Nikon Indy 300

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Surfers Paradise Street Circuit.jpg
Nikon Indy 300
Circuit Surfers Paradise Street Circuit
Laps 60
Circuit length km 4.47
Circuit length mi 2.79
Race length km 269.88
Race length mi 167.70
Most wins driver 2 by 22px-Flag of France.png Sébastien Bourdais
Most wins constructor Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (6)
Current year 2008
Winning time 1:45:50.3868
Winner 22px-Flag of Australia.png Ryan Briscoe
Winning team Team Penske
Second 22px-Flag of New Zealand.png Scott Dixon
Second team Target Chip Ganassi Racing
Second time +0.5019s
Third 22px-Flag of the United States.png Ryan Hunter-Reay
Third team Rahal Letterman Racing
Third time +9.1179s
Pole time 1:34.9451
Pole driver 22px-Flag of Australia.png Will Power
Pole team KV Racing Technology
Fastest lap 1:35.1552
Fastest lap driver 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png Dario Franchitti
Fastest lap team Target Chip Ganassi Racing


The Nikon Indy 300 was an open-wheel motor race event that took place at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in south east Queensland, Australia. Known generically as the Gold Coast Indy 300, Japanese camera giant Nikon was announced as new naming rights sponsor in early August, 2008. The challenging 4.47 kilometre track has several fast sections and four chicanes.

The race had been an annual event since 1991 originally as part of the CART PPG IndyCar World Series. Then, following the split between CART and the newly formed Indy Racing League (IRL) in 1996 and the subsequent dissolution of CART in 2003, as part of the Champ Car World Series.

Following the merger of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series in February 2008 the future of race had been secured until 2013 as an IRL IndyCar Series event, however the race was omitted from the 2009 IndyCar Series season calendar, and subsequently dropped by the IRL completely.

In the first sixteen years of the event, there were sixteen different winners. In 2007 Sébastien Bourdais became the first driver to win the race twice, adding to his 2005 victory.

History

The races early years were dogged by controversy as Australia's motor sport governing body the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) initially refused to sanction the event. The Queensland State Government has been largely supportive of the event while the Gold Coast City Council support at local level has varied in its level of support, even occasionally openly hostile to the event. However by the late 1990's the race had become a well attended and popular event on the Gold Coast calendar with tens of thousands of spectators attending each of the four days of the IndyCarnival.

In the 2002 event there was a frightening incident when a 9 car pile-up occurred at the start in very wet conditions - however no significant injuries were sustained. In 2003 a massive hailstorm struck the area during the race leading to a red flag. Again no injuries were sustained.

The event lost much of its lustre from 2004 as the split between American open wheel racing series started to draw teams from the Champ Car World Series across to the IRL IndyCar Series whose calendar was considerably more domestic than the well travelled Champ Car World Series. The falling popularity of open wheel racing in America has further devalued the event in recent times with NASCAR dominating the U.S. racing scene to the point where the growing influence of support category V8 Supercar removed Champ Car from top billing of the event into an equal top billing not seen at any other Champ Car event. Traditionally the CART/Champ Car race was the final event of the programme but in recent years the final V8 race has held this place.

On March 5, 2008 it was announced that the IRL IndyCar Series would travel to Australia for the first time, but due to contractural issues the race would not count towards the 2008 IndyCar Series Championship and would be a stand-alone demonstration event, in light of the recent merger between Champ Car and the IRL.

On Tuesday, November 11, after extensive negotiations with the IRL broke down, the Queensland Government reached a new five year deal with A1 Grand Prix to stage a race at Surfers Paradise, severing its eighteen year history with American open wheel racing. On February 25, 2009 it was announced that the event which combine one of the first few rounds of the 2009/10 A1GP and the 11th round of V8 Supercar Series would be produced through a partnership between IMG and the Queensland's local government. The event which formally known as the Gold Coast Indy 300 will be renamed as the SuperGP.


Previous winners

File:Indy 2006 018.jpg
2006 Lexmark Indy 300
File:Indy 2006 009.jpg
2006 Lexmark Indy 300. Miss Indy and Runners-up being interviewed in the pits.
2006 Lexmark Indy 300
Season Date Winning Driver Car Team Report
1991 March 17 22px-Flag of the United States.png John Andretti Lola T91/00 Chevrolet-Ilmor A Hall/VDS Racing Report
1992 March 22 22px-Flag of Brazil.png Emerson Fittipaldi Penske PC21-92 Chevrolet-Ilmor B Penske Racing Report
1993 March 21 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png Nigel Mansell Lola T93/06 Ford XB Cosworth Newman/Haas Racing Report
1994 March 20 22px-Flag of the United States.png Michael Andretti Reynard 94I Ford XB Cosworth Chip Ganassi Racing Report
1995 March 19 22px-Flag of the Canada.png Paul Tracy Lola T95/00 Ford XB Cosworth Newman/Haas Racing Report
1996 March 31 22px-Flag of the United States.png Jimmy Vasser Reynard 96I Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Report
1997 April 6 22px-Flag of the United States.png Scott Pruett Reynard 97I Ford XD Cosworth Patrick Racing Report
1998 October 18 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Alex Zanardi Reynard 98I Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Report
1999 October 17 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png Dario Franchitti Reynard 99I Honda Team Green Report
2000 October 15 22px-Flag of Mexico.png Adrian Fernandez Reynard 2KI Ford-Cosworth Patrick Racing Report
2001 October 28 22px-Flag of Brazil.png Cristiano da Matta Lola B01/00 Toyota Newman/Haas Racing Report
2002 October 27 22px-Flag of Mexico.png Mario Dominguez Lola B02/00 Ford-Cosworth Herdez Competition Report
2003 October 26 22px-Flag of the United States.png Ryan Hunter-Reay Reynard 02I Ford-Cosworth American Spirit Team Johansson Report
2004 October 24 22px-Flag of Brazil.png Bruno Junqueira Lola B02/00 Ford-Cosworth Newman/Haas Racing Report
2005 October 23 22px-Flag of France.png Sébastien Bourdais Lola B02/00 Ford-Cosworth Newman/Haas Racing Report
2006 October 22 22px-Flag of France.png Nelson Philippe Lola B02/00 Ford-Cosworth CTE-HVM Racing Report
2007 October 21 22px-Flag of France.png Sébastien Bourdais Panoz DP01 Cosworth Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing Report
2008 October 26 22px-Flag of Australia.svg.png Ryan Briscoe Dallara IR8 Honda Penske Racing Report


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