2002 Honda Indy 300

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.

2002 Surfers Paradise

Race details
Race 17 of 19 in the 2002 CART season
Map of the track
Date	27 October, 2002
Official name	Honda Indy 300
Location	Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Queensland, Australia
Course	Temporary Street Circuit 2.795 mi / 4.498 km
Distance	40 laps 111.800 mi / 179.920 km
Weather	Rain
Pole position
Driver	Cristiano da Matta (Newman-Haas Racing)
Time	1:30.204
Fastest lap
Driver	Cristiano da Matta (Newman-Haas Racing)
Time	1:56.457 (on lap 7 of 40)
Podium
First	Mario Domínguez (Herdez Competition)
Second	Patrick Carpentier (Forsythe Racing)
Third	Paul Tracy (Team Green)

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

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

Race

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

Caution flags

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

Notes

Laps Leader 1–10 Cristiano da Matta 11–18 Bruno Junqueira 19–29 Cristiano da Matta 30–35 Michael Andretti 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

External links

• Full Weekend Times & Results