(October 25, 2008) – Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe celebrated his first IndyCar Series race in his native Australia in a dominating performance in Sunday’s Nikon Indy 300 on the streets of picturesque Surfers Paradise, Australia. Starting from the third position on the grid, Briscoe, in his #6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda, held off 2008 IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon and the rest of the 24 car field after leader and fellow Aussie Will Power hit the tire barrier on lap 16, then led 39 of the remaining 44 laps of the race to bring home the win for Team Penske since Emerson Fittipaldi’s win in 1992.
“What a way to come off the year, with a win in my home country,” said Briscoe, who survived a successful fight on the challenging 2.795-mile temporary street course. “A lot of credit goes to my guys at Team Penske, and my new engineer Eric [Cowdin], who did a great job this weekend.”
Although Briscoe had the fastest car on track, keeping Dixon at bay was not an easy task. “Dixon is very quick and consistent, and he was in my mirrors all day long, but I just had to focus on not making a mistake and bringing it all home,” said Briscoe, who set the fastest lap of the race with only three remaining. “Dixon made me work for it, for sure – as his fuel load got lighter, he kept coming on stronger, but I knew I had the equipment to keep ahead of him.”
Briscoe celebrated with his family and friends as he became the first Australian to win the Surfers Paradise event in its history. “It’s so nice to win in my home country,” said Briscoe. “This is certainly special and it’s a big honor to win here.”
It is Briscoe’s third win of the 2008 season. He previously won at the Milwaukee Mile and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Reigning champion Scott Dixon was in contention all day however just could not match Briscoe’s speed and track position was not in his favor. “We had a bit bad start and had to shortcut the track and give (Ryan) Briscoe a position back. It was unfortunate because it’s so hard to pass on track. The traffic at the end made it exciting. (If there was another lap, could you have passed?): “We were quicker in different spots. He was quicker than me, but we were quicker on the backside. I don’t know, if he had made a mistake, we could have got him.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay had a fine run in the Rahal-Letterman entry, “It was a long race with those curbs. They beat the hell out of you. It was nice to get by Dario (Franchitti) in the beginning. From there I picked off good laps. Unfortunately, I got held up by (Alex) Tagliani for good while there, but the guys did a great job in the pits to get us by him, and I did my usual deal at Surfers. I’ve never been out of the top-five here.”
Pole sitter Will Power, a native of nearby Toowoomba, Australia, led the initial 16 laps, but a mistake in the quick backstretch Esses ended his day when the front-left of the No. 8 Aussie Vineyards — Team Australia car made contact with the inside concrete barrier. Power remarked, “Obviously, I’m very disappointed. The KV Racing Technology – Team Australia car was very quick. You could see how fast we were at the start of the race. I backed off to save a lot of fuel, not pushing hard and then got caught out and clipped the inside wall and ricocheted into the next one. It was a really bad mistake, the worst of my life. It’s was a very bad day for me and I am very disappointed. I want to thanks all of the KVRT Team Australia for all their hard work this weekend. They really gave me a great car, and it’s a shame we could not finish the race.”
Helio Castroneves, driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda, started sixth and fell a lap down after an on-track incident with the No. 7 car, running as low as 21st. The Brazilian driver and his Team Penske crew fought back, regained his lost lap and were able to finish the non-championship points event in seventh place.
“I’m very happy for Ryan winning in his home country,” said Castroneves after the event. “My run was an adventure – we tried a different strategy than Ryan. We had a little trouble with a flat tire when we got into it with Danica [Patrick], but in the end of the day finishing seventh was pretty good.”
Results of the Nikon 300 at Surfers Paradise, Australia 1. (3) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 2. (2) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 3. (5) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 4. (7) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 5. (15) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 6. (10) E.J. Viso, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 7. (6) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 8. (16) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 9. (13) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 10. (22) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 11. (18) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 12. (9) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 13. (14) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 60, Running 14. (11) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 59, Running 15. (17) Bruno Junqueira, Dallara-Honda, 59, Running 16. (4) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 59, Running 17. (24) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda, 58, Running 18. (23) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 58, Running 19. (20) Jaime Camara, Dallara-Honda, 58, Running 20. (19) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 57, Contact 21. (8) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 34, Mechanical 22. (1) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 16, Contact 23. (21) Townsend Bell, Dallara-Honda, 8, Contact
24. (12) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 7, Contact
Race Statistics Winner’s average speed: 95.068 mph Time of race: 1:45:50.3868 Margin of victory: 0.5019 of a second Cautions: 3 caution flags for 6 laps Lead changes: 7 among 6 drivers
Lap leaders: Power 1-16, Briscoe 17-19, Dixon 20, Franchitti 21-22, Briscoe 23-39, Tagliani 40, Viso 41, Briscoe 42-60.
IndyCar Series Media and Team Penske Media services contributed to this report.
IndyCar SeriesRacingNation.com Staff