2001 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
33°45′59″N 118°11′34″W / 33.76639°N 118.19278°W
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Race 2 of 21 in the 2001 CART season | |
 | |
| Date | April 8, 2001 |
| Official name | 2001 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach |
| Location | Long Beach, California, United States |
| Course | Temporary Street Course 1.968 mi / 3.167 km |
| Distance | 82 laps 161.376 mi / 259.694 km |
| Pole position | |
| Driver |  Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske) |
| Time | 1:08.556 |
| Fastest lap | |
| Driver | Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske) |
| Time | 1:08.992 (on lap 71 of 82) |
| Podium | |
| First | Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske) |
| Second | Cristiano da Matta (Newman-Haas Racing) |
| Third | Gil de Ferran (Team Penske) |
The 2001 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on April 8, 2001 on the streets of Long Beach, California, USA. It was the 2nd round of the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series season. Team Penske driver Hélio Castroneves led all 82 laps from pole position ahead of Monterrey winner Cristiano da Matta and Penske teammate Gil de Ferran to win his fourth career race.
While Castroneves dominated the race from the front, his lead was threatened with each of the four caution periods throughout the race, which grouped the field together behind the pace car and erased the gap between each driver. Nevertheless, Castroneves was able to pull away each time with little threat to his position. After starting in 2nd place, Kenny Bräck was forced to retire early due to a gearbox issue.
Castroneves jumped five places in the points standings to 3rd overall, while podium finishers da Matta and de Ferran remained 1st and 2nd, respectively. Meanwhile, Honda eked ahead of Toyota in the manufacturer's standings by one point. This would be the last CART race for Dale Coyne Racing's two drivers, Luiz Garcia Jr. and Michael Krumm; after competing full-time since 1984, the team withdrew from the series after the race and did not return until 2003.
Qualifying
| April 7, 2001 - Qualifying Speeds | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Driver | Time | Leader | Speed (mph) | Team |
| 1 | Hélio Castroneves
|
1:08.556 | — | 103.343 | Team Penske |
| 2 |  Kenny Bräck
|
1:09.097 | +0.541 | 102.534 | Team Rahal |
| 3 | Tony Kanaan
|
1:09.223 | +0.667 | 102.347 | Mo Nunn Racing |
| 4 | Cristiano da Matta
|
1:09.312 | +0.756 | 102.216 | Newman-Haas Racing |
| 5 | Gil de Ferran
|
1:09.344 | +0.788 | 102.169 | Team Penske |
| 6 |  Dario Franchitti
|
1:09.366 | +0.810 | 102.136 | Team Green |
| 7 |  Michel Jourdain Jr.
|
1:09.589 | +1.033 | 101.809 | Bettenhausen Racing |
| 8 |  Jimmy Vasser
|
1:09.807 | +1.251 | 101.491 | Patrick Racing |
| 9 | Michael Andretti
|
1:09.853 | +1.297 | 101.424 | Team Motorola |
| 10 | Christian Fittipaldi
|
1:09.999 | +1.443 | 101.213 | Newman-Haas Racing |
| 11 |  Alex Tagliani
|
1:10.013 | +1.457 | 101.193 | Forsythe Racing |
| 12 | Paul Tracy
|
1:10.073 | +1.517 | 101.106 | Team Green |
| 13 |  Max Papis
|
1:10.903 | +1.537 | 101.077 | Team Rahal |
| 14 |  Nicolas Minassian (R)
|
1:10.099 | +1.543 | 101.068 | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 15 | Bryan Herta
|
1:10.146 | +1.590 | 101.001 | Forsythe Racing |
| 16 |  Tora Takagi (R)
|
1:10.202 | +1.646 | 100.920 | Walker Motorsport |
| 17 | Patrick Carpentier
|
1:10.272 | +1.716 | 100.820 | Forsythe Racing |
| 18 |  Scott Dixon (R)
|
1:10.303 | +1.747 | 100.775 | PacWest Racing |
| 19 | Maurício Gugelmin
|
1:10.670 | +2.114 | 100.252 | PacWest Racing |
| 20 | Alex Zanardi
|
1:10.675 | +2.119 | 100.245 | Mo Nunn Racing |
| 21 | Max Wilson (R)
|
1:10.683 | +2.127 | 100.233 | Arciero Racing |
| 22 | Roberto Moreno
|
1:10.769 | +2.213 | 100.112 | Patrick Racing |
| 23 | Shinji Nakano
|
1:11.871 | +3.315 | 98.577 | Fernandez Racing |
| 24 |  Oriol Servià
|
1:11.919 | +3.363 | 98.511 | Sigma Autosport |
| 25 |  Michael Krumm
|
1:11.974 | +3.418 | 98.436 | Dale Coyne Racing |
| 26 | Adrian Fernández
|
1:12.403 | +3.847 | 97.852 | Fernandez Racing |
| 27 | Luiz Garcia Jr.
|
1:16.483 | +7.927 | 92.632 | Dale Coyne Racing |
| 28 | Bruno Junqueira (R)
|
1:39.916 | +31.360 | 70.908 | Chip Ganassi Racing |
Source:[1] | |||||
Race
Race statistics
- Lead changes: 0 among 0 drivers
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Standings after the race
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References
- ^ "2001 Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix Qualifying Results". Championship Auto Racing Teams. April 7, 2001. Archived from the original on May 4, 2003. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
- ^ "2001 Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix Results". Championship Auto Racing Teams. April 9, 2001. Archived from the original on January 10, 2003. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
- ^ Championship Auto Racing Teams (March 2001). "CART FedEx Championship Series - 2001 Rule Book". Archived from the original on 2016-05-28. Retrieved 2017-05-22.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b c d "2001 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Results". Racing-reference.info. Retrieved May 31, 2017.