Historic win for Briscoe in the Nikon Indy 300
October 26, 2008
Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe will go down in the history books as the first Australian to win the Indy 300 race on the Gold Coast in Australia. Will Power was hoping to be one that notched up the first win for a home grown driver after claiming his third consecutive pole position however he crashed out early in the race.
“The worst mistake of my career,” Power said of his crash today.
IRL 2008 Champion Scott Dixon came home less than a second behind Briscoe to take second place. The New Zealander was hoping Briscoe would make an error in the closing laps so that he could snatch the race win. To the credit of Briscoe he closed out the race to get what he called a triple points race. The fact that it was a race in his home country made the win extra special. American Ryan Hunter-Reay was third.
The Gold Coast round did not actually have any points as the race was on the original Champ Car schedule that was canceled after a merger took place in early 2008 with IRL. After the merger it was added to the IRL schedule.
It is unknown if this will be the last Indy car race on the Gold Coast as at this stage it is not on schedule for 2009. The QLD Government minister responsible said it will be on for sure however we will have to wait and see.
It was great to see an Aussie finally get a win at Surfers.
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