Indycar 1996: Rounds 1-6
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1996 Marlboro Indycar World Series: Rounds 1 to 6
Round 1: Walt Disney World GP of Miami at Homestead - Marc 3rd, 1996
Winter testing is complete, and the month of march is gonna be a lot more busy for the Indycar teams and drivers than in years past, starting with the opening race on the brand new Miami Motor Speedway, a medium-length oval with long, sweeping banked turns where we might see lots of action for the earliest start date to an indycar calendar. With sponsorship from none other than Walt Disney, the opening ceremonies sees Mickey Mouse and his friends Light up the audience, which had a lot more familles than we are accustomed to in Indycar attendances.
On the track, Ayrton Senna gets the pole position on an oval for the first time in his career, beating out rookie Gil de Ferran and his main rival Jeff Gordon for Ganassi. Al Unser Jr starts a meager 13th in front of Jimmy Vasser, while indy lights champion Greg Moore impresses starting 6th alongside 2-time champion Bobby Rahal and, finally, Tony Stewart, in his full time debut in Indycars, qualifies his Lola-Menard Buick 9th, outqualifying 3-time champion Michael Andretti, with Robbie Stanley again impressing for Foyt, starting in 12th behind Bryan Herta.
As the Green flag waved for the 1996 Marlboro championship trail, at least, the second time around following Robbie Buhl crashing eveb before they crosses the start/finish line, Senna already pulled away from the pack, showing off how improved the PC-25 chassis was compared to its predecessor, which still won 4 races in 1995. Behind him, Gordon, De Ferran, Rahal, Moore and Stewart battled for the podium spots, while Paul Tracy, in the newly independent Team Green, would sadly see his first race back in Indycars end with electrical problems.
On lap 83, Jimmy Vasser crashed while he was about to get lapped by Senna, and the following lap, Senna wnet into the pits to retire himself! The Brazilian's car got its transmission damaged by a debris off of Vasser's Target reynard. This meant that the rookie De Ferran, Stewart and Gordon battled it out for 1st place, with De Ferran, driving the Jim Hall Reynard-Honda, showing his pace, but last year's sensation Tony Stewart used the power of his menard-Buick V6 To power through De Ferran at the backstraight to take the lead, to which Gordon took advantage of the aftermath to also pass De Ferran.
Finally, we have the most anticipated showdown for american racing fans between the future of american motorsports...or so they thpught. Gordon was surprisingly conservative against Stewart, as if he was content with just drafting him. Stewart, seeing that Jeff was doing nothing, floored it and pulled away from him...only for his engine to blow up on lap 102. The now appropriately nicknamed Smoke fell into Jeff Gordon's trap, getting à false sense of security thinking that Gordon might have problems.
Jeff Gordon's gamble paid off, and despite Gil De Ferran threatening in the last laps, the new Ganassi leading man comfortably crosses the finish line to win the inaugural Walt Disney World Grand Prix of Miami.
Miami race results:
1) Jeff Gordon 20 pts
2) Gil de Ferran 16 pts
3) Robby Gordon 14 pts
4) Scott Pruett 12 pts
5) Bobby Rahal 10 pts
6) Christian Fittipaldi 6 pts
7) Greg Moore 4 pts
8) Al Unser Jr 3 pts
9) Michael Andretti 2 pts
10) Bryan Herta 1 pts
Round 2: Hollywood Rio 400
Two weks later, Indycar arrives in Brazil for the first indycar race in the country of Ayrton Senna. Obviously, the stands at Jacarapegua were packed to the brim, cherring on for not only Senna, but all the other Brazilians in the series. 26 cars made the trip down the southern hémisphere for Brazil and Australia, with Della Penna and Payton-Coyne choosing to stay home in America, while veteran Roberto Moreno substitutes Davey Hamilton at Foyt for Rio.
The Ganassi team locked up the front row, with Jeff Gordon getting the pole, whiek the crowd hero Senna starts in 3rd and immediately took the fight to Gordon once the Green flag waved. The two would exchange the lead for the first 60 laps, until the first session of pitstops, caused by à horrible crash for Pacwest's Scott Sharp, who hit the wall hard and injured his right leg.
Tony Stewart, who started 7th, managed to beat both of them to take the lead, with Gil de Ferran also beating them for 2nd place. Later on, Jeff had to retire due to mechanical problems on lap 102 after he managed to pass De Ferran and Stewart, while Senna chose to be more careful in the mid portions of the race in order to attack at the end.
Robby Gordon took the lead, but he soon crashed, giving.the lead to Greg Moore, who had his Ford engine up in smoke at the backstraight, giving the lead to Senna, making the crowd roar in pure ecstasy. Backed up by a cautious, but ultimately solid drive by teammate Al Unser Jr, Senna brings home à historic win in his home country for a Penske 1-2, while Stewart narrowly fends off André Ribeiro for the final spot on the podium.
Rio race results
1) Ayrton Senna 20 pts
2) Al Unser Jr 16 pts
3) Tony Stewart 14 pts
4) André Ribeiro 12 pts
5) Christian Fittipaldi 10 pts
6) Bobby Rahal 6 pts
7) Paul Tracy 4 pts
8) Jimmy Vasser 3 pts
9) Scott Pruett 2 pts
10) Gil de Ferran 1 pt
Round 3: Adelaide Indycarnival Australia
The City of Adelaide, in South Australia, breathed à sigh of relief when it was confirmed that motor racing would continue in the streets that welcomed Formula 1 for 10 years. This time, however, it would be the american machines of Indycar roaming the Famed street circuit. Roberto Moreno comes back, this time, for Pacwest, subbing for the injured Scott Sharp.
Jeff Gordon again takes the pole, with Senna besides him on the front row and Scott Pruett in 3rd in front of Jimmy Vasser. The entire race, as expected, debolved into a race-long duel between Gordon and Senna. The two favorites tangoed around the track, with their favorite spots being the Brabham straight and Wakefield, exchanging the lead until, finally, Senna managed to outbreak Gordon at the Brabham straight on lap 70 and held on in the last 12 laps to score his second straight win and his first in Adelaide in three years.
Adelaide race results
1) Ayrton Senna 20 pts
2) Jeff Gordon 16 pts
3) Scott Pruett 14 pts
4) Greg Moore 12 pts
5) Mauricio Gugelming 10 pts
6) Christian Fittipaldi 6 pts
7) Parker Johnstone 4 pts
8) Davy Jones 3 pts
9) André Ribeiro 2 pts
10) Al Unser Jr 1 pt
Round 4: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Gil de Ferran almost causes the surprise by dominating in the streets of Long Beach, but mechanical issues slowed him down, allowing the ganassis and Penskes and Parker Johnstone to pass him. 1 lap later, Bobby Rahal colloded with his protege Bryan Herta at the hairpin.
Jeff Gordon wins his second season win and ganassi earns themselves à 1-2 ahead of the Penskes.
Long Beach results
1) Jeff Gordon 20 pts
2) Jimmy Vasser 16 pts
3) Ayrton Senna 14 pts
4) Al Unser Jr 12 pts
5) Parker Johnstone 10 pts
6) Gil de Ferran 6 pts
7) Adrian Fernandez 4 pts
8) Roberto Moreno 3 pts
9) Davy Jones 2 pts
10) Richie Hearn 1 pt
Round 5: Jimmy Bryant Memorial at Phoenix
In an attrition-filled race, many of the front-running teams had some trouble with retirements and bad pitstops. Michael Andretti, Greg Moore and Tony Stewart took advantage, and it would be the indiana native for Menard who would pounce on the chaos to pass both Andretti and fellow rookie Moore in the last 20 laps to secure his and Menard's first ever victory. Jeff Gordon finishes ahead of Ayrton Senna in 4th, while Arie Luyendyk pulls off a wonderful performance for the Treadway part-timers, finishing 7th.
Phoenix Race Results
1) Tony Stewart 20 pts
2) Greg Moore 16 pts
3) Michael Andretti 14 pts
4) Jeff Gordon 12 pts
5) Ayrton Senna 10 pts
6) Robbie Stanley 6 pts
7) Arie Luyendyk 4 pts
8) Richie Hearn 3 pts
9) Davey Hamilton 2 pts
10) Roberto Guerrero 1 pt
Round 6: Nazareth
The Bullring at Nazareth claimed its lot of victimes on April 28th, with Jeff Gordon being its most notable, as the Ganassi man had trouble with the set up and later crashed early in the race. Paul Tracy, who has been rather anonymus so far, surprised people by putting his team Green reynard in pole and dueling with Michael Andretti and Senna for the win all race long. However, a scuffle with Senna ended up screwing both out of the win, for Greg Moore took advantage of the commotion to sneak past the two in an audacious series of overtakes to take 2nd, with Senna and Tracy being forced to slow down, prompting Little Al to sneak into 3rd place. Michael Andretti would win at his home track, his first win in 2 years, while Senna and Tracy had a tense confrontation in the pits after the race.
Nazareth Race Results
1) Michael Andretti 20 pts
2) Greg Moore 16 pts
3) Al Unser Jr 14 pts
4) Ayrton Senna 12 pts
5) Paul Tracy 10 pts
6) Tony Stewart 6 pts
7) Jimmy Vasser 4 pts
8) Scott Pruett 3 pts
9) Christian Fittipaldi 2 pts
10) Adrian Fernandez 1 pt
The early season confirmed Gordon and Senna's statuses as the men to beat in 1996. Both men, at the peak of their powers, head into the month of May as the favorites for the 500. The stage is set for an exciting showdown at Indy, with the likes of Unser, Andretti, Moore and Stewart potentially playing spoiler...
To be continued...
Round 1: Walt Disney World GP of Miami at Homestead - Marc 3rd, 1996
Winter testing is complete, and the month of march is gonna be a lot more busy for the Indycar teams and drivers than in years past, starting with the opening race on the brand new Miami Motor Speedway, a medium-length oval with long, sweeping banked turns where we might see lots of action for the earliest start date to an indycar calendar. With sponsorship from none other than Walt Disney, the opening ceremonies sees Mickey Mouse and his friends Light up the audience, which had a lot more familles than we are accustomed to in Indycar attendances.
On the track, Ayrton Senna gets the pole position on an oval for the first time in his career, beating out rookie Gil de Ferran and his main rival Jeff Gordon for Ganassi. Al Unser Jr starts a meager 13th in front of Jimmy Vasser, while indy lights champion Greg Moore impresses starting 6th alongside 2-time champion Bobby Rahal and, finally, Tony Stewart, in his full time debut in Indycars, qualifies his Lola-Menard Buick 9th, outqualifying 3-time champion Michael Andretti, with Robbie Stanley again impressing for Foyt, starting in 12th behind Bryan Herta.
As the Green flag waved for the 1996 Marlboro championship trail, at least, the second time around following Robbie Buhl crashing eveb before they crosses the start/finish line, Senna already pulled away from the pack, showing off how improved the PC-25 chassis was compared to its predecessor, which still won 4 races in 1995. Behind him, Gordon, De Ferran, Rahal, Moore and Stewart battled for the podium spots, while Paul Tracy, in the newly independent Team Green, would sadly see his first race back in Indycars end with electrical problems.
On lap 83, Jimmy Vasser crashed while he was about to get lapped by Senna, and the following lap, Senna wnet into the pits to retire himself! The Brazilian's car got its transmission damaged by a debris off of Vasser's Target reynard. This meant that the rookie De Ferran, Stewart and Gordon battled it out for 1st place, with De Ferran, driving the Jim Hall Reynard-Honda, showing his pace, but last year's sensation Tony Stewart used the power of his menard-Buick V6 To power through De Ferran at the backstraight to take the lead, to which Gordon took advantage of the aftermath to also pass De Ferran.
Finally, we have the most anticipated showdown for american racing fans between the future of american motorsports...or so they thpught. Gordon was surprisingly conservative against Stewart, as if he was content with just drafting him. Stewart, seeing that Jeff was doing nothing, floored it and pulled away from him...only for his engine to blow up on lap 102. The now appropriately nicknamed Smoke fell into Jeff Gordon's trap, getting à false sense of security thinking that Gordon might have problems.
Jeff Gordon's gamble paid off, and despite Gil De Ferran threatening in the last laps, the new Ganassi leading man comfortably crosses the finish line to win the inaugural Walt Disney World Grand Prix of Miami.
A successful Ganassi debut for Jeff Gordon
Miami race results:
1) Jeff Gordon 20 pts
2) Gil de Ferran 16 pts
3) Robby Gordon 14 pts
4) Scott Pruett 12 pts
5) Bobby Rahal 10 pts
6) Christian Fittipaldi 6 pts
7) Greg Moore 4 pts
8) Al Unser Jr 3 pts
9) Michael Andretti 2 pts
10) Bryan Herta 1 pts
Round 2: Hollywood Rio 400
Two weks later, Indycar arrives in Brazil for the first indycar race in the country of Ayrton Senna. Obviously, the stands at Jacarapegua were packed to the brim, cherring on for not only Senna, but all the other Brazilians in the series. 26 cars made the trip down the southern hémisphere for Brazil and Australia, with Della Penna and Payton-Coyne choosing to stay home in America, while veteran Roberto Moreno substitutes Davey Hamilton at Foyt for Rio.
The Ganassi team locked up the front row, with Jeff Gordon getting the pole, whiek the crowd hero Senna starts in 3rd and immediately took the fight to Gordon once the Green flag waved. The two would exchange the lead for the first 60 laps, until the first session of pitstops, caused by à horrible crash for Pacwest's Scott Sharp, who hit the wall hard and injured his right leg.
Tony Stewart, who started 7th, managed to beat both of them to take the lead, with Gil de Ferran also beating them for 2nd place. Later on, Jeff had to retire due to mechanical problems on lap 102 after he managed to pass De Ferran and Stewart, while Senna chose to be more careful in the mid portions of the race in order to attack at the end.
Robby Gordon took the lead, but he soon crashed, giving.the lead to Greg Moore, who had his Ford engine up in smoke at the backstraight, giving the lead to Senna, making the crowd roar in pure ecstasy. Backed up by a cautious, but ultimately solid drive by teammate Al Unser Jr, Senna brings home à historic win in his home country for a Penske 1-2, while Stewart narrowly fends off André Ribeiro for the final spot on the podium.
Rio race results
1) Ayrton Senna 20 pts
2) Al Unser Jr 16 pts
3) Tony Stewart 14 pts
4) André Ribeiro 12 pts
5) Christian Fittipaldi 10 pts
6) Bobby Rahal 6 pts
7) Paul Tracy 4 pts
8) Jimmy Vasser 3 pts
9) Scott Pruett 2 pts
10) Gil de Ferran 1 pt
Round 3: Adelaide Indycarnival Australia
The City of Adelaide, in South Australia, breathed à sigh of relief when it was confirmed that motor racing would continue in the streets that welcomed Formula 1 for 10 years. This time, however, it would be the american machines of Indycar roaming the Famed street circuit. Roberto Moreno comes back, this time, for Pacwest, subbing for the injured Scott Sharp.
Jeff Gordon again takes the pole, with Senna besides him on the front row and Scott Pruett in 3rd in front of Jimmy Vasser. The entire race, as expected, debolved into a race-long duel between Gordon and Senna. The two favorites tangoed around the track, with their favorite spots being the Brabham straight and Wakefield, exchanging the lead until, finally, Senna managed to outbreak Gordon at the Brabham straight on lap 70 and held on in the last 12 laps to score his second straight win and his first in Adelaide in three years.
Adelaide race results
1) Ayrton Senna 20 pts
2) Jeff Gordon 16 pts
3) Scott Pruett 14 pts
4) Greg Moore 12 pts
5) Mauricio Gugelming 10 pts
6) Christian Fittipaldi 6 pts
7) Parker Johnstone 4 pts
8) Davy Jones 3 pts
9) André Ribeiro 2 pts
10) Al Unser Jr 1 pt
Round 4: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Gil de Ferran almost causes the surprise by dominating in the streets of Long Beach, but mechanical issues slowed him down, allowing the ganassis and Penskes and Parker Johnstone to pass him. 1 lap later, Bobby Rahal colloded with his protege Bryan Herta at the hairpin.
Jeff Gordon wins his second season win and ganassi earns themselves à 1-2 ahead of the Penskes.
Long Beach results
1) Jeff Gordon 20 pts
2) Jimmy Vasser 16 pts
3) Ayrton Senna 14 pts
4) Al Unser Jr 12 pts
5) Parker Johnstone 10 pts
6) Gil de Ferran 6 pts
7) Adrian Fernandez 4 pts
8) Roberto Moreno 3 pts
9) Davy Jones 2 pts
10) Richie Hearn 1 pt
Round 5: Jimmy Bryant Memorial at Phoenix
In an attrition-filled race, many of the front-running teams had some trouble with retirements and bad pitstops. Michael Andretti, Greg Moore and Tony Stewart took advantage, and it would be the indiana native for Menard who would pounce on the chaos to pass both Andretti and fellow rookie Moore in the last 20 laps to secure his and Menard's first ever victory. Jeff Gordon finishes ahead of Ayrton Senna in 4th, while Arie Luyendyk pulls off a wonderful performance for the Treadway part-timers, finishing 7th.
Phoenix Race Results
1) Tony Stewart 20 pts
2) Greg Moore 16 pts
3) Michael Andretti 14 pts
4) Jeff Gordon 12 pts
5) Ayrton Senna 10 pts
6) Robbie Stanley 6 pts
7) Arie Luyendyk 4 pts
8) Richie Hearn 3 pts
9) Davey Hamilton 2 pts
10) Roberto Guerrero 1 pt
Round 6: Nazareth
The Bullring at Nazareth claimed its lot of victimes on April 28th, with Jeff Gordon being its most notable, as the Ganassi man had trouble with the set up and later crashed early in the race. Paul Tracy, who has been rather anonymus so far, surprised people by putting his team Green reynard in pole and dueling with Michael Andretti and Senna for the win all race long. However, a scuffle with Senna ended up screwing both out of the win, for Greg Moore took advantage of the commotion to sneak past the two in an audacious series of overtakes to take 2nd, with Senna and Tracy being forced to slow down, prompting Little Al to sneak into 3rd place. Michael Andretti would win at his home track, his first win in 2 years, while Senna and Tracy had a tense confrontation in the pits after the race.
Nazareth Race Results
1) Michael Andretti 20 pts
2) Greg Moore 16 pts
3) Al Unser Jr 14 pts
4) Ayrton Senna 12 pts
5) Paul Tracy 10 pts
6) Tony Stewart 6 pts
7) Jimmy Vasser 4 pts
8) Scott Pruett 3 pts
9) Christian Fittipaldi 2 pts
10) Adrian Fernandez 1 pt
The early season confirmed Gordon and Senna's statuses as the men to beat in 1996. Both men, at the peak of their powers, head into the month of May as the favorites for the 500. The stage is set for an exciting showdown at Indy, with the likes of Unser, Andretti, Moore and Stewart potentially playing spoiler...
To be continued...
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