Race No. 18

Honda Indy
Surfer's Paradise
Gold Coast, Australia
October 16-18, 1998

©1998 Marlboro Racing News

Surfers Paradise, Australia -- Alex Zanardi outduelled Dario Franchitti to score his seventh win of the season in today's Honda Indy in Surfers Paradise. Zanardi took the lead from poleman Franchitti during the first pitstops and was able to control the race from there to the finish. In the end the race came to an end under the yellow with the checkered flag waving three laps early as CART's two hour time limit was reached. The 31-year old Zanardi won for the first time in seven races or three months, to further add to his record point tally which now stands at 271 points. Zanardi celebrated by doing not one but two sets of victory 'donuts' on his cool-down lap.

Today's win was Zanardi's fifteenth in fifty CART Champ car starts over three years. He has reached fifteen victories quicker than any other driver in CART history, doing so seven races sooner than Rick Mears the previous record-holder. He is also in position to tie the record of eight wins in a season scored by Michael Andretti in 1991 and Al Unser Jr in 1994.

"It's great to be back in the winner's circle in a place I love so much," Zanardi grinned.

This place seems to be built to suit my driving style, I like it so much. I knew first of all I had the car to do the job. Dario was much more concerned about finishing today. The guy's cool enough to stand the pressure and he did a beautiful job. I guess I did the best for my teammate by taking a few points from Dario.

"The advantage both Dario and I had today was in the tires," Zanardi added. "We had fantastic tires from Firestone. They were very consistent and especially as we got more rubber down I found some new lines. It was like something you would do in qualifying. There was more grip at the end of the race than ever and the car was just getting better lap after lap."

Zanardi will move on at the end of the season to Formula One with the Williams team and he was asked what he would miss about Champ car racing. "One of the things I'm going to miss is this relaxed feeling we have in this series," Zanardi commented. "We can go out and celebrate together and have dinner with the other drivers. It's nice. We race hard but when we get out of the car we're smart enough to realize that other things are very important in life, like friendship. We all want to enjoy that and definitely in CART, this is possible.

"I definitely will miss the ovals," he added. "I live with danger and that is always very evident at the ovals. I actually love the speed, but nevertheless it's something I've already done and I'm happy I won't have to do it again."

Franchitti drove another excellent race to finish second today. Franchitti led the first thirteen laps but was beaten out of the pits during the first round of pitstops and thereafter had to tail Zanardi to the finish. Franchitti's second place means he jumps ahead of Jimmy Vasser into second in FedEx Championship points. Franchitti now has 160 points to Vasser's 148 as Vasser failed to finish today. Vasser crashed into Helio Castro-Neves on a restart halfway through the race and ended his day with his car torn up and no points.

"I've had a great time on the Gold Coast," Franchitti said. "Greg Moore and I arrived a week ago Wednesday. It's just a lovely place to be and this is a great way to end a couple of weeks. We moved up to second in the championship which was our goal for the week. Now I'm going to go to Fontana and keep second in points. We pushed Alex hard, but he had to speed to win and after the first pitstop it was an uphill struggle. I pushed him as hard as I could, but like the champion he is, he made no mistakes."

Franchitti said he lost the lead to Zanardi during the first round of pitstops because of some difficulty getting into and leaving his pitbox. Dario said he had to squeeze his way between his own crew and teammate Paul Tracy's crew, and also had a little trouble getting safely around Greg Moore's crew when he left his pit.

"I had to come in between my guys and Paul's guys and that might have slowed us down a little bit," Dario explained. "When I left I had to get around Greg's tires. The stop wasn't our best. It wasn't bad, but not the best."

The young Scotsman had his least competitive race of the season at the U.S. 500 at Michigan Speedway three months ago and knows that he must run much quicker at the California Speedway in two weeks if he is to wrap-up second place in this year's championship.

"It's going to be interesting for me," Franchitti remarked. "Jimmy's always been strong in those races. I was fast on the superspeedways last year, but this year we've struggled at those tracks. I have a points lead but at the same time, it's going to be an uphill struggle. I can only control what I'm doing, so I'll just do the best I can and hope I can run with or beat Jimmy."

Franchitti also discussed his recent leap to the forefront of Champ car racing. "I'd say it was a lot of luck and getting the breaks. I was involved with Jackie Stewart's Formula 3 team and then Mercedes for a few years. I feel very privileged with the fact that I'm here now with Team Kool Green."

Christian Fittipaldi drove an excellent race today to finish a close third, equalling the best result of his career. Fittipaldi was beaten away from the start by Paul Tracy but soon passed Tracy for third and ran most of the race in that position, unable to match the pace set by Zanardi and Franchitti. Today's result was paticularly satisfying for Franchitti who broke his leg and missed half the season when he crashed heavily here eighteen months ago.

"This is a huge difference from last year," Fittipaldi grinned. "I'm very happy with the way the weekend went, although I'm a little upset because I wanted to win this race very badly. After I went by Paul I could run a lot quicker. I drove 110 per cent, but both Alex and Dario made no mistakes. I was confident I could keep up with them, but I couldn't. It's great to be performing well at the end of the season, and I hope to carry this momentum into next season."

Scott Pruett used good pitstop strategy to finish fourth while JJ Lehto was a fine fifth, the best result of his rookie year in Champ cars. Both Pruett and Lehto stayed on the track near the race's end when most of the leaders came in for quick, splash-and-go stops under the yellow. Adrian Fernandez was sixth today, and therefore closed on Jimmy Vasser in the battle for final championship positions. A variety of drivers crashed out of today's race including Paul Tracy, Michael Andretti, Richie Hearn, Alex Barron, Vasser and Helio Castro-Neves.

Vasser tangled with Castro-Neves late in the race, terminally damaging his car against the wall after launching himself over the back of Castro-Neves's car. It was an uncommon mistake by Vasser that may have cost him second in this year's championship.

"I was behind Helio and Adrian (Fernandez) on the restart," Vasser said. "Helio moved over to the left and Adrian went around him on the outside going into the chicane. I thought he'd checked-up and started to do the same, but then he moved over to the right and we hit. It's such a shame. It's not my style to make a dive-bomb move. We came here to get the points we needed to get second in the championship and we got nothing."

Midway through the race Andretti ran into the back of Tracy. The collision damaged a front wing on Andretti's car and forced him to make a couple of pitstops for repairs while Tracy's rear brakes were ruined by the contact from behind. Tracy spun wildly at the next corner and had to pull out of the race after a series of stops to attempt to fix a terminal brake failure. Andretti's race came to an end later when he and Richie Hearn spun into the wall while trying to avoid Alex Barron's crashed car.

After today's race CART's chief steward Wally Dallenbach met with Andretti and Tracy, but because of the lack of a steward's trailer and equipment to review tapes of their incident Dallenbach postponed a formal inquiry until Friday, October 30 at the season-closing Marlboro 500 in California. Dallenbach noted that, "disciplinary action could result from the meeting."