CHAMPCAR/CART: Records smashed everywhere at Surfers Paradise

Records were broken left, right and centre on day two of the Honda Indy 300 on the Gold Coast today.

Brazil's Bruno Junqueira set a new track record in the first qualifying session for the Champ Cars while Garth Tander set a qualifying lap record in the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge in front of a record day two crowd of 60,340.

Junqueira from Target Chip Ganassi Racing clocked the fastest qualifying lap time of one minute 31.515 seconds to eclipse the previous record of Dario Franchitti by close to two-tenths of a second.

Second fastest driver today was Paul Tracy from Team KOOL Green who took his Honda-powered Lola around the track in 1:31.575, also under the previous record.

Brisbane-born Kiwi Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) excited the large crowd with the third fastest lap of the day in 1:32.143.

This year's CART FedEx Series champion Cristiano da Matta (Newman/Haas Racing) finished the session in fourth place with a best lap time of 1:32.162.

Today's crowd of more than 60,000 was a 12 percent increase on last year's then-record crowd of 53,551.

The masses were excited to see the 'Doubleheader' in action with the qualifying session for the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge taking place this afternoon.

Last year's V8 race winner on the Surfers Paradise street circuit, Garth Tander, continued his love affair with the event clocking the fastest time in qualifying.

Tander took his Garry Rogers Commodore around a lap in 1:51.0045 to just edge out the time of 1:51.0252 set by John Bowe in his OzEmail Racing Falcon.

Jason Bright (Holden Racing Team) who has driven a Champ Car around this track was third fastest with 1:51:0640.

In Race Two of the Century Batteries V8 Brutes, Warren Luff was victorious in his Falcon XR8 ute in a clear margin from race one winner James Brock in his Commodore. Former rugby league star Jack Elsegood placed third in a Falcon.

Fastest qualifier Will Power took out Race One of the Formula 3 by half a second in his Dallara 398 Toyota from James Manderson driving a Dallara HoldenSpeiss.

Tomorrow the two millionth spectator across this year's CART FedEx Championship Series is expected to walk through the gate to a nice surprise - a trip for two to one of the US rounds of the 2003 Series courtesy of CART as well as being official guests of the Honda Indy 300 for the weekend.

Tomorrow's action which starts at 8.10am and concludes at 5pm includes the second qualifying session for the Champ Cars, the Top Ten Shootout and Race One in the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge, Race Two of the Formula 3 and Shannons Nations Cup, and the continuation of Sea FM Air Show.

RESULTS

Honda Indy 300
Qualifying Session #1
1. Bruno Junqueira (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) 1:31.515
2. Paul Tracy (Team KOOL Green) 1:31.575
3. Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) 1:32.143
4. Cristiano da Matta (Newman Haas Racing) 1:32.162
5. Tony Kanaan (Mo Nunn Racing) 1:32.267
6. Adrian Fernandez (Fernandez Racing) 1:32.301
7. Michel Jourdain Jr (Team Rahal) 1:32.384
8. Jimmy Vasser (Team Rahal) 1:32.428
9. Michael Andretti (Team Motorola) 1:32.574
10. Shinji Nakano (Fernandez Racing) 1:32.663

Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge
Qualifying
1. Garth Tander (Garry Rogers Motorsport) 1:51.0045
2. John Bowe (OzEmail Racing Team) 1:51.0252
3. Jason Bright (Holden Racing Team) 1:51.0640
4. Greg Murphy (K-Mart Racing Team) 1:51.1443
5. Marcos Ambrose (Pirtek Racing) 1:51.1908
6. Mark Skaife (Holden Racing Team) 1:51.4121
7. David Besnard (Caltex Havoline Racing) 1:51.5839
8. Craig Lowndes (00 Motorsport) 1:51.8193
9. Max Wilson (Betta Electrical Racing) 1:51.8337
10. Steven Richards (Castrol Perkins Racing) 1:51.8911

-hi300-