2001 Rockingham 500

  2001 Rockingham 500

Race details
Race 17 of 21 in the 2001 CART season
Map of the track
Date	September 22, 2001
Official name	Rockingham 500K
Location	Rockingham Motor Speedway, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
Course	Oval 1.479 mi / 2.881 km
Distance	140 laps, 206.060 mi / 403.340 km
Weather	Partly Cloudy
Pole position
Driver	Kenny Bräck	Team Rahal
Time	No Time Trials
Fastest lap
Driver	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Racing
Time	25.251[1] (on lap 134 of 140)
Podium
First	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske
Second	Kenny Bräck	Team Rahal
Third	Cristiano da Matta	Newman-Haas Racing

The Rockingham 500k was a CART race held at Rockingham Motor Speedway on September 22, 2001. It was the 17th round of the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series season. The race was contested over 140 laps of the 2.881 km oval, with an overall distance of 403.340 km. The race was scheduled for 211 laps, but was gradually reduced as the race went on due to a 5:00 pm start and impending darkness.

The race was won by defending series champion Gil de Ferran after starting from second position on the grid, driving for Team Penske. It was his first victory of the season. His performance in this race was notable, especially in the final lap when he managed to overtake Bräck at the final corner to take the victory, the two having fought for the entire race.

Classification

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Gil de Ferran	Team Penske	140	1:20:59.050	2	21
2	8	Kenny Bräck	Team Rahal	140	0.634 secs	1	16
3	6	Cristiano da Matta	Newman-Haas Racing	140	14.663 secs	8	14
4^1	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	140	6.335 secs	4	12
5	39	Michael Andretti	Team Green	140	17.056 secs	3	10
6	26	Paul Tracy	Team Green	140	18.919 secs	11	8
7	40	Jimmy Vasser	Patrick Racing	140	19.060 secs	16	6
8	55	Tony Kanaan	Mo Nunn Racing	140	19.740 secs	10	5
9	27	Dario Franchitti	Team Green	140	20.281 secs	6	4
10	22	Oriol Servià	Sigma Autosport	140	26.431 secs	18	3
11	7	Max Papis	Team Rahal	140	26.794 secs	12	2
12	19	Townsend Bell (R)	Patrick Racing	139	1 Lap	26	1
13	20	Roberto Moreno	Patrick Racing	139	1 Lap	9
14	33	Alex Tagliani	Forsythe Racing	139	1 Lap	14
15	77	Bryan Herta	Forsythe Racing	139	1 Lap	20
16	32	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Racing	138	2 Laps	7
17	52	Shinji Nakano	Fernández Racing	138	2 Laps	25
18	12	Memo Gidley	Chip Ganassi Racing	137	3 Laps	19
19	16	Michel Jourdain, Jr.	Bettenhausen Racing	137	3 Laps	21
20	17	Maurício Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	135	5 Laps	24
21	25	Max Wilson (R)	Arciero-Blair Racing	135	5 Laps	23
22	18	Scott Dixon (R)	PacWest Racing	106	Contact	5
23	51	Adrián Fernández	Fernández Racing	92	Mechanical	17
24	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman-Haas Racing	52	Mechanical	13
25	4	Bruno Junqueira (R)	Chip Ganassi Racing	1	Contact	15
26	5	Tora Takagi (R)	Walker Racing	1	Contact	22

Notes

• ^1 — Helio Castroneves finished third, but was penalized one position after the race for passing during a caution period.

References

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20011115023346/http://www.cart.com/Results/BestLap.asp?ID=472