Race details | |
---|---|
Race 15 of 17 in the 1997 CART season | |
Date | August 31, 1997 |
Official name | Molson Indy Vancouver |
Location | Streets of Vancouver, British Columbia |
Course | Street track 1.653 mi / 2.660 km |
Distance | 100 laps 165.300 mi / 266.000 km |
Weather | Temperatures reaching up to 22.2 °C (72.0 °F) before dropping down to 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) by the end of the event [1] |
Pole position | |
Driver | Alex Zanardi (Chip Ganassi Racing) |
Time | 54.025 |
Fastest lap | |
Driver | Alex Zanardi (Chip Ganassi Racing) |
Time | 55.136 (on lap 82 of 100) |
Podium | |
First | Maurício Gugelmin (PacWest Racing) |
Second | Jimmy Vasser (Chip Ganassi Racing) |
Third | Gil de Ferran (Walker Racing) |
The 1997 Molson Indy Vancouver was the 15th round of the 1997 CART season. At that time, the Italian driver Alex Zanardi was the leader of the standings with 39 points in front of the French-Brazilian driver Gil de Ferran.
At the start, Dennis Vitolo stalled his engine at turn 3. But he continued in the race. The Penske Racing driver Paul Tracy had a collision with a driver at the chicane. The driver, probably, was André Ribeiro. First caution came out, as Dennis Vitolo had a contact with a tyre wall. P. J. Jones went to the pits at the time of the full course caution. Restart came out very soon, but Michel Jourdain Jr. was spun by Al Unser Jr. in the final corner. But he was back on the field. After 9 laps, the top 6 was: Alex Zanardi, Bobby Rahal, Jimmy Vasser, Maurício Gugelmin, Michael Andretti and Bryan Herta. At lap 16, Zanardi missed the hairpin. When he would come back to the race, his engine had stalled. But he remained in the race, although, lost many positions. At lap 20, P. J. Jones retired due to an engine failure. At lap 26, Vasser took the lead after overtaking Rahal at turn 10.
At lap 35, Bobby Rahal retired after a transmission failure. At lap 47, Richie Hearn was hit by Michel Jourdain Jr. at turn 10. This caused a full course caution. Restart came out at lap 53. At lap 54, Alex Zanardi hit Bryan Herta at turn 10, and, at the chicane, Scott Pruett had hit the back of the car of Adrian Fernandez, resulting in another caution. Restart came at lap 57.
Then, Greg Moore had some damages in his right-front suspension at lap 64. At lap 68, Zanardi did an amazing overtaking manoeuvre on Michael Andretti at Turn 3 (The hairpin). Right after this, Andretti suffered problems on his suspension, and retired from the race.
With 18 laps to go, Alex Zanardi stalled his engine at the hairpin (Turn 3) again. He came back to the race at 10th place. The top 6 at the following lap was: Bryan Herta, Maurício Gugelmin, Jimmy Vasser, Al Unser Jr., Gil de Ferran and Mark Blundell. With 14 laps to go, Zanardi knocked Herta out at the chicane, right after the hairpin. Despite the collision, Herta did not retire. At the last lap, Christian Fittipaldi crashed at turn 10 and retired, but was classified 9th.
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