2001 Lehigh Valley Grand Prix

The 2001 Lehigh Valley Grand Prix was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on May 6, 2001 at Nazareth Speedway in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, USA. It was the 4th round of the 2001 CART season. Rookie Scott Dixon won the race by just four tenths of a second over Kenny Bräck, while Paul Tracy took third.

Dixon scored his first and only CART win after he successfully gambled on a fuel-saving strategy that gave PacWest Racing its last win before the team folded in 2002 as well as its first win since 1997. Bräck's first podium of the season was the prelude to two consecutive wins at Motegi and Milwaukee, putting him in the championship hunt. For Tracy, it was his second podium in three races, but he would not record another for the rest of the season.

The race was the first after the Firestone Firehawk 600 fiasco, and there were concerns about the G-Forces experienced at Nazareth that were ultimately unfounded. This would also be the last time that CART raced at the speedway, allowing open-wheel rival Indy Racing League to run its own 225-lap race from 2002-2004.

Report

Background

The race weekend began just days after the 600-mile event at Texas Motor Speedway scheduled for April 29 was postponed and ultimately canceled due to extreme g-horses experienced by the drivers that made race conditions critically dangerous. Speedway and CART officials were still discussing options over possible dates later in the year for a make-up race, but after announcing that all ticket holders would receive refunds without word of a replacement event,^[1] it became clear that any future for the series at Texas Motor Speedway was in serious doubt.

In the meantime, rumors spread that Nazareth Speedway would be cut from the 2002 schedule despite it being one of CART's longest-running events in an effort to reduce travel costs. On raceday itself, CART officials released a statement that the series would be reviewing its options after the race in Japan and make a decision then.^[2]

It was later decided that the series would not continue racing at Nazareth, dropping the venue, along with Belle Isle, Michigan, Lausitz, and Houston for the 2002 season.

PacWest driver Maurício Gugelmin, after being involved in a major crash in Texas the week before, withdrew from the event at Nazareth following the death of his six-year-old son, who had cerebral palsy.^[3] Because it came on such short notice, no backup drivers were available to fill in for Gugelmin, and so the NEXTEL sponsorship from his car was placed onto his teammate's, Scott Dixon, instead.

Qualifying

May 5, 2001 - Qualifying Speeds
Rank	Driver	Time	Leader	Speed (mph)	Team
1	Bruno Junqueira (R)	19.700	—	172.873	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	Kenny Bräck	19.738	+0.038	172.540	Team Rahal
3	Michel Jourdain, Jr.	19.950	+0.250	170.707	Bettenhausen Racing
4	Oriol Servià	19.996	+0.296	170.314	Sigma Autosport
5	Helio Castroneves	20.007	+0.307	170.220	Team Penske
6	Adrian Fernández	20.059	+0.359	169.779	Fernandez Racing
7	Bryan Herta	20.064	+0.364	169.737	PacWest Racing
8	Paul Tracy	20.148	+0.448	169.029	Team Green
9	Cristiano da Matta	20.162	+0.462	168.912	Newman-Haas Racing
10	Tony Kanaan	20.187	+0.487	168.703	Mo Nunn Racing
11	Jimmy Vasser	20.191	+0.491	168.669	Patrick Racing
12	Dario Franchitti	20.201	+0.501	168.586	Team Green
13	Michael Andretti	20.205	+0.505	168.552	Team Green
14	Max Papis	20.297	+0.597	167.788	Team Rahal
15	Gil de Ferran	20.319	+0.619	167.607	Team Penske
16	Roberto Moreno	20.353	+0.653	167.327	Patrick Racing
17	Christian Fittipaldi	20.406	+0.706	166.892	Newman-Haas Racing
18	Tora Takagi (R)	20.414	+0.714	166.827	Walker Racing
19	Shinji Nakano	20.455	+0.755	166.492	Fernandez Racing
20	Alex Tagliani	20.459	+0.759	166.460	Forsythe Racing
21	Alex Zanardi	20.505	+0.805	166.086	Mo Nunn Racing
22	Patrick Carpentier	20.549	+0.849	165.731	Forsythe Racing
23	Scott Dixon (R)	20.681	+0.981	164.673	PacWest Racing
24	Max Wilson (R)	21.117	+1.417	161.273	Arciero Racing
Source:[4]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/retired	Grid	Points
1	18	Scott Dixon (R)	PacWest Racing	225	1:51:12.419	23	20
2	8	Kenny Bräck	Team Rahal	225	+0.366 secs	2	16
3	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	225	+1.344 secs	8	14
4	40	Jimmy Vasser	Patrick Racing	225	+1.744 secs	11	12
5	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman-Haas Racing	225	+4.225 secs	17	10
6	39	Michael Andretti	Team Green	225	+6.401 secs	13	8
7	4	Bruno Junqueira (R)	Chip Ganassi Racing	225	+9.193 secs	1	6
8	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	225	+9.292 secs	12	6
9	22	Oriol Servià	Sigma Autosport	225	+12.321 secs	4	5
10	6	Cristiano da Matta	Newman-Haas Racing	225	+12.557 secs	9	4
11	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	225	+13.379 secs	5	3
12	20	Roberto Moreno	Patrick Racing	225	+14.207 secs	16	2
13	16	Michel Jourdain, Jr.	Bettenhausen Racing	224	+1 Lap	3	1
14	5	Tora Takagi (R)	Walker Racing	224	+1 Lap	18	—
15	52	Shinji Nakano	Fernandez Racing	224	+1 Lap	19	—
16	55	Tony Kanaan	Mo Nunn Racing	224	+1 Lap	10	—
17	25	Max Wilson (R)	Arciero Racing	222	+3 Laps	24	—
18	12	Nicolas Minassian	Chip Ganassi Racing	220	+5 Laps	25	—
19	51	Adrian Fernández	Fernandez Racing	186	Electrical	6	—
20	66	Alex Zanardi	Mo Nunn Racing	167	Mechanical	21	—
21	77	Bryan Herta	Forsythe Racing	132	Mechanical	7	—
22	33	Alex Tagliani	Forsythe Racing	120	Collision	20	—
23	1	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske	120	Collision	15	—
24	7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	76	Gearbox	14	—
25	32	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Racing	28	Engine	22	—
Source:[5]

Race statistics

• Lead changes: 2 amongst 3 drivers

Standings after the race

Drivers' standings [6] Pos Driver Points 1 Cristiano da Matta 40 — Paul Tracy 40 3 Jimmy Vasser 30 — Gil de Ferran 30 5 Helio Castroneves 29 References ↑ "Texas Offers Refund for CART Race". Championship Auto Racing Teams. May 4, 2001. Archived from the original on June 9, 2001. Retrieved August 17, 2015.  1 2 "CART Statement on Nazareth Speedway". Championship Auto Racing Teams. May 6, 2001. Archived from the original on March 25, 2003. Retrieved August 17, 2015.  ↑ "Gugelmin Withdraws Following Loss of Son". Championship Auto Racing Teams. May 4, 2001. Archived from the original on March 25, 2003. Retrieved August 17, 2015.  ↑ "2001 CART Lehigh Valley Grand Prix Qualifying Results". Championship Auto Racing Teams. May 5, 2001. Archived from the original on July 1, 2003. Retrieved August 17, 2015.  ↑ "Results: 2001 Lehigh Valley Grand Prix Presented by Toyota". Championship Auto Racing Teams. Archived from the original on July 2, 2003. Retrieved August 4, 2015.  1 2 3 "2001 CART Lehigh Valley Grand Prix". Championship Auto Racing Teams. June 24, 2001. Retrieved August 4, 2015.  Previous race: 2001 Firestone Firehawk 600 (Canceled) CART Indycar World Series 2001 season Next race: 2001 Firestone Firehawk 500 Previous race: 2000 Lehigh Valley Grand Prix 2001 Lehigh Valley Grand Prix Next race: -Not Held- Template:2001 CART Season