2001 Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland
motor car race
The 2001 Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented By Firstar was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on July 1, 2001, at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was the 9th round of the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series season. Team Green driver Dario Franchitti won the race after narrowly escaping a first-turn pile-up and then by gambling on a fuel-saving strategy that saw his car run out of fuel just after crossing the finish line ahead of a hard-charging Memo Gidley and Bryan Herta.
Franchitti had won his first race since 1999 and the first for Team Green since Vancouver in 2000, vaulting the driver to 3rd in the points standings. Gidley took his first career podium in only his second start for Chip Ganassi Racing after replacing Nicolas Minassian at the previous race in Portland. Herta gave Forsythe Racing its first podium of the season after a dismal start to 2001.
The race was a battle of multiple strategies after a rained-out qualifying session the day before produced an unusual starting grid; fuel mileage, the number of pit stops, and a chaotic first-lap incident ultimately determined the outcome of the race.
Report
Background
Just a week prior, Max Papis had won his second career race in rain-soaked Portland for Team Rahal while his teammate Kenny Bräck was still in control of the drivers' championship. The team was on a hot streak, winning three of the last four events, and the next race was in team owner Bobby Rahal's home state of Ohio.
Much to the concern of race engineers, the weather forecast going into the weekend at Cleveland also seemed to predict rain on raceday, which would affect handling and grip on an already bumpy track surface.
“2001 Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland” enters the record as motor car race. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Marconi, Grand and Prix can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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