CART: Tony Kanaan, Surfers Paradise Sunday Race Notes/Quotes
15 October 2000
Tony Kanaan #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Mercedes-Benz Reynard Indy 300 – Race Notes/Quotes – Sunday, Oct. 15, 2000 Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia (2.795-mile temporary street course) Round 19 of 20 on the 2000 CART FedEx Championship Series Tony Kanaan brought his #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Mercedes-Benz Reynard home in eighth place in today’s accident-filled Indy 300 on the beachside streets of Surfers Paradise. Kanaan started seventh, his season’s best on a road course, and equaled his best road course finish of the year, set previously at Road America. It was also his second consecutive top-10 finish, his sixth and the team’s seventh of the season. He ran as high as fourth today after the top three starters (polesitter Juan Montoya, season points leader Gil de Ferran, and Dario Franchitti) took each other out of the race on the very first turn of the race. He was fifth, having been passed by Christian Fittipaldi before the first round of pit stops on Lap 23. He then climbed back to sixth before the second round of pit stops on Lap 42. He was shuffled back to his eventual eighth-place finish by a series of wild incidents on the track before the checkered flag, which came six laps short of the original 65-lap distance due to the race’s 2-hour time limit. Adrian Fernandez was today’s winner, Kenny Brack was second, with Jimmy Vasser third. The next and final stop on the tour is 500-mile event at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., Round 20 of 20 on the season. TONY KANAAN “It turned out to be a battle of fuel consumption and we really had to work hard to save fuel almost all race long. Hey, a guy (Fernandez) who started 20th on the grid was able to win the race on fuel strategy. It was especially frustrating for us today because we had a great race car. I was able to go racing for short bits at a time, and then I had to back off to save fuel. That’s a shame. But, again, the guys gave me a good, reliable race car. We got some great pit stops. It was a great effort all the way around. Let’s go to Fontana and finish this season on a really high note. Anything can happen in a 500-mile race.” # # #