2000 Rio 200

Background

The Rio 200 was confirmed as part of Championship Auto Racing Teams' (CART) 2000 series schedule in November 1999.^[1] It was the fifth consecutive year the Rio 200 was held as part of the series,^[2] the first of fourth straight oval track events,^[3] and it was the first round that was held outside of the United States.^[1] The Rio 200 was the third of twenty scheduled races for 2000 by CART,^[4] and was held at the 1.864-mile (3.000 km) four-turn Autódromo de Jacarepaguá trapezoid-shaped speedway on April 30.^[1][2] The Autódromo de Jacarepaguá was regarded by drivers as "demanding" due to braking and shifting down gears being proritized for the first and third turns. This led CART to mandate all teams run the high-downforce specification of the Handford MkII wings in an attempt to alleviate some of the stress placed on the car's brakes and gearboxes by increasing the amount of drag produced so that vehicles would be slowed when drivers eased off the throttle pedal. Additionally, sand was blown on the track by local wind conditions for most of the year, reducing grip and visibility.^[3]

Coming into the race from Long Beach two weeks earlier, Team Green driver Paul Tracy was in the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 34 points. His nearest rival Jimmy Vasser of Chip Ganassi Racing was eight points adrift in second. Team Rahal's Max Papis and Roberto Moreno for Patrick Racing tied for third position with 20 points apiece with the latter given priority in the points standings because of him winning the season-opening round at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Gil de Ferran of Team Penske rounded out the top five with 18 points.^[3] In the Manufacturers' Championship, Honda were leading with 38 points, six ahead of the second-placed Ford Cosworth. Toyota stood in third with 26 points and Mercedes-Benz placed fourth with eight points accumulated.^[5] Reynard was at the top of the Constructors' Championship with 44 points, followed by Lola and Swift with 26 and 10 points, respectively.^[5] In terms of driver changes, Memo Gidley filled in for Patrick Carpentier at Forsythe Racing for the second successive round after Carpentier broke his left wrist at his Las Vegas home prior to Long Beach through losing his balance while carrying a heavy suitcase.^[6]

1997 race winner Tracy was circumspect about the prospects but spoke his belief he would keep the lead of the championship until the season-finale at California Speedway by taking a race-by-race approach: "We're only two races into a very long season, but I've got say that I like the way things have gone so far for the Team KOOL Green crew. Leading the championship makes you think about winning the title, but we know we've got a long way to go to reach that goal."^[7] Vasser stated he was getting comfortable with his new car package and aimed to continue his recent form into the Rio 200: "Obviously, it’s way too early to be looking at the point standings but, as you learn pretty quickly, every point is important."^[8] Alex Tagliani aimed to maintain Forsythe Racing's strong form after Tracy's and Greg Moore's successes at Rio in the late 1990s and would attempt to use this to keep the team's strong record at the track, "We’re all pulling in the same direction and I think that spirit of collaboration is evident in the results that we’ve been able to produce so far."^[8]

Practice and qualifying

Juan Pablo Montoya (pictured in 2002) set the fastest overall lap time in the duo of Friday practice sessions.

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race: two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session ran for 90 minutes, the second 60 minutes, and the third 75 minutes.^[9][10] Conditions during the duo of Friday practice sessions were hot and sunny.^[9] De Ferran set the fastest lap of the first practice session at 39.610 seconds. He was followed by Tagliani, Tracy, Hélio Castroneves, Kenny Bräck, Vasser, Papis, Cristiano da Matta, Moreno, and Christian Fittipaldi.^[11] Five yellow flags were waved. The first was for Takuya Kurosawa whose engine failed on the exit of turn four. He pulled off to the inside of the track on the main straight to allow safety officials to extinguish a fire in the engine compartment. The next two cautions were necessitated when Luiz Garcia Jr. and Mark Blundell stalled on the track separately. Both were towed back to pit road by circuit officials. Gualter Salles caused the fourth yellow flag by heavily clouting the outside barrier at the first corner. Salles was not injured but his car sustained heavy damage to its right-side suspension. He stopped in the centre of the circuit in turn two. The last caution was activated for Fittipaldi who stalled on track.^[9]

In the second practice session, Juan Pablo Montoya set the fastest lap of the day with a time of 38.922 seconds and was the only driver to go below the 39 second range. He was almost three-tenths of a second faster than Bräck in second place and Tagliani was third. Fittipaldi was fourth-fastest, Castroneves placed fifth, and Vasser came sixth. Da Matta, Papis, de Ferran, and Michael Andretti were in positions seven through tenth.^[12] The first three cautions came within half an hour of each other because debris and fluids were observed lying on the track and separate track inspections were needed to inspect and clean the circuit. De Ferran caused the fourth caution by spinning in the third turn but avoided damage to his car. The final caution came out after Maurício Gugelmin spun off the track in turn four and hit the inside tire barrier with the rear of his car. Gugelmin was uninjured.^[9]

Conditions remained hot and sunny during Saturday morning's practice session.^[10] The first caution came out for debris on the backstraight that needed clearing. Montoya prompted the second caution when he spun 360 degrees in turn four but did not damage his car. Bräck was the cause of the third yellow flag after he stalled on the exit of pit road. Six minutes later, the fourth caution was waved for debris leaving the pit lane that course officials removed. The fifth yellow flags were necessitated after Moreno broke his right-front wheel and wing endplate in the collision with the outside barrier at turn one. Bryan Herta stalled on the backstraight and triggered the final caution with fourteen minutes to go.^[10] Tagliani continued to perform well with the fastest lap of the session at 38.694 seconds. Montoya was one-tenth of a second slower in second place, and Tracy replicated his first practice result in third. Bräck was fourth-quickest; Fittipaldi placed fifth, and Papis sixth. Tony Kanaan, Castroneves, Vasser, and Adrián Fernández completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.^[13]

Alex Tagliani (pictured in 2015) won the first pole position of his career.

Saturday afternoon's qualifying session lasted for 135 minutes. The session began with the slowest driver in the weekend's combined practice sessions going out first with the quickest competitor heading out last. Each driver was restricted to two timed laps and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest lap times. One point was awarded to the driver who won the pole position.^[10] Tagliani took the first pole position of his career with a time of 38.587 seconds.^[14] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Montoya who recorded a lap 0.109 seconds off Tagliani's pace because he had oversteer in the first corner. Tracy's car steeped out of him once he accelerated out of turn one and took third.^[15] Bräck was the second-highest placed rookie in fourth, and the fastest Brazilian in the field was Fittipaldi in fifth.^[16] Vasser changed the set-up of his car to go sixth.^[15] Castroneves was not happy with the set-up of his vehicle and was restricted to qualifying in seventh.^[16] Dario Franchitti ran slightly wide by driving too fast into turn four on his fastest lap which put him eighth. Rounding out the top ten were Kanaan and Papis.^[15] Gidley was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten; his fastest time of 39.246 seconds was nearly seven-tenths of a second slower than Tagliani because he had to control his car from spinning going off turn four.^[10][16]

Moreno went to his back-up car to suit his driving style and set the twelfth-fastest time.^[17] De Ferran struggled with the setup of his car and this restricted him to starting the race from the 13th position. Oriol Servià and Andretti qualified in 14th and 15th while Fernández took the 16th place. Da Matta (17th) and Norberto Fontana (18th) were required to qualify with a second run after mechanical issues hindered them on their first tyres. 19th and 20th went to Kurosawa and Herta.^[16] Gugelmin had a large amount of push in the centre of the corners too much oversteer coming out of them and this restricted him to 21st. His teammate Blundell was affected by similar problems and started from 23rd.^[18] The pair were separated by Michel Jourdain Jr. in the 22nd position after he lost some straight line speed but was faster in the turns despite getting an oversteer leaving them.^[19] Garcia's lack time on the circuit in his car meant he began from 24th. Salles did not set a lap time because his team was continuing to repair his car following his crash in the opening practice session.^[16] After qualifying, Garcia's best lap time was annulled because his car failed its post-race inspection for minimum weight requirements. Garcia was consequently ordered to start from the back of the grid.^[10]

Warm-up

A half hour warm-up session was held in hot and sunny weather conditions on the Sunday morning prior to the race.^[20] Although de Ferran was suffering from a head cold, he set the fastest lap of the session at 39.289 seconds.^[20] Vasser followed just 0.002 seconds slower than de Ferran in second position. The third-fastest time was set by Bräck while the fourth position went to the pole position winner Tagliani. The quartet of Brazilians of da Matta. Kanaan, Fittipaldi and Gugelmin filled positions five through eighth. The rest of the top ten was completed by Tracy and Montoya.^[21] Castroneves caused the first caution of the session when he stopped with a faulty transmission between turns one and two. Bräck lost control of his car in the fourth corner, and he slid into the outside tire barrier with his right-front wheel, causing heavy damage to his front wing and suspension.^[22]

Race

Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry and sunny. The air temperature throughout the race was between 85–88 °F (29–31 °C) and the track temperature ranged from 112–121 °F (44–49 °C).^[23] Two-time Formula One World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi commanded the drivers to start their engines. The race began at 1:37 p.m. BRT (UTC+03:00). Immediately, the first caution of the race was shown because Tagliani moved too far away from Montoya as all other cars went across the start/finish line. Concurrently, Servià lost control of his car leaving turn four, and hit the inside tire barrier at the start of the main straightaway, retiring instantly. Green flag racing got under way on the fifth lap with Tagliani leading Montoya and Tracy. Seventeen laps later, Tracy was passed around the outside at turn three by Bräck for third place. However, he could not retain the position as Tracy retook the place at the next corner, but Bräck made his original manoevure stick on the main straightaway. Fontana was deemed by race control to have overtaken Fernández before the start/finish line on the lap five start. He was given a black flag on lap 17 which ordered him to serve a drive-through penalty.^[22] On the 23rd lap, Castroneves retired in the pit lane because of a gearbox problem that rendered him unable to downshift.^[24]

Montoya was the next driver to retire when his car was affected by a broken shifter cable on lap 30.^[25] Green flag pit stops for fuel and tires began on lap 33, when Tagliani and Bräck entered pit road, handing the lead to Tracy. Vasser assumed the first position when Tracy made his pit stop four laps later. Franchitti damaged his car when he slid backwards into the pit wall, and sustained light damage to the right-front wing endplate. Fernández led the race on laps 38 and 39 before he went to pit road for his first stop. After the pit stops, Tagliani retook the lead. On lap 55, Herta stalled at the bottom of the track between the first and second turns, prompting the second caution. Herta retired when he could not restart his car.^[22] All of the cars on the lead lap except for Tagliani chose to make pit stops under caution.^[26] Racing was due to continue on lap 60, but the yellow flags were again needed when Garcia held up the field, enabling Tagliani to get too far away from all other drivers. The race did get back underway on the next lap with Tagliani maintaining his hold on first place. On lap 63, ninth-placed Papis cut a tire from contact with another car. He went a lap down during his pit stop for a replacement wheel. Kanaan retired from a race with a mechanical problem six laps later. Andretti became the new leader when Tagliani made his pit stop on the 75th lap.^[22]

Adrián Fernández (pictured in 2011) took the sixth victory of his career after Tagliani spun on the 100th lap.

Brack took the lead when Andretti entered pit road two laps later.^[22] At Andretti's pit stop, crew members Todd Tice and John Littlefield were moving way from the side of his car when Andretti had been instructed to leave his pit stall. This meant the fuelling vent hose Tice was trying to detach was pulled out of his grip, and he jumped after it, only to became entangled in Andretti's right-rear wheel. His right ankle and leg were broken. Tice was evaluated on the scene by CART physician Terry Trammell, and was flown to Indianapolis on 1 May for further surgery. Littlefield was not seriously injured by the incident as he only sustained bruising to his left leg.^[27] Andretti was penalized for the incident; he was ordered to serve a drive-through penalty which he took on the 81st lap. Ten laps later, Bräck's lead of 9.144 seconds was reduced to nothing when the third caution came out for Jourdain stalled at the bottom of turn two. Jourdain had assistance from course officials in restarting his car. During the caution, several drivers, including Bräck, made pit stops for tires and fuel. Tagliani chose not to make a pit stop, and he led the field back up to speed at the restart on lap 98.^[22]

Two laps later, the fourth caution was given. Tagliani lost traction in his car in turn one and spun at the next corner. Franchitti and Andretti scrambled for space to avoid colliding with Tagliani's car only for them to make contact with each other. Although all three drivers, flat-spotted their tires, they elected not to enter the pit lane for new tires or repairs, as safety workers were required to clear the track of debris.^[22] The green flag was waved on lap 105, but it was immediately replaced when Tagliani spun for a second time going into turn four because of heavy wear on his rear tires and stalled.^[22][26] This meant the race ended under caution, and no overtaking was permitted.^[28] It gave Fernández his first victory of the season, and the sixth of his career.^[26] Vasser followed 0.931 seconds later in second, and Tracy completed the podium in third place. Off the podium, the Brazilian trio of da Matta, Fittipaldi and Moreno were in positions fourth through sixth. Blundell, Gidley, Andretti, and Bräck rounded out the top ten. The last of the two classified finishers were Franchitti and Garcia.^[25] There were eight lead changes among five drivers during the course of the race. Tagliani led three times for a total of 76 laps, more than any other driver. Fernández led twice for a total of 11 laps.^[25]

Post-race

The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and appeared later at a press conference. Fernández said his victory was an important one since he had not finished a race until that point in the season, "But we kept working on the car, and tried a new set-up for the warm-up. That was pretty good, and it gave me some ideas on some changes to make during the race. I passed some cars early on, but then I got stuck – not stuck, really, but I got behind Cristiano da Matta, who was going very fast, and I couldn't get past him. I was getting frustrated, but in these races you have to be patient and try to think ahead."^[29] Vasser said he observed Tagliani spinning in front of him and he chose to swerve to the outside lane to avoid hitting him, "It was basically a 50-50 chance. It was more luck than anything."^[30] Third placed Tracy stated his car was running with more downforce than he desired, " I thought the field would be closer than it was but Juan and Alex just took off and I was slower down the straight. But the car was good by the end of the race. I was able to get by traffic and caught up to Jimmy and Adrian and I was really happy with the job the team did."^[30]

Tagliani spoke of his race as a positive rather than a negative after he lost the opportunity to claim his first victory, ""I'm very proud of my race, except for my mistake. Until then, it had been a perfect weekend for Player's/Forsythe Racing, and I feel very, very bad for my guys.", and", I was trying very hard to stay up front, and I tried a little too hard. I ran up into the marbles and tried to bring it back down into a spin, but I didn't make it. I'm very sad in my heart."^[29] Twelve days after the race, four of the points Andretti scored were annulled by CART chief steward Kirk Russell and he was ordered to pay his ninth-place prize money earnings of $17,500 back to the series. This was for Andretti transgressing Rule 6.7.26 of the CART Rule Book, which states, "Unsafe acts will be penalized." after the injuries sustained by Tice and Littlefield during his second pit stop.^[31] Russell stated that Andretti would not faced disqualification but there would be no redistribution of his points and prize money, "Given the nature and severity of the incident, we would have excluded the no. 6 car from the remainder of the event. However, the information available at the time of the event did not support the action. We have to make call based on the best information at the time."^[32]

The result of the race left Tracy still leading the Drivers' Championship with 48 points, but his advantage over Vasser in second place was lowered to six points. Moreno moved clear of Papis in the early battle for third position, and Fernández's victory advanced him to fifth.^[33] Ford Cosworth assumed the top position in the Manufacturers' Championship with 54 points. Honda fell to second with two less points, Toyota were another ten points adrift in third, Mercedes-Benz were still fourth.^[33] In the Constructors' Championship, Reynard's 66 points accumulated meant they continued to top the standings with Lola another twenty points behind in second. Swift maintained its hold on third position with seventeen races left in the season.^[33] This was the last race to be held in Rio as the planned race for the 2001 season was canceled when the Rio municipal government missed a deadline for guaranteeing payment of sanctioning fees and failed to grant race promoter Fittipaldi access to the facility so he could begin preparations for the race.^[34]

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Speed	Gap
1	33	Alex Tagliani	Forsythe Racing	38.587	173.903	—
2	1	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	38.696	173.403	+0.109
3	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	38.843	172.757	+0.256
4	8	Kenny Bräck	Team Rahal	38.876	172.610	+0.289
5	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman/Haas Racing	38.879	172.597	+0.292
6	12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	38.943	172.313	+0.356
7	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	38.985	172.128	+0.396
8	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	39.026	171.947	+0.439
9	55	Tony Kanaan	Mo Nunn Racing	39.101	171.617	+0.514
10	7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	39.227	171.066	+0.640
11	32	Memo Gidley	Forsythe Racing	39.246	170.983	+0.659
12	20	Roberto Moreno	Patrick Racing	39.265	170.900	+0.678
13	2	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske	39.298	170.757	+0.711
14	96	Oriol Servià	PPI Motorsports	39.306	170.722	+0.719
15	6	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	39.340	170.574	+0.753
16	40	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	39.391	170.354	+0.804
17	97	Cristiano da Matta	PPI Motorsports	39.419	170.233	+0.832
18	10	Norberto Fontana	Della Penna Motorsports	39.504	169.866	+0.917
19	19	Takuya Kurosawa	Dale Coyne Racing	39.590	169.497	+1.003
20	5	Bryan Herta	Walker Motorsport	39.620	169.369	+1.033
21	17	Mauricio Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	39.682	169.104	+1.095
22	16	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Bettenhausen Racing	39.856	168.366	+1.269
23	18	Mark Blundell	PacWest Racing	40.073	167.454	+1.486
24	34	Gualter Salles	Dale Coyne Racing	No time	No speed	—
25	25	Luiz Garcia Jr.	Arciero Racing	No time	No speed	—1
Source:[16][35]

Notes

• ^1 — Luiz Garcia Jr. was sent to the rear of the field for failing a post-qualifying weight check.^[10]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/retired	Grid	Points
1	40	Adrián Fernández	Patrick Racing	108	1:37.12.490	16	20
2	12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	108	+0.931	6	16
3	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	108	+1.338	3	14
4	97	Cristiano da Matta	PPI Motorsports	108	+1.581	17	12
5	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman/Haas Racing	108	+2.356	5	10
6	20	Roberto Moreno	Patrick Racing	108	+3.687	12	8
7	18	Mark Blundell	PacWest Racing	108	+5.079	23	6
8	32	Memo Gidley	Forsythe Racing	108	+6.504	11	5
9	6	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	107	+1 Lap	15	4
10	8	Kenny Bräck	Team Rahal	107	+1 Lap	4	3
11	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	107	+1 Lap	8	2
12	25	Luiz Garcia Jr.	Arciero Racing	107	+1 Lap	25	1
13	33	Alex Tagliani	Forsythe Racing	104	Crash	1	223
14	34	Gualter Salles	Dale Coyne Racing	98	Engine	24	—
15	16	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Bettenhausen Racing	90	Oil pressure	22	—
16	7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	90	Gearbox	10	—
17	2	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske	79	Exhaust	13	—
18	55	Tony Kanaan	Mo Nunn Racing	69	Gearbox	9	—
19	19	Takuya Kurosawa	Dale Coyne Racing	64	Mechanical	19	—
20	5	Bryan Herta	Walker Motorsport	54	Gearbox	20	—
21	17	Mauricio Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	53	Engine	21	—
22	1	Juan Pablo Montoya	Chip Ganassi Racing	30	Shifter cable	2	—
23	10	Norberto Fontana	Della Penna Motorsports	29	Mechanical	18	—
24	3	Hélio Castroneves	Team Penske	22	Gearbox	7	—
25	96	Oriol Servià	PPI Motorsports	0	Crash	14	—
Source:[25]

Notes

• ^2 — Includes one bonus point for leading the most laps.^[25]
• ^3 — Includes one bonus point for leading the most laps.^[25]