Wish I Was There
Doesn't it look like a great place, that Surfer's Paradise, Down Under? Hey, if I were a member of the CART gang I think I'd be lobbying for a tour -- oh, maybe 3 or 4 races -- in Australia.
The fans are great. The weather is better. The scenery is spectacular.
Too bad it's another race through a no-passing-zone.
Yep, a street race -- narrow streets, chicanes, concrete barriers -- everything you need to run off 2 hours worth of parade laps.
Random Thoughts
- There was something odd about the television coverage, and, if you ask me to tell you what, I'd guess Paul Page, Parker Johnstone and Jon Beikhus were narrating the race from a studio in the USA.
- You gotta hate the fact young Casey Mears didn't make it through the first corner. It's too bad a simple mistake can be so costly.
- The driving was clean, considering how tight the course was.
- There's just not much to love about a race course that keeps faster cars from working their way to the front. Mention was made several times of Jimmy Vasser's quick times. His qualifying time wasn't so hot, however, and so he never became a contender.
- Neither Gidley (who finished 10th) nor Junqueira (who hit the wall) did anything to convince Chip Ganassi they deserve to run as Kenny Brack's partner next year.
- You gotta feel for Roberto Moreno. Hot from the green flag, turning a super lap before entering the pits to come out with a fuel load and new tires ahead of de Ferran ... and then he loses an engine.
- Brack was neither good nor bad Down Under, which tells you he gave away the championship with his mistake in the early laps at Laguna Seca.
Racing Around the 'Net
Jeremy Shaw's Sunday Surfers Paradise Notebook
Surfers Paradise, Australia, Oct. 28 — Cristiano da Matta has risen to the occasion to win the two most well-attended CART FedEx Championship Series races this season. The diminutive Brazilian started the trend when he took Newman/Haas Racing's Texaco/Havoline Toyota/Lola to the checkered flag before a massive crowd in the season opener at Monterrey, Mexico, in March, and repeated the feat on Sunday before a record-breaking four-day weekend attendance of 286,610 in Queensland, Australia.
Get the full story from Speedvision.
It's Heaven for Brazilian Drivers in Surfers Paradise
By Anne Proffit
SURFERS PARADISE, Australia, October 28, 2001 - Cristiano da Matta won the Honda Indy 300 battle, but Gil de Ferran carried home the Vanderbilt Cup today, taking his second consecutive CART championship for Marlboro Team Penske.
