CART Season in Review

RACE 1

* Date: March 2.

* Site: Homestead, Fla.

* Winner: Michael Andretti.

* Margin: 3.401 seconds over Paul Tracy.

* Recap: Andretti switched to a Swift chassis for a historic win in the Grand Prix of Miami. The victory was the first for an American-made chassis on the circuit since Gordon Johncock won in a Wildcat in Atlanta in 1983. Andretti led 72 of the race’s 147 laps, taking over on Lap 68 and relinquishing the lead only briefly during a pit stop.

RACE 2

* Date: April 6.

* Site: Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia.

* Winner: Scott Pruett.

* Margin: 0.684 of a second over Greg Moore.

* Recap: Alex Zanardi set a CART record with his sixth consecutive pole position, and he led the first 18 laps of the truncated race that was red-flagged in the second lap because of an accident that left Christian Fittipaldi with a broken leg. Zanardi and Paul Tracy collided on the 42nd lap, Pruett passing when they both spun off the course.

RACE 3

* Date: April 14.

* Site: Long Beach.

* Winner: Alex Zanardi.

* Margin: 3.820 seconds over Mauricio Gugelmin.

* Recap: Zanardi’s pole streak was broken by Gil de Ferran, but he led 41 of the 105 laps after starting from the outside of the first row. Zanardi finally took the lead when teammate Jimmy Vasser pitted on the 94th lap, winning his fourth CART race, all on street circuits or road courses.

RACE 4

* Date: April 27.

* Site: Nazareth, Pa.

* Winner: Paul Tracy.

* Margin: Finished under caution, beating Andretti.

* Recap: Tracy broke a 27-race drought by setting a qualifying record of 191.174 mph over the one-mile track, then led 186 of the 225 laps of the race that ended under caution when the car of Juan Fangio II caught fire. Tracy also rebounded from a $25,000 fine assessed for a trio of driving incidents at Long Beach.

RACE 5

* Date: May 11.

* Site: Rio de Janeiro.

* Winner: Tracy.

* Margin: 1.805 over Greg Moore.

* Recap: Tracy led only three laps, and made his pass on the final lap when Bobby Rahal ran out of fuel while leading in search of his first CART victory since 1992. Rahal had led only 63 laps since the start of the 1993 season but led 102 of the 133 laps at Rio’s 1.864-mile oval. Zanardi climbed from a 26th-place starting spot to a fourth-place finish, the best improvement from start to finish of any CART driver this season and a harbinger.

RACE 6

* Date: May 24.

* Site: Madison, Ill.

* Winner: Paul Tracy.

* Margin: 2.391 seconds over Patrick Carpentier.

* Recap: Canadian rookie Carpentier was ticking off laps in the lead, while Tracy stalked him and Zanardi over the final 11 laps. Tracy passed Zanardi on Lap 232, set his sights on Carpentier, passing on the fourth turn of Lap 234, then hung on to win his third race in a row.

RACE 7

* Date: June 1.

* Site: West Allis, Wis.

* Winner: Moore.

* Margin: 0.348 of a second over Andretti.

* Recap: Tracy led 96 of 200 laps in his bid for a fourth consecutive victory, and Moore led the 104 others in becoming the youngest winner in the history of the circuit at 22 years 1 month and 10 days, 19 days younger than Al Unser Jr. was when he won in 1984 at Portland, Ore. Moore barely had enough fuel to finish, but was helped by caution for 29 of the final 92 laps.

RACE 8

* Date: June 8.

* Site: Detroit.

* Winner: Moore.

* Margin: 1.818 seconds ahead of Andretti.

* Recap: Moore’s Reynard Mercedes was running third before the final lap, but he passed PacWest teammates Gugelmin and Mark Blundell, who both ran out of fuel. “First, I saw Mauricio run out on the back straight, and I said, ‘I’m going to finish second. That’s pretty good,’ ” Moore said. “Then I saw Blundell run out, and I said, ‘Wow! I’m in first place.’ I’m glad the race didn’t end up one lap sooner, that’s for sure.”

RACE 9

* Date: June 22.

* Site: Portland.

* Winner: Mark Blundell.

* Margin: 0.027 of a second ahead of De Ferran.

* Recap: Blundell finished a wet weekend in Oregon by taking on dry-track tires on his final pit stop, while De Ferran retained rain tires. The strategy was the difference, because Blundell turned an average of about five mph faster over the final 10 laps, finally nosing past De Ferran at the line for the closest finish in CART history. The two were barely ahead of Raul Boesel, and the first-to-third gap of 0.055 of a second was also the closest in series history.

RACE 10

* Date: July 13.

* Site: Cleveland.

* Winner: Zanardi.

* Margin: 1.281 seconds ahead of De Ferran.

* Recap: Zanardi incurred two penalties for entering the pits illegally and exiting them improperly, and was in 22nd place on the 37th of 90 laps. But he moved steadily forward, was second on Lap 78 before overtaking De Ferran on the first turn of the 2.106-mile layout and cruising to the win.

RACE 12

* Date: July 20.

* Site: Toronto.

* Winner: Blundell.

* Margin: 0.027 of a second ahead of Zanardi.

* Recap: Blundell’s Reynard-Mercedes started second, moved into the lead on the first turn when pole sitter Dario Franchitti and third-place starter Rahal tangled and then dominated the event, leading 93 of 95 laps. His two-lap sabbatical was short, in large part because of a 12-second pit stop on Lap 34. Zanardi’s finish moved him from fifth to second in the PPG Cup points race, three points behind Tracy.

RACE 13

* Date: July 27.

* Site: Brooklyn, Mich.

* Winner: Zanardi.

* Margin: 31.737 seconds ahead of Blundell.

* Recap: Zanardi won his first oval-track race, leading 104 of the 250 laps, including the final 31 trips around the two-mile oval. It was the biggest finishing margin of any winner this season and moved him into the series lead for the first time in his career, by six points over Tracy, who finished fourth.

RACE 14

* Date: Aug. 10

* Site: Lexington, Ohio.

* Winner: Zanardi.

* Margin: 4.871 seconds over Moore.

* Recap: Two in a row for Zanardi, who defended his title at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and led 56 of the race’s 83 laps, including the final 54. On Lap 70, he was 28 seconds ahead of the field when a caution flag came out, and he had time to pit five seconds for a splash of fuel without losing his advantage. Zanardi also increased his points lead over Tracy to 148-121 after Tracy crashed and was unable to finish the race.

RACE 15

* Date: Aug. 17.

* Site: Elkhart Lake, Wis.

* Winner: Zanardi.

* Margin: 6.148 seconds over Gugelmin.

* Recap: This win was three in a row and four in five races for Zanardi, who scored 99 of a possible 110 points over that time and celebrated his victory by spinning his Reynard Honda in doughnuts after crossing the finish line. “The fans sat so long in the stands and got so much water and got so cold and were so loyal that I just had to do something for them,” he said. The race was delayed 2 1/4 hours by rain.

RACE 16

* Date: Aug. 31.

* Site: Vancouver, Canada.

* Winner: Gugelmin.

* Margin: 2.872 seconds over Vasser.

* Recap: Gugelmin won his first CART raced, taking the lead when Bryan Herta and Zanardi tangled on the 86th of 111 laps. Zanardi was fined $25,000 and put on probation for the rest of the season after a day in which he sat on the pole, led the first 15 laps, drove into a runoff area, stalled and dropped to 23rd, worked his way back to third by Lap 65, ran off course again on Lap 83 and made contact with Herta three laps later.

RACE 17

* Date: Sept. 7.

* Site: Monterey, Calif.

* Winner: Vasser.

* Margin: 0.543 of a second over Blundell.

* Recap: Vasser won the battle, but teammate Zanardi won the war, taking the points championship Vasser had won in ’96 and its $1-million bonus. Then, perhaps typical of Zanardi in his wacky, successful season, he pulled alongside Vasser on the cool-down lap and the two cars collided while Zanardi had both hands off the wheel, applauding. Vasser got a ride to victory circle.