Max Papis took pole and the win on a wet Portland circuit with standing water, while repeated cautions left most of the field spinning.
Max Papis took the flag for Team Rahal after starting from pole at Portland International Raceway on 24 June 2001. Roberto Moreno finished second and Christian Fittipaldi third in a wet race that the two-hour time limit ended after 76 of the 98 scheduled laps.
Max Papis won the 2001 Freightliner/G.I. Joe's 200 from pole position at Portland International Raceway, on a wet track that nobody had practised on all weekend. The race was stopped by the two-hour clock after 76 of its 98 scheduled laps, with Roberto Moreno and Christian Fittipaldi completing the podium behind him.
Why was Team Penske the favourite?
Team Penske arrived in Portland as favourite after a dominant race at Detroit, and its drivers were the obvious contenders. Gil de Ferran was the defending series champion and had won the Portland race twice in a row, while Helio Castroneves had climbed the fence in Detroit after his latest victory.
The championship was tight. Castroneves had closed the gap to the points leader, Kenny Brack, and only five points separated the top two. Michael Andretti had put together a run of top-six finishes in the last four races to move into third, and de Ferran sat fifth.
The Chip Ganassi team also had a new driver in its line-up. Memo Gidley, known as the Super Sub, replaced Nicolas Minassian in the number 12 car for the rest of the season after the team released Minassian. Gidley had previously raced for Forsythe Racing and Della Penna Motorsports in 2000.
A wet, unpractised track at Portland turned the 2001 CART round into a survival test for everyone on the grid.
How did practice and qualifying go?
Practice belonged mostly to Castroneves, who led the second and third sessions, although Brack had topped the first. In qualifying, Papis set 57.785 for his second and final pole position in CART. His time was the quickest of the session.
Castroneves led the second and third sessions at 58.318 and 58.073. By the end of the third session nineteen drivers had broken into the fifty-eight second range, so the field was tightly bunched. Brack was five seconds off his first-session time when he ran his backup car.
Da Matta was second on the grid and Castroneves third. Scott Dixon, a rookie, put his backup car fourth, and Dario Franchitti completed the top five. De Ferran could manage only 15th, less than a second off the pace.
Brack had the worst of it. His exhaust system failed and ignited his car, and a red flag stopped the session. Officials gave him an eight-minute penalty, he ran four laps in the backup car, and he qualified 22nd of 26.
What were the conditions on race day?
Rain had soaked the track for the first time since the teams arrived in Portland, so the setups built during practice were of little use. A light drizzle carried on through the morning warm-up, and officials judged it light enough to race.
Portland already had a reputation for a first-turn chicane and difficult overtaking. This time the circuit was wet, with standing water in several areas, and nobody had practised on the surface during the weekend. Drivers had to adapt on the move.
How did the race unfold in the opening laps?
The opening laps were chaotic from the first metres. De Ferran spun on the pace lap and pitted with front wing damage, and Andretti and Brack were turned round at the first corner without damage. Soon after, Kanaan clipped Gidley, and Zanardi and Gidley both hit the barriers.
Kanaan went off at Turn 8 and rejoined into the path of Gidley. He clipped Gidley's right rear tyre, which sent Gidley across the line of Alex Zanardi. Kanaan's suspension was badly damaged and he limped back to the pits to retire. Zanardi and Gidley walked away unhurt.
Castroneves then slid off the track at Turn 7 under the caution and nudged the tyre barriers, which left him a lap down. When the race restarted on lap 6, Takagi and Nakano both spun and stalled their cars, and another caution followed.
Da Matta had too much speed into Turn 8 and bumped the back of Papis's car, spinning himself and stalling. Wilson spun Herta out, and Tagliani punctured a right rear tyre but kept the car running. The 15th lap was the first incident-free lap of the race, and by then twelve of the twenty-six starters had spun off track.
Could Paul Tracy catch Papis?
Paul Tracy came through from 13th to second and closed right up behind Papis. He tailgated the leader under caution for several laps, trying to unsettle him, but Papis pulled clear whenever the green flag came out. The pressure never made Papis lose his lead.
Papis was able to pull away again once the green flag returned on lap 24. The field barely got beyond a few corners before Michel Jourdain Jr. spun out at Turn 1, forcing a sixth caution. Andretti then took a drive-through penalty for passing under yellow, and Papis built his gap over Tracy once more.
Which pit stop decided the lead?
The field used the caution on lap 33, when Adrian Fernandez spun, to make its one and only pit stop of the race. Papis left the pits first again, but Tracy hit Bruno Junqueira as he left his own pit box. That ended Junqueira's race and damaged Tracy's suspension.
Moreno gained places on Tracy and Franchitti in the pits. Christian Fittipaldi inherited the lead because he had not pitted under the caution, and da Matta was on the same strategy. Fittipaldi pitted on lap 40, which handed the lead back to Papis.
Franchitti had run into the back of Bryan Herta and spun on lap 36. Nakano suffered suspension damage on lap 40 and his race was over. On lap 44 Tracy spun while coming onto the back straight and clipped Mauricio Gugelmin, ending both of their races. That brought out the ninth and final caution of the afternoon.
Why did the race finish on the clock?
The race was declared timed on lap 68, so it would end once two hours had passed rather than at the full distance. It covered 76 of the 98 laps originally scheduled. Fittipaldi was closing on the leaders as the time ran out, but Papis and Moreno held him off to the flag.
With eight minutes to go, Fittipaldi cruised past Wilson into Turn 1 and began closing on the front. He had pitted on lap 40 with enough fuel for the distance, and that played into his hands in the closing stages. Papis and Moreno were not caught.
Who had a weekend to forget?
Several well-known drivers had hard afternoons. Tracy's race ended on lap 44 after he clipped Gugelmin, Franchitti spun on lap 36 after running into Herta, and Kanaan retired with suspension damage. Brack had started 22nd of 26 after his red flag qualifying session.
Castroneves slid into the tyre barriers at Turn 7 and was a lap down after that incident. De Ferran, who qualified 15th, spun on the pace lap and had to pit early. Nakano's race ended on lap 40 with suspension damage, and Takagi and Nakano had both spun and stalled on the restart.
Final classification
| Position | Driver | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | Max Papis (Team Rahal) | Pole, second career CART win and his first of 2001 |
| Second | Roberto Moreno | Second straight runner-up finish at Portland |
| Third | Christian Fittipaldi | Only podium finish of his 2001 season |
What did the result change?
Papis's win was the first of his season and the second of his career in the series. His pole was the second of his CART career and also the last. For Moreno it was another runner-up place at Portland, and his second consecutive podium of the year after third at Detroit.
Before the race the gap between the first and second places in the standings had been only five points. A wet, unfamiliar track and a race cut short by the clock made the afternoon hard to predict for everyone in the field.
Fittipaldi restarted seventh after the final caution and climbed the order steadily. His pit stop on lap 40 meant he had enough fuel for the distance, and that gave him the chance to press the leaders in the closing laps. Papis and Moreno had to hold him off at the flag.
