CART: Moreno wins Vancouver with Toyota power

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

September 4, 2001

- Sunday's victory by Roberto Moreno is the second consecutive victory for a Toyota-powered competition in CART competition following Bruno Junqueira's victory at Road America. The win is the fourth of the season for a Toyota - Cristiano da Matta (Monterrey, Mexico) and Scott Dixon (Nazareth) were the other victories. The win also is Patrick Racing's first with Toyota power.

- Roberto Moreno's win is the ninth for a Toyota-powered car in the past 29 races. It also marks the second Toyota victory on a temporary street circuit with Jimmy Vasser winning the first last year at Houston.

- Roberto Moreno's victory is his first of the season and second of his career (Cleveland 2000 being the other). It's his first with Toyota power and his third podium finish of the season after placing second at Portland and third at Detroit.

- With the win Sunday, Moreno moves into eighth-place overall in the CART points race - despite scoring only six points total in the first five races this season. Only Gil de Ferran has scored more points in the last nine races than (79-68).

- Tora Takagi's seventh-place finish marks a career-best for the first-year driver. It's the second top-10 showing of his career. His previous best finish was a 10th at Monterrey.

- Memo Gidley gained 10 positions Sunday going from 20th to 10th Sunday for his third top-10 finish this season. He previously had placed second at Cleveland and fifth at Chicago.

Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports: "Roberto ran a great race from start to finish Sunday and it's great to be in the winner's circle for the second race in a row. Our congratulations go out to Patrick Racing. Hopefully, we've started a run that can carry us through the end of the season."

Roberto Moreno, Visteon Toyota: "The car was very good. I knew from the first lap of the morning warm-up that I had a car that could win. The Toyota power was fantastic. I was really fast on the straights and through the kink."

NEXT RACE: German 500, Sept. 16, ESPN, 7:30 a.m. ET

Text provided by John Prodica

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