CART: Penalties Cost Kanaan Top Finish at Miami
27 March 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
New Mercedes-Benz IC108F Engine Performs Flawlessly in Race Debut
The newly formed Mo Nunn Racing Hollywood team had a number of assets heading into Sunday's season-opening Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami: the top Champ Car engineer in team owner Morris Nunn, a top-gun driver in Tony Kanaan and the powerful new Mercedes-Benz IC108F V8 Champ Car engine. What they did not have this day was Lady Luck, as Kanaan lost a potential race win when two pit-lane violations dropped the Brazilian driver to a 10th-place finish. Max Papis earned his first career victory, taking the lead with 10 laps to go and finishing 0.620 seconds ahead of Roberto Moreno at the 1.502-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway.
In a race that saw the engine-related retirement of several cars from top teams, the new Mercedes-Benz powerplant performed flawlessly in its first race. None of the five Mercedes-powered cars in the race suffered any engine problems.
"We're pleased with the quality, reliability and performance of this brand new engine," said Paul Ray, vice president of Ilmor Engineering, the race-engine partner of Mercedes-Benz. "There's a lot more development work left to do, and our competition isn't going to stand still. But we showed that we had an engine that was capable of winning this race."
Kanaan started in 14th position and moved steadily forward, gaining two positions with a speedy pit stop on lap 62 and then passing Vasser for fourth place at about the halfway point. On lap 100, Mauricio Gugelmin ran out of fuel and slowed on course, forcing a yellow flag. Unfortunately, Kanaan had already committed to enter the pits as they were closing under the yellow on lap 102, and he was ordered to the back of the lead-lap cars. On lap 103, Kanaan made his second stop in two laps to refuel. Exiting the pits, the young Brazilian driver received a black flag for a pit-lane speed violation and was forced to return to the pits once again.
Mark Blundell led the race for two laps with an out-of-sequence pit strategy, but struggled from the start with the balance on his PacWest Motorola Mercedes race car. Blundell finished 13th. Teammate Gugelmin finished 16th in the premiere of the PacWest Nextel Mercedes after setting the sixth-quickest lap of the race on lap 145.
Herdez Mercedes driver Michel Jourdain raced as high as third place before finishing 14th in his first race with the Bettenhausen Motorsports team. Arciero Project Racing Group Hollywood Mercedes driver Luiz Garcia Jr., made contact with the outside wall on lap 132 and finished 17th.
The FedEx Championship Series moves to Nazareth, Pa., for the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix on April 9th.
Mercedes Quotes
Tony Kanaan, No. 55, Mo Nunn Racing Hollywood Mercedes/Firestone (10th/149 laps) "I had a winning car today.
"I was on it, and we got that yellow at exactly the wrong time because I was committed to the stop. It's unfortunate we had that pit-speed violation. We'll have to wait for the luck next time because we have everything else. I was having a lot of fun out there today. Sometimes the result doesn't make us happy."
Mark Blundell, No. 18, PacWest Motorola Mercedes/Firestone (13th/148 laps) "It was a long, tough race. There was not a lot of balance in the car today -- push going into the corners and loose coming out. The engine and tires were reliable and the boys did a good job on my stops. We just didn't have the balance to compete in traffic. We've got some work to do for the next one."
Michel Jourdain, Jr., No. 16, Bettenhausen Herdez Mercedes/Firestone (14th/147 laps) "Our main goal today was to finish the race. We would have liked to get some points, but we've learned a lot and there are still 19 to go."
Mauricio Gugelmin, No. 17, PacWest Nextel Mercedes/Firestone (16th/146 laps) "We didn't have a perfect car at the start today. It was really loose. But I was saving fuel and the crew did a great job of fixing the car on the first pit stop. After that, the car was well balanced and very quick. I don't know what happened with the fuel -- we'll have to check this out. But at the end we ran some very fast laps. We should have had some points because the car was good enough today."
Text provided by Susan Schroeder
Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos
and art, visit
The Racing
Photo Museum and the
Visions
of Speed Art Gallery.