New Zealand's Scott Dixon endured a dreadful start to his IndyCar motor racing title defence, crashing out late in the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg in Florida this morning (NZT).
A crash-strewn season-opening race was won by Australian Ryan Briscoe, who overtook England's Justin Wilson for the lead on
a re-start with 14 laps remaining.
Minutes earlier, Dixon clipped the rear wheel of Japanese driver Hideki Mutoh when attempting to pass and damaged the front left of his car.
He couldn't steer at a subsequent bend and hit a barrier at a relatively low speed.
The race was forced to restart after 81 of 100 laps, continuing his bad run of form at the circuit. He was 22nd there last year.
Dixon emerged unscathed from his Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to end a frustrating opening round of the season in which he is credited with 16th place.
After starting eighth on the grid, he improved to sixth but lost considerable ground at a botched pit stop.
Penske driver Briscoe kept his nerve over the closing laps, holding off American Ryan Hunter-Reay, who had got passed Wilson on new tyres and pressed hard for the lead.
One more re-start gave Hunter-Reay a chance to attempt a move, but Briscoe was able to hold him off and win in two hours 12 minutes 26.8387 seconds, by a margin of just 0.4619sec.
"Finally," said Briscoe, who had crashed out of this event in his two previous starts.
"This place has been bad to me. It feels so good to finally get to the end of this race. And it's great to start off the year like this."
Wilson making his debut with Dale Coyne Racing, dominated much of the race.
"I couldn't quite get the re-start there at the end," he said.
"But it was a good day, a good way to get started with this team."
Scotland's Dario Franchitti, a former Indianapolis 500 winner returning to IndyCar after spending part of last year in the popular NASCAR stock car racing series, finished fourth ahead of Graham Rahal, who won his IndyCar debut here last year and then won his first series pole this week, was spun out by Tony Kanaan in the first turn of the race as all the leaders bunched up. Rahal and Kanaan both had to pit for repairs and wound up charging from the rear of the 22-car field.
Kanaan wound up fifth and Rahal followed Will Power, Briscoe's new teammate, across the finish line in seventh.
The 20-year-old Rahal, son of three-time series champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, was still upset after the race.
"I was conservative on the start and I'm guessing it was Kanaan that punted me," Rahal said.
"It's obviously ridiculous and you would expect a guy like that with experience to know it's the first corner of the first lap of the first race of the season. Why make a move like that?"
A new factor in this race was the option of using the alternate tires provided by Firestone.
The rules required each car run at least two green flag laps with the alternates but, otherwise, the teams were allowed to make their own decisions.
- NZPA,AFP
Scott Dixon failed to finish the Honda Grand Prix in Florida this morning. Photo / AP
New Zealand's Scott Dixon endured a dreadful start to his IndyCar motor racing title defence, crashing out late in the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg in Florida this morning (NZT).
A crash-strewn season-opening race was won by Australian Ryan Briscoe, who overtook England's Justin Wilson for the lead on
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.