Franchitti wins Gold Coast for CART lead

Dennis Passa

Sunday, Oct. 17, 1999 | 2:47 a.m.

SURFERS PARADISE, Australia - Dario Franchitti could not have asked for a better weekend of racing: He won the pole and the Gold Coast Indy race and overtook Juan Montoya for the CART points lead.

Franchitti led nearly the entire race Sunday in capturing his third victory of the season and sixth of his career. He earned 22 points for the weekend - 20 for the victory and a point each for winning pole and leading the most number of laps - to give him 209 points for the season.

Franchitti will carry his nine-point lead into the final race of the season, the Marlboro 500, at Fontana, Calif., on Oct. 31.

Montoya, who stays at 200 points, did not finish. He is bidding to become the first CART rookie to win the title since Nigel Mansell in 1993.

Franchitti trailed Montoya by 12 points going into Sunday. He won the 65-lap race under threatening skies and over the 2.8-mile Surfers Paradise temporary street course in 1 hour, 58 minutes, 40.726 seconds.

Franchitti relinquished the lead only during pit stops in his Kool Reynard Honda. Max Papis, who pitted only twice, took second, 2.6 seconds behind Franchitti.

Adrian Fernandez was third, Bryan Herta was fourth and Michael Andretti fifth.

Montoya appeared to lock his wheels on the 49th lap when he was running third behind Franchitti and Fernandez. His car slid heavily into the tire barrier, putting him out of the race.

"I don't really know what happened to him, he appeared to just drive off the track," team owner Chip Ganassi said of Montoya.

Franchitti teammate Paul Tracy was running third early in the race when told by stewards that he was to be penalized for pulling ahead of Herta at the start.

After the black flag, Tracy drove through the pits on a penalty and came back out in 10th, waving his hand in anger as he drove past his pit crew. The Canadian finished seventh.

Christian Fittipaldi was among the early drivers out of the race. He had to escape his car following an engine fire on the third lap. It was the first time this season Fittipaldi did not finish.

Gil de Ferran did not complete the first lap. He broke his right-side suspension when he struck the outside wall. Mauricio Gugelmin had transmission problems and pulled out on the second lap.

Al Unser, Jr., who is leaving the Penske team after the Fontana event to compete next year on the rival Indy Racing League, went out on the 22nd lap with a throttle problem.

A crowd of 102,000 was on hand Sunday, a race-day record in the nine-year history of the Australian event.