Da Matta makes it two in a row

CRISTIANO da Matta has finished the 2001 CART season on a high, claiming victory in the Marlboro 500 at California Speedway yesterday, just one week after taking the chequered flag on the streets of Surfers Paradise.

The Brazilian's first superspeedway win and third victory of the season came by the narrowest of margins, just 0.123 of a second over Italian Max Papis, who was also looking for his third victory of the year.

"I thought I had to stay in the lead and that's what I was trying to do," da Matta said.

"What I didn't want to do is fight a lot with Max or Alex because I didn't want a lot of others to be in the fight at the end. I was pretty confident in the car, and could go flat down to the end, but sometimes you need to be a little lucky being in the right place at the right time." With four laps remaining, da Matta crossed the finish line centimetres ahead of Papis as the final caution flag came out after Scott Dixon made contact with the turn four wall.

The race then finished under caution, which was somewhat of an anti-climax after the record 73 lead changes between 19 drivers that occurred during the event.

The win has given Da Matta membership of an elite group, including Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vasser and Adrian Fernandez, as the only active CART drivers to have won all four disciplines - short ovals, superspeedways, street circuits and road courses.

Polesitter Alex Tagliani finished third in one of the Player's/Forsythe Racing entries, ahead of the Target Toyota/Lola of Bruno Junqueira and Mo Nunn Racing's Tony Kanaan in the first of four Honda/Reynard combinations.

Newly-crowned two-time CART champion Gil de Ferran could only manage sixth after some problems late in the race.

"I was running in third towards the end when the engine went soft, and we had a puncture in the left rear tire which made the car pick up more understeer," de Ferran said.

Team Motorola's Michael Andretti was seventh - his best finish at the California Motor Speedway - in his 290th CART career start.

Rookie Casey Mears recovered from the disappointment of his first lap crash in Australia to finish eighth, after leading the field on two occasions and running consistently in the top three during the middle stages of the race.

He was on track for a possible podium finish but was disadvantaged by pitting one lap before a caution period and had to fight he way through from the back of the field in the last 65 laps. Arciero-Blair Racing's Alex Barron, who replaced Max Wilson for the final two rounds, turned in another strong performance to finish ninth after qualifying 18th, while Tagliani's teammate Patrick Carpentier claimed the final place in the top ten after struggling on his final set of tyres.

While de Ferran wrapped up the drivers' championship last time out at Surfers Paradise and Kenny Brack was also confirmed as runner-up, the remaining places had not been decided heading into the final race at Fontana.

Andretti's seventh place was enough to give him third, while da Matta's win lifted him to equal fourth with Helio Castroneves.

Papis climbed from eighth to sixth, relegating Franchitti to seventh and top rookie Dixon to eighth, while Kanaan and Carpentier completed the top ten.

Honda took out the manufacturers' championship by a clear margin of 33 points from Toyota, while Ford-Cosworth finished a further 12 points behind.

Reynard was the leading constructor for the year, finishing with 378 points to Lola's 335.

RACE RESULTS
1 Cristiano da Matta (Toyota Lola) 2hr59min39.716sec
2 M Papis (Ford-Cosworth/Lola) +0.123
3 A Tagliani (Ford-Cosworth/Reynard) +0.492
4 B Junqueira (Toyota Lola) +0.922
5 T Kanaan (Honda/Reynard) +1.186
6 G de Ferran (Honda/Reynard) +3.131
7 Michael Andretti (Honda/Reynard) +3.848
8 Casey Mears (Honda/Reynard) +4.006
9 Alex Barron (Ford-Cosworth/Lola) +4.963
10 Patrick Carpentier (Ford-Cosworth/Reynard) +5.818DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Gil de Ferran (BRA) 199
2 Kenny Brack (SWE) 163
3 Michael Andretti (USA) 147
=4 Cristiano da Matta (BRA) 141
=4 Helio Castroneves (BRA) 141
6 Max Papis (ITA) 106
7 Dario Franchitti (SCO) 105
8 Scott Dixon ® (NZ) 98
9 Tony Kanaan (BRA) 93
10 Patrick Carpentier (CAN) 91
11 Alex Tagliani (BRA) 80
12 Jimmy Vasser (USA) 77
13 Roberto Moreno (BRA) 76
14 Paul Tracy (CAN) 73
15 Christian Fittipaldi (BRA) 70
16 Bruno Junqueira ® (BRA) 68
17 Memo Gidley (USA) 65
18 Adrian Fernandez (MEX) 45
19 Oriol Servia (CAT) 42
20 Michel Jourdain Jr (BRA) 30
21 Tora Takagi ® (JAP) 29
22 Bryan Herta (USA) 28
23 Alex Zanardi (ITA) 24
24 Mauricio Gugelmin (BRA) 17
25 Max Wilson ® (BRA) 12
26 Shinji Nakano (JAP) 11
=27 Nicolas Minassian ® (FRA) 7
=27 Casey Mears ® (USA) 7
29 Alex Barron (USA) 4
30 Townsend Bell ® (USA) 1® = rookie driverMANUFACTURERS' CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Honda 342
2 Toyota 309
3 Ford-Cosworth 297CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Reynard 378
2 Lola 335Next round (2002 season): Fundidora Park, Monterrey, Mexico - March 10