 1:35.9336 | ||
5 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Rahal Letterman Racing
|
1:53.1807 | 1:40.8848 | 1:36.4030 | ||
6 | Hélio Castroneves | Team Penske
|
1:51.5920 | 1:39.6232 | 1:36.7425 | ||
7 | Alex Tagliani | Conquest Racing | 1:53.4650 | 1:41.3122 | |||
8 | Tony Kanaan | Andretti Green Racing
|
1:50.6625 | 1:41.4023 | |||
9 | Justin Wilson | Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
|
1:50.6966 | 1:42.0429 | |||
10 | E. J. Viso
|
HVM Racing | 1:54.5978 | 1:42.9185 | |||
11 | Vítor Meira | A.J. Foyt Racing
|
1:54.2486 | 1:44.3348 | |||
12 | Mario Moraes | Dale Coyne Racing | 1:55.1731 | 1:51.5054 | |||
13 | Graham Rahal | Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
|
1:55.6155 | ||||
14 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Green Racing
|
1:52.2084 | ||||
15 | Oriol Servià | KV Racing Technology
|
1:55.6628 | ||||
16 | Hideki Mutoh | Andretti Green Racing
|
1:53.3353 | ||||
17 | Bruno Junqueira | Dale Coyne Racing | 1:58.0183 | ||||
18 | Dan Wheldon | Panther Racing | 1:53.9160 | ||||
19 | Ed Carpenter
|
Vision Racing | 1:58.7664 | ||||
20 | Jaime Camara | Conquest Racing | 1:54.0514 | ||||
21 | Townsend Bell | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 1:58.9264 | ||||
22 | Buddy Rice | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 1:54.3489 | ||||
23 | Danica Patrick | Andretti Green Racing
|
No time | ||||
24 | A. J. Foyt IV | Vision Racing | No time |
Race
Justin Wilson pitted on the warm-up lap with the gearbox sticking in third, but rejoined to start from the back. Will Power immediately dominated the start, pulling a two-second lead on the first lap. Scott Dixon started second but after being forced to cut the first chicane was relegated behind Ryan Briscoe by the officials.
Mario Moraes and Vítor Meira clashed at the second chicane with Meira spinning without hitting anyone. A few lap later Moraes caused the first safety car, clipping the turn 2 chicane, breaking the right rear corner of the car. Townsend Bell was eliminated after a clash with Helio Castroneves which wrecked Bell's steering. Later the same lap Castroneves had a right rear puncture caused by Danica Patrick's front wing while passing the Andretti Green Racing driver.
Lap 17 saw the end of Power's dominance of the meeting as he crashed at the Bartercard chicane, which put Briscoe into the lead ahead of Dixon. Briscoe pitted for fuel immediately upon catching backmarker Patrick, but Dixon waited another lap and was held up behind her. At the same time Graham Rahal touched the rear of Car 20, spinning the Vision Racing car at the bottom corner and Ed Carpenter stopped as well, almost blocking the track. The emerging safety car almost hit Dixon as he completed his stop.
Behind the safety car Patrick stopped and stalled, almost hitting the stationary car of Carpenter. Dario Franchitti clipped the tyre bundle on the inside of the same chicane and spun and stalled bringing out the safety car. After the restart Tony Kanaan had the right rear suspension break without apparent reason.
After the second round of pitstops the battle for third between Alex Tagliani and Ryan Hunter-Reay was interrupted by Dario Franchitti as poor pitstop and a poor pit position for Conquest Racing saw Tagliani drop several position behind EJ Viso. Viso later would twice have to give up spots for cutting chicanes, first to Tagliani, then Castroneves. Lap 48 saw Jaime Camara go straight on and stalled the car attempting to recover.
In the races closing stages Dixon closed in on Briscoe, the two remaining local drivers lapping significantly faster than the rest of the field. Ed Carpenter hit the wall at turn 3 on the last lap but it did not affect the lead battle and Briscoe won his home race ahead of Dixon. Ryan Hunter-Reay finished third.
Race result
Final results sourced from:.[8]
Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/retired | Grid |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | Ryan Briscoe | Team Penske
|
60 | 1:45:50.3868 | 3 |
2 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 60 | +0.5 secs | 2 |
3 | 17 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Rahal Letterman Racing
|
60 | +9.1 secs | 5 |
4 | 36 | Alex Tagliani | Conquest Racing | 60 | +20.0 secs | 7 |
5 | 5 | Oriol Servià | KV Racing Technology
|
60 | +20.4 secs | 15 |
6 | 33 | E. J. Viso
|
HVM Racing | 60 | +33.7 secs | 10 |
7 | 3 | Hélio Castroneves | Team Penske
|
60 | +34.5 secs | 6 |
8 | 27 | Hideki Mutoh | Andretti Green Racing
|
60 | +55.7 secs | 16 |
9 | 06 | Graham Rahal | Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
|
60 | +1:20.1 secs | 13 |
10 | 15 | Buddy Rice | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 60 | +1:31.9 secs | 22 |
11 | 4 | Dan Wheldon | Panther Racing | 60 | +1:31.9 secs | 18 |
12 | 02 | Justin Wilson | Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
|
60 | +1:31.9 secs | 9 |
13 | 26 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Green Racing
|
60 | +1:38.4 secs | 14 |
14 | 14 | Vítor Meira | A.J. Foyt Racing
|
59 | + 1 lap | 11 |
15 | 18 | Bruno Junqueira | Dale Coyne Racing | 59 | + 1 lap | 17 |
16 | 10 | Dario Franchitti | Chip Ganassi Racing | 59 | + 1 lap | 4 |
17 | 2 | A. J. Foyt IV | Vision Racing | 58 | + 2 laps | 24 |
18 | 7 | Danica Patrick | Andretti Green Racing
|
58 | + 2 laps | 23 |
19 | 34 | Jaime Camara | Conquest Racing | 58 | + 2 laps | 20 |
20 | 20 | Ed Carpenter
|
Vision Racing | 57 | Off course | 19 |
21 | 11 | Tony Kanaan | Andretti Green Racing
|
34 | Mechanical | 8 |
22 | 8 | Will Power | KV Racing Technology
|
16 | Off course | 1 |
23 | 23 | Townsend Bell | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 8 | Contact | 21 |
24 | 19 | Mario Moraes | Dale Coyne Racing | 7 | Off course | 12 |
Support categories
The 2008 Nikon Indy 300 shared the top billing with Round 11 of the 2008 V8 Supercar Championship series, as well as three support categories.[9]
Category | Round winner |
---|---|
V8 Supercar
|
Ford BF Falcon )
|
Formula 3 | John Martin (Dallara F307 Mercedes-Benz) |
Australian Carrera Cup | James Moffat (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) |
Aussie Racing Cars | Paul Morris (Commodore-Yamaha)
|
Notes
- It was the last held in V8 Supercarrace for 2009 and onwards.
References
- ^ Weather information for the 2008 Nikon Indy 300 at the Australian Government's Bureau of Meteorology Website
- ^ "Franchitti To Join Dixon at Team Target for IndyCar Series Finale in Surfers Paradise". chipganassiracing.com. 19 September 2008. Retrieved 27 September 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "A Debut Down Under: Wheldon Confirmed in no. 4 car for Australia Race Oct. 26". pantherracing.com. 23 September 2008. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
- ^ "Top Section Times (Qualifications Round 1/Group 1) – IndyCar Series" (PDF). Indycar.com. 25 October 2008. Retrieved 27 October 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Top Section Times (Qualifications Round 1/Group 2) – IndyCar Series" (PDF). Indycar.com. 25 October 2008. Retrieved 27 October 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Top Section Times (Qualifications Round 2/Top 12) – IndyCar Series" (PDF). Indycar.com. 25 October 2008. Retrieved 27 October 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Top Section Times (Qualifications Round 3/Firestone Fast 6) – IndyCar Series" (PDF). Indycar.com. 25 October 2008. Retrieved 27 October 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Unofficial Lap Report – IndyCar Series" (PDF). Indycar.com. 26 October 2008. Retrieved 27 October 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Surfers Paradise Street Circuit 26 October 2008 Nikon Indy 300 – 2008 V8 Supercar Championship Series -Rd 11". National Software. 26 October 2008. Retrieved 26 October 2008.[permanent dead link]