From karting in British Columbia to Indy Lights titles and five CART victories, the story of a driver whose promise ended in 1999.
Greg Moore was a Canadian CART driver who won five races and 17 podiums for Forsythe Racing before he was killed at California Speedway in 1999. He had won the 1995 Indy Lights title. His car number 99 was retired, and the Greg Moore Legacy Award and a foundation carry his name.
Greg Moore was a Canadian open-wheel driver whose promising CART career ended in a fatal crash at California Speedway on 31 October 1999. He had spent his fourth season with Forsythe Racing, the team that signed him for Indy Lights in 1995.
Moore won five CART races, stood on the podium 17 times and built a reputation as a fearless oval specialist. This article traces his karting roots, his climb through the junior ranks, the years at Forsythe, the events of that final weekend and the memorials that keep his name alive.
Who was Greg Moore?
Gregory William Moore was born on 22 April 1975 in New Westminster, British Columbia, and grew up in Maple Ridge near Vancouver. He raced in Canadian Formula Ford, USAC FF2000 and Indy Lights before joining Forsythe Racing in CART in 1996. He won five CART races and was known as an oval track specialist.
His father, Ric, owned a Chrysler dealership and had raced Can-Am cars at club level. Ric acted as his son's manager, tutor and financier, and he took a firm and practical approach to the career. The family's commitment was obvious early on, because Greg's first go-kart arrived when he was six.
A fearless oval specialist whose promising CART career ended at California Speedway in 1999.
How did Moore rise through the junior ranks?
Moore began competitive karting at age ten and quickly became a force in the sport. He took the North American Enduro Kart Racing Championship in 1989 and 1990, which prompted his father to test whether the results came from talent or from the equipment.
The answer came at the Shannonville, Ontario, school run by Spenard-David. He won a race against a large field and then captured the school's Top Gun series, beating almost 800 drivers across the three-day run-offs. Track owner Richard Spenard was impressed enough to invite him back, and the lessons he took from the school were about gears, apexes and avoiding crashes.
Hockey was briefly a rival for his time. He played goalie in minor ice hockey and won a British Columbia provincial championship. When he reached his mid-teens, his father told him to choose between hockey and racing if he wanted to progress, and he chose racing.
In 1991 he stepped up to single-seaters in Canadian Formula Ford, driving a Van Diemen RF91-Ford that his father bought from England. He won the Shannonville round, finished fourth in the points and was named Rookie of the Year.
The 1992 season moved him up a tier, into USAC FF2000's Western Division. He collected four poles and four victories on the way to the title, which was decided at Willow Springs, and he was also voted Rookie of the Year at that level.
Indy Lights followed in 1993. Moore was only 17, and the sanctioning body initially refused him a licence, so a provisional one was arranged through the Indy Lights leadership. He finished third at Portland, his best result of that season, and ended the year ninth in points.
How did his CART career unfold year by year?
Moore's CART career ran from 1996 to 1999 with Forsythe Racing. He debuted with a seventh-place finish at the Miami opener and won his first two races in 1997. The table below lists each season with his final position, points and the results that defined it.
| Season | Standing and points | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Ninth, 84 points | Third at Surfers Paradise, second at Nazareth, runner-up for Rookie of the Year |
| 1997 | Seventh, 111 points | First two CART wins, at Milwaukee and Detroit |
| 1998 | Fifth, 141 points | First pole at Miami, third career win at the Rio 400 |
| 1999 | Tenth, 97 points | Fifth career win at the season-opening Miami round |
His debut year was demanding. Moore logged 30 days of testing with the team across the United States before the season and used a 750 hp (560 kW) turbocharged Reynard with a Mercedes-Benz V8. Forsythe's equipment was sub-par, yet he regularly challenged for victories, and he took three podium finishes of his own.
Fellow drivers did not offer much advice, so Moore watched them closely instead, and he used what he saw to build his own approach through a difficult first season.
What made his 1995 Indy Lights season so dominant?
In 1995 Moore drove a Lola T93/20-Buick for Forsythe Racing in Indy Lights and won ten of twelve races. He scored a record 242 points, led 375 of 583 laps and opened the season with five straight wins, a streak that beat a mark Paul Tracy had held since 1990.
Forsythe owner Gerald Forsythe wanted a Canadian driver for the team. He eased Moore's financial pressure, which had grown after a sponsor pulled out in mid-1994, leaving his father to take out mortgages to keep the team going. Moore signed a five-year contract, and three of his mechanics moved over with him.
His father stayed on as manager without becoming an employee of the organisation. That arrangement gave Greg a stable base inside the team.
Which CART victories shaped his reputation?
Moore's first CART win came at the Milwaukee Mile in 1997, when he ran the final 92 laps without a pit stop, and at 22 he became the youngest CART winner on record. The following week he took the Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle, after two PacWest cars ran dry on the final lap.
His 1998 season began with his first pole, at Miami, which made him the youngest pole starter in CART history. He finished second in that race and then kept producing results on ovals. The Rio 400 brought his third career win, when he passed Alex Zanardi with five laps to go, and he later took a second win of the year at Michigan after a late battle with Zanardi and Jimmy Vasser.
The season was not without trouble. Mid-season brought several retirements, and his engine struggled for traction on road courses. He still finished fifth in the drivers' championship with 141 points, which confirmed him as one of the most talented drivers in the series.
What happened at California Speedway on 31 October 1999?
On 31 October 1999 Greg Moore was fatally injured during the Marlboro 500 at California Speedway, the final race of the CART season. He lost control on lap 10 and hit an infield concrete barrier. He was taken by helicopter to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It was the second CART driver death that season.
The day before the race, a paddock vehicle knocked him off his motor scooter because its driver was dazzled by the rising sun. He suffered a deep hand laceration that needed fifteen stitches and a fractured finger. Medical consultations cleared him to race in a protective hand brace and with a modified steering wheel, but he had missed qualifying and started at the back of the grid.
The crash itself was violent. Early in the race a restart followed a crash by Richie Hearn, and on the following laps Moore lost control midway through turn two, possibly after losing the slipstream of the car ahead. He slid into the infield grass at speeds above 220 mph (350 km/h), went airborne, rolled and struck a barrier with no tyre wall at a right angle. The car's data recorder logged an impact of 154 g.
CART investigated in the weeks that followed. In December the series concluded that there was no single cause, and its engineers found that the car had begun to lose control halfway through turn two without showing why it went airborne on the access road. Officials confirmed there was no mechanical failure, which left the origin of the chain of events unexplained.
How did the racing community respond?
Chief steward Wally Dallenbach Sr. had all track flags flown at half mast, and the post-race celebrations were called off. At his father's request, the CART season banquet went ahead the following night with a tribute to Moore and to Gonzalo Rodriguez, who had died earlier that season.
Makeshift memorials appeared at his old school and at his father's dealership in Maple Ridge. He was cremated on 2 November. A private service in Vancouver drew about 1,200 family and friends, and a public service in Maple Ridge drew 1,500 mourners, which showed how deeply he was loved in his home province.
Did Greg Moore race outside CART?
He did, and the experience showed how adaptable he was. In late 1997 he raced an AMG-Mercedes in FIA GT competition, pairing with Alexander Wurz in the GT1 class in the number 12 CLK GTR. Their car finished seventh in both of the season's final two rounds.
In 1999 he was one of twelve drivers invited to the four-race International Race of Champions series, which pitted drivers from different disciplines against one another in identical stock cars. He drove a Pontiac Firebird, managed three top-ten finishes and scored 25 points, which left him last in the standings.
Earlier, a Formula One team had asked about his services as a test driver, but he was under contract to Forsythe, so the idea went no further. Canadian broadcasters also wanted him to fill in as a commentator at the 1997 Canadian Grand Prix, a request that Formula One officials refused because he was a CART driver.
How has his legacy lived on?
Moore's car number 99 was retired from CART, Indy Lights and Formula Atlantic as a mark of respect. CART created the Greg Moore Legacy Award in 2000, and his father established a foundation that funds scholarships and charitable work. Two Canadian halls of fame, one for motorsport and one for sport in British Columbia, recognised him in 2000.
The first Legacy Award went to Helio Castroneves that year. Later recipients include Dario Franchitti, Sebastien Bourdais and Ryan Hunter-Reay, and the award's criteria have always stressed both on-track talent and a dynamic personality with fans and the media.
Other tributes followed. The Molson Indy Vancouver painted a message on its start-finish line: Courage, Greg Moore No. 99, and the Greg Moore Pole Award went to the pole sitter from 2000 until 2004. A book about his life was published in August 2000, and a documentary narrated by Ashley Judd was shown on television in 2001.
Franchitti chose to dedicate his 2002 Molson Indy Vancouver victory to Moore, and James Hinchcliffe wore a pair of Moore's red racing gloves during qualifying for the 2012 Indianapolis 500. In 2013 Autosport put Moore among the 50 greatest drivers who never raced in Formula One, a recognition that reflects how strongly he is remembered.
What kind of driver and person was he?
Moore was known for exceptional car control and a tenacious style on ovals, and fans, media and fellow drivers in the paddock regarded him with real affection. Journalists described him as tall and fair-haired, with a boyish enthusiasm that many found infectious.
Away from the car he was a practical joker with a sense of humour that children particularly enjoyed. He admitted his own mistakes, built friendships across the paddock and organised social gatherings. From 1998 until his death he led an international set of friends called the Brat Pack, alongside Max Papis, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan.
Mario Andretti praised him as articulate and mature beyond his years. Those qualities, along with his devotion to family and fans, are often cited when people describe him.
