Brisbane-born Kiwi Scott Dixon has won the first race under the unified IndyCar Series banner, taking the chequered flag in the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway 0.5828 seconds ahead of Marco Andretti.

While Dixon took out the race win, for the two Australians Will Power and Ryan Briscoe it was not to be, with Power exiting on lap 24 after contact with Justin Wilson on the first restart and Briscoe taken out of podium contention after contact with spinning driver Milka Duno.

Dixon, who started from pole in the race that featured 25 starters, took the lead on a Lap 197 restart when race leader Tony Kanaan slowed due to a damaged right front tyre.

Dixon will be hoping to continue the form which saw him hold off Andretti for his 11th IndyCar Series victory throughout the season before arriving at his “home” race at the Gold Coast Indy 300 on the streets of Surfers Paradise, October 23-26.

The victory is a reversal of fortune for Dixon, who finished second in the 2007 IndyCar Series championship after running out of fuel while leading on the final lap of the season finale at Chicagoland.

Dixon was able to take the lead when Kanaan sustained damage while in the lead when Ernesto Viso’s car spun on Lap 193. The right front corner of Kanaan’s car made contact with Viso’s car, damaging the car. Kanaan remained on the track during the caution period, but couldn’t race at speed when the green flag dropped and he eventually finished eighth.

Andretti, who led a race-high 85 laps, finished second, tying his career-best mark on an oval while Dixon’s Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate and winner of the previous three events at Homestead-Miami - Dan Wheldon - finished third, surging to the front from a 22nd starting position after crashing during qualifying.

Helio Castroneves and Ed Carpenter rounded out the top five. Carpenter advanced 19 positions during the race after starting in the back due to a technical violation during qualifying.

Oriol Servia, with 27 previous oval starts, paced the transition drivers with a 12th place in the No. 5 KV Racing Technology car.

Fellow transitioning driver Power started from 19th in today’s 200 lap hit-out and made a steady start in the #8 Aussie Vineyards - Team Australia Honda/Dallara/Firestone, rising up the order to 16th position before a caution flag flew after 20 laps.

Power made a pit stop under the caution and was set to continue his progress through the field when at the restart he came across Wilson as he accelerated, with the contact damaging the front suspension forcing Power to retire after only 24 laps.

Power’s countryman Briscoe and his #6 Team Penske Honda/Dallara/Firestone was in podium contention before the race-ending collision with Duno, having run the majority of the race in the top five.

The IndyCar Series now heads to the Streets of St Petersberg for the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersberg at 2.30pm on April 6 (4.30am Monday 7th April AEST), the first road-course in a schedule that is the most diverse in world motorsports.

The 2008 schedule will take the teams and drivers to short ovals, superspeedways, and road and street courses including the Gold Coast Indy 300 which is regarded as a ‘crown jewel’ in international motorsport.

The future of the Gold Coast Indy 300 was recently secured for at least another six years with a deal being reached with the new-look IndyCar Series and V8 Supercars Australia.

Now regarded as one of the world’s iconic motorsport events, the Gold Coast Indy 300 will now continue until and including 2013 with major plans already underway for a massive 20th anniversary celebration in 2010.

With 96 hours of non-stop excitement over October 23-26 as the Gold Coast comes alive to the sound of the IndyCar Series cars burning up the track and Australia’s own V8 Supercars scorching around one of the most famous beach-side cities in the world, the event is the hottest ticket in town.

WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY...

Scott Dixon - #9 Target Chip Ganassi Honda/Dallara/Firestone
“It was one of those races where we didn’t exactly have the speed all the time, or things weren’t really going our way, but we still came out on top,” said Dixon.

“If you can have races like that, where you have a bad day, or a day where you don’t think you’re at your best, and you still come out on top, that’s a great way to take some points away from others and hopefully it works for the rest of the season.

“We had a couple of stints there where it was nearly non-stop without a yellow. I thought there were going to be a tonne early on. In our team meeting, we were sort of scheduling for quite a few stops early on, but that just didn’t come.

“I think everybody was really using their heads, the guys who came in from Champ Car were fantastic. They were giving everybody room and they drove a great clean race.”

Ryan Briscoe - #6 Team Penske Racing Honda/Dallara/Firestone
“I was having such a great race, making some good laps and our pit stops were good. I was really looking confident of a good result but it just wasn’t meant to be,” said Briscoe.

“I was just taking my time out there, making some good passes while not taking any risks.

“Unfortunately when Milka (Duno) spun I was just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time but that’s racing. We’ll just move on and focus on St Petersberg next week.

“I was pretty impressed with the new drivers out there; a lot of those new teams who have come over from the Champ Car Series have done a great job.”

Will Power - #8 Team Australia - Aussie Vineyards Honda/Dallara/Firestone
“At the restart I just ran into the back of Justin Wilson’s car and it bent my front suspension,” said Power.

“It’s disappointing for the team to have to retire the #8 Aussie Vineyards car this early but that’s racing.

“I was really enjoying it out there, having a lot of fun and taking my time getting to know this oval racing.

“In those early laps I was learning about following other cars, racing in a pack and running in the draft.

“We had a bit of understeer and we would have worked on getting that a little better, but we move on.

“We are all really excited about the street circuit at St Petersburg next weekend. We are looking to have a stronger run there in the Aussie Vineyards car.”


RESULTS- IndyCar Series - GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300, HOMESTEAD, Fla.

Results for the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 IndyCar Series event at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
2. (4) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
3. (22) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
4. (5) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
5. (24) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
6. (2) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
7. (9) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
8. (6) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
9. (25) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
10. (10) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
11. (11) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 196, Running
12. (14) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 195, Running
13. (12) Darren Manning, Dallara-Honda, 194, Running
14. (13) Franck Perera, Dallara-Honda, 194, Running
15. (15) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 193, Running
16. (21) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 187, Running
17. (18) Ernesto Viso, Dallara-Honda, 183, Contact
18. (17) Enrique Bernoldi, Dallara-Honda, 149, Handling
19. (3) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 126, Contact
20. (16) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda, 122, Contact
21. (8) Marty Roth, Dallara-Honda, 53, Handling
22. (23) Jay Howard, Dallara-Honda, 50, Handling
23. (20) Bruno Junqueira, Dallara-Honda, 40, Handling
24. (7) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 32, Mechanical
25. (19) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 24, Mechanical

RACE STATISTICS
Winner's average speed: 171.248 mph
Time of race: 1:44:03.5914
Margin of victory: 0.5828 of a second
Cautions: 3 caution flags for 24 laps
Lead changes: 12 among 5 drivers
Lap leaders: Dixon 1-12, Kanaan 13-20, Dixon 21-71, Wheldon 72-73, Andretti 74-117, Wheldon 118-121, Andretti 122-160, Kanaan 161-172, Andretti 173-174, Wheldon 175-177, Castroneves 178-181, Kanaan 182-196, Dixon 197-200.

GAINSCO AUTO INSURANCE INDY 300 POST-RACE NOTES:
• This is Scott Dixon’s 11th career IndyCar Series victory and his first since winning at Infineon in August 2007. Dixon also won at Homestead-Miami in 2003.
• This is Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s 17th victory in the IndyCar Series. The team has won the last three events at Homestead-Miami Speedway and four of the eight events contested at the track.
• Marco Andretti’s second-place finish tied his career-best finish on an oval. In 2007, he finished second at Iowa and Michigan. He also finished second at Indianapolis in 2006.
• Dan Wheldon advanced 19 positions from the start of the race to his third-place finish. Wheldon had won the previous three events at Homestead-Miami, two with Target Chip Ganassi Racing and one with Andretti Green Racing.
• Oriol Servia was the highest finishing driver among the nine drivers transitioning into the IndyCar Series. Servia started 14th and finished 12th.
• Ed Carpenter tied his career-best finish of fifth (Chicagoland 2006).
• The average speed of 171.248 is the fastest race in IndyCar Series history at Homestead-Miami. The previous fastest was 167.730 in 2006. The race also had the fewest caution laps (24) of any race at Homestead-Miami. The previous low was 32 in 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2007.

NOTABLE FIRSTS IN THE UNIFIED INDYCAR SERIES:
• First PEAK Motor Oil Pole in unified IndyCar Series - Scott Dixon
• First race leader in unified IndyCar Series - Scott Dixon
• First pass for the lead in unified IndyCar Series - Tony Kanaan passed Dixon on backstrech on Lap 13.
• First caution in unified IndyCar Series - Lap 18 for debris.
• First car out of race in unified IndyCar Series - Will Power on Lap 24.
• First race winner in unified IndyCar Series - Scott Dixon
• Fastest transitioning driver in official practice for first race in the unified IndyCar Series - Justin Wilson, 16th
• First transitioning driver to qualify in the unified IndyCar Series - Justin Wilson at 6:32 p.m. on March 28
• Fastest transitioning driver in qualifying for the first race in the unified IndyCar Series - Franck Perera, 15th

2008 INDYCAR SERIES STANDINGS POST-ROUND ONE - TOP TEN
1. Scott Dixon – 50 points
2. Marco Andretti – 43
3. Dan Wheldon – 35
4. Helio Castroneves – 32
5. Ed Carpenter – 30
6. Danica Patrick – 28
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay – 26
8. Tony Kanaan – 24
9. A.J. Foyt IV – 22
10. Vitor Meira – 20
19. Ryan Briscoe – 12
25. Will Power – 10


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