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1999 Molson Indy Toronto

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Canada 1999 Molson Indy Toronto
Race details
Race 11 of 20 in the 1999 CART season
Exhibition Place track layout
DateJuly 18, 1999
Official nameMolson Indy Toronto
LocationExhibition Place
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
CourseTemporary Street Course
1.755 mi / 2.824 km
Distance95 laps
166.725 mi / 268.318 km
WeatherTemperatures reaching up to 31 °C (88 °F); wind speeds up to 15 kilometres per hour (9.3 mph)[1]
Pole position
DriverGil de Ferran (Walker Racing)
Time57.143
Fastest lap
DriverDario Franchitti (Team KOOL Green)
Time59.361 (on lap 88 of 95)
Podium
FirstDario Franchitti (Team KOOL Green)
SecondPaul Tracy (Team KOOL Green)
ThirdChristian Fittipaldi (Newman-Haas Racing)

The 1999 Molson Indy Toronto was the eleventh round of the 1999 CART season and took place on July 18, 1999, at the 2.824-kilometre (1.755 mi) Exhibition Place temporary street circuit in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Report

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Race

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Gil de Ferran took pole in qualifying by a considerable margin, but his lead did not last long as Dario Franchitti passed him at Turn 3 on the first lap. It was a lead which he did not relinquish. De Ferran ran second and Jimmy Vasser third early on. By lap 11, Helio Castroneves was out with a small engine fire. At about the same time, Michael Andretti ran into the back of Greg Moore pushing them both into the runoff area at turn 3, forcing Andretti to retire with suspension damage. The combination of incidents brought out a full course caution and the first round of pitstops as some backmarkers looked to make up track position by using alternate pit strategies. At the restart on lap 17, Franchitti got a great jump and pulled away from de Ferran easily. Further back, Tony Kanaan passed Paul Tracy for fifth in turn 1 with Juan Pablo Montoya also looking for a way around Tracy. Tracy and Kanaan would continue to battle until Tracy successfully retook fifth position two laps later in turn 3. Bryan Herta spun with 76 laps to go, also in the third turn, but only drew a local yellow. He would rejoin the race two laps down. Shortly before the leaders first pitstops, Christian Fittipaldi passed Vasser for third place. The top ten running order on the 28th lap was Franchitti, de Ferran, Fittipaldi, Tracy, Vasser, Kanaan, season points leader Montoya, Patrick Carpentier, Memo Gidley, and Scott Pruett.

Jimmy Vasser was the first of the leaders to come in for a pitstop, as he felt his rear tires were too worn to continue. As he left the pits, the full course caution came out due to a turn one incident between Richie Hearn and Cristiano da Matta, which was caused by an over eager Hearn lunging for 13th position and put his left front tire into the side pod of da Matta. This left only a single lane for the field to go through. At this point, Montoya was given a penalty and sent to the back of the field for running over an airgun hose from the pitbox in front of his. After the first pitstop, Roberto Moreno ran second behind Franchitti by following an alternate strategy (he had pitted during the first full course caution), but it meant that he had to make his second stop earlier than others. After the restart, Greg Moore was spun by Al Unser Jr. in turn 3 which brought a full course caution back out. After the subsequent restart, Vasser had to pit again for what he thought was a cut tire, but turned out to be significant buildup from the rubber "marbles" that had worn off everyone's tires. The order on lap 42 was now Franchitti still out front, followed by Moreno, de Ferran, Mauricio Gugelmin (Moreno's teammate and on the same alternate strategy), P. J. Jones, Fittipaldi, Tracy, Robby Gordon, Kanaan, and Adrian Fernandez who'd steadily worked his way into the top ten. Scott Pruett and Max Papis rounded out the points paying positions. Montoya had made up four places to retake 15th position, while his teammate Vasser languished at the tail end of the lead lap.

By the 57th lap, Franchitti had pulled nearly nine seconds clear of second placed Moreno, running a green flag race average of 102.188mph. Both the PacWest cars of Moreno and Gugelmin would pit on this lap, giving up second and fourth places respectively. Polesitter de Ferran took second place during this exchange, but was 11.2 seconds behind Franchitti, with Fittipaldi another six seconds behind de Ferran. On lap 61, Montoya and Michel Jourdain Jr. got together in turn 4. The two tried to go side by side through 4, but Montoya pinched Jourdain into the concrete wall. Jourdain was turned by the wall into Montoya, who was launched a short distance through the air. Both cars ended up in the outside wall of turn 4 with suspension damage, race done.

Team Kool Green took advantage of the full course caution to bring in race leader Franchitti for a 12 second pitstop. Most of the other leaders, including de Ferran, Fittipaldi, and Franchitti's teammate Tracy, pitted as well. Tracy was able to get past Fittipaldi in the race to the pit exit line, putting him effectively third. De Ferran, however, clipped one of Fittipaldi's tires on his way out of the pits. He was sent to the back of the lead lap by CART officials. At the restart on lap 68, Tracy immediately passed Carpentier, who was second behind Franchitti, in Turn 1. Fittipaldi followed Tracy by Carpentier in turn 3, and Moreno also passed Carpentier in the same lap. While the lead cars strung out ahead, Max Papis and Tony Kanaan tried desperately to pass Carpentier, who was struggling with old tires. A short time later, Greg Moore retired with engine woes, while in the background, de Ferran locked up his brakes while trying to avoid a slow pack of cars entering turn 3. He spun and clipped the outside wall several times, ending his race.

At the restart, Fernandez took 6th place from Kanaan, but most other cars held station, as the marble buildup off racing line was becoming significant. With 8 laps to go, Franchitti was 2.7 seconds ahead of teammate Tracy, followed by Fittipaldi, Moreno, Papis, the charging Adrian Fernandez, Pruett, Kanaan, Gugelmin, and Unser Jr., who'd started 25th. The end of the race would see significant changes to the running order, however. In the final corner with three laps to go, Kanaan hit the wall and took himself out of the race. Gugelmin ended up in the runoff area at turn 3 and dropped from 9th to 14th. Jimmy Vasser moved from 12th to 8th in the final few laps to recover from what could have been a disastrous day. Franchitti and Tracy were unaffected by the action behind them, and delivered the first one-two finish for Team Kool Green in its history.

Classification

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Race

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Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 27 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti Team Green 95 1:56:27.550 2 20+1
2 26 Canada Paul Tracy Team Green 95 +2.624 6 16
3 11 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 95 +6.987 5 14
4 18 Brazil Roberto Moreno PacWest Racing 95 +10.735 17 12
5 7 Italy Max Papis Team Rahal 95 +15.480 18 10
6 40 Mexico Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 95 +22.903 23 8
7 24 United States Scott Pruett Arciero-Wells Racing 95 +24.256 11 6
8 12 United States Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 95 +33.394 4 5
9 2 United States Al Unser Jr. Team Penske 95 +35.109 25 4
10 20 United States P. J. Jones Patrick Racing 95 +36.015 20 3
11 33 Canada Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 95 +36.478 12 2
12 15 United States Memo Gidley Walker Racing 95 +42.111 15 1
13 22 United States Robby Gordon Team Gordon 95 +48.163 22
14 17 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing 95 +51.827 16
15 8 United States Bryan Herta Team Rahal 93 +2 Laps 9
16 10 United States Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 93 +2 Laps 21
17 44 Brazil Tony Kanaan Forsythe Racing 92 Contact 7
18 71 United States Dennis Vitolo Payton/Coyne Racing 82 Transmission 27
19 5 Brazil Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 71 Contact 1 1
20 99 Canada Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 66 Cooling 10
21 19 Mexico Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 59 Contact 19
22 4 Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing 59 Contact 8
23 16 Japan Shigeaki Hattori Bettenhausen Racing 56 Spun off 26
24 25 Brazil Cristiano da Matta Arciero-Wells Racing 29 Contact 13
25 36 Brazil Gualter Salles All American Racing 25 Engine 24
26 6 United States Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 11 Contact 3
27 9 Brazil Hélio Castro-Neves Hogan Racing 10 Transmission 14

Caution flags

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Laps Cause
13-17 Moore (99), Andretti (6) contact
31-35 da Matta (25), Hearn (10) contact
38-40 Unser Jr. (2), Moore (99) contact
61-67 Jourdain Jr. (19), Montoya (4) contact
72-76 de Ferran (5) contact

Lap Leaders

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Laps Leader
1-95 Dario Franchitti
 
Driver Laps led
Dario Franchitti 95

Point standings after race

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Pos Driver Points
1 Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya 113
2 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti 106
3 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 96
4 United States Michael Andretti 95
5 Brazil Gil de Ferran 88

References

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  1. ^ "1999 Molson Indy Toronto weather information". Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2013-07-13.