CART: PacWest duo survive 'crashfest' to lead Toyota at Toronto

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

July 16, 2001

- Scott Dixon and Mauricio Gugelmin surved a crashfest that saw no less than eight of the nine Toyota-powered cars involved in incidents during Sunday's Molson Indy. Dixon finished fifth, while teammate Gugelmin was seventh. Roberto Moreno and Christian Fittipaldi also scored points despite contact during the race - Fittipaldi's occurring late in the race while running sixth. He had run as high as fourth in the event.

- Scott Dixon's fifth-place finish was his third top-five showing of his rookie season - he won at Nazareth and placed third at Milwaukee. In addition, it's the 20-year-old's best-ever road course finish. Dixon now has five top-10 finishes in his last seven races and has opened up a 31-point lead in the CART rookie standings over Bruno Junqueira.

- Four Toyota-powered cars currently rank in the top-10 overall in the CART points standings. Cristiano da Matta continues as the highest ranking Toyota driver in sixth with 55 points, although Scott Dixon has now moved within one point (54) of him in seventh. Jimmy Vasser, who was caught up in an early incident, is four points (50) back of Dixon in eighth, while Christian Fittipaldi is in ninth with 49 points. Despite picking up two points with an 11th, Roberto Moreno fell out of the top-10 as he's now in a tie for 11th overall with 43 points.

Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports: "It was an extremely difficult weekend. We're looking forward to getting to Michigan, where we won a year ago, and I feel we'll be on a little more level playing ground on the oval. It should be an interesting race with all of the engine manufacturers running with the mandated 36" of boost."

Christian Fittipaldi, #11 Kmart Toyota-Lola: "A podium finish looked possible at one point. The car wasn't that great on the first stint but it was better later in the race. I was stuck behind Bruno for a while and kept trying to pass, but he closed the door. The last time I tried to pass him, he swung wide and we both went into the tires. We could have been happy with points from a sixth place finish, but if we would have gotten by him, I think we would have been able to pick up more positions because the car was pretty good at that point.

NEXT RACE: Michigan 500 Presented by Toyota, July 15, ESPN, 1:30 p.m. EDT

Text provided by John Prodica

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