The 2003 Lexmark Indy 300 was the eighteenth last race of the 2003 CART World Series season, held on 26 October 2003 on the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, Queensland, Australia. A hail storm 20 minutes into the race caused an hour long red flag period and shortened the race to 47 laps from the scheduled 65.

Ryan Hunter-Reay won the race, his first victory in top-level American open wheel racing, and Reynard's final win in CART competition (sweeping the podium positions). Neither of the two drivers who could still win the season championship, leader Paul Tracy and second-place Bruno Junqueira, finished in the Top 12 points-paying positions (though Junqueira received two bonus points on the weekend: one for having the fastest lap in Friday qualifying, and the other for leading the most laps in the race), meaning Tracy had a big enough lead to clinch the championship with one race to go.CBC.ca: Paul Tracy clinches CART championship

Final CART event The event was to have been the penultimate race of the 2003 season, but it later became the final round after the 2003 King Taco 500 was canceled because of a wildfire near to the California Speedway venue. In December 2003 the CART World Series declared bankruptcy and as a result went out of business. Therefore, this race became the final completed CART sanctioned event, although the series would be reborn under new ownership as the Champ Car World Series in 2004.

Qualifying results Pos Nat Driver Team Car Qual 1 Qual 2 Best 1 Sébastien Bourdais Newman/Haas Racing Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:33.321 1:31.718 1:31.718 2 Bruno Junqueira Newman-Haas Racing Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:32.708 1:31.994 1:31.994 3 Paul Tracy Team Player's Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:34.161 1:32.000 1:32.000 4 Alex Tagliani Rocketsports Racing Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth- 1:32.135 1:32.135 5 Adrian Fernández Fernández Racing Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:33.668 1:32.436 1:32.436 6 Oriol Servià Patrick Racing Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:34.317 1:32.731 1:32.731 7 Roberto Moreno Herdez Competition Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:34.313 1:32.732 1:32.732 8 Mario Domínguez Herdez Competition Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:35.017 1:32.908 1:32.908 9 Michel Jourdain Jr. Team Rahal Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:34.447 1:33.112 1:33.112 10 Mika Salo PK Racing Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:35.506 1:33.187 1:33.187 11 Patrick Carpentier Team Player's Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:34.808 1:33.437 1:33.437 12 Ryan Hunter-Reay American Spirit Team Johansson Reynard 02i Ford-Cosworth 1:36.398 1:33.542 1:33.542 13 Tiago Monteiro Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing Reynard 02i Ford-Cosworth 1:35.379 1:33.857 1:33.857 14 Darren Manning Walker Racing Reynard 02i Ford-Cosworth 1:35.425 1:33.922 1:33.922 15 Jimmy Vasser American Spirit Team Johansson Reynard 02i Ford-Cosworth 1:34.266 1:35.425 1:34.266 16 Mario Haberfeld Mi-Jack Conquest Racing Reynard 02i Ford-Cosworth 1:35.821 1:34.299 1:34.299 17 Gualter Salles Dale Coyne Racing Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth 1:36.495 1:34.646 1:34.646 18 Rodolfo Lavín Walker Racing Reynard 02i Ford-Cosworth- 1:36.075 1:36.075 19 Geoff Boss Dale Coyne Racing Lola B2/00 Ford-Cosworth- 1:37.247 1:37.247

Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/retired Grid Points 1 31 Ryan Hunter-Reay American Spirit Team Johansson 47 1:49:02.803 12 20 2 15 Darren Manning Walker Racing 47 +1.546 secs 14 16 3 12 Jimmy Vasser American Spirit Team Johansson 47 +3.792 secs 15 14 4 9 Michel Jourdain Jr. Team Rahal 47 +5.315 secs 9 12 5 32 Patrick Carpentier Team Player's 47 +5.837 secs 11 10 6 19 Gualter Salles Dale Coyne Racing 47 +8.180 secs 17 8 7 33 Alex Tagliani Rocketsports Racing 47 +10.131 secs 4 6 8 5 Rodolfo Lavín Walker Racing 47 +11.673 secs 18 5 9 11 Geoff Boss Dale Coyne Racing 47 +50.728 secs 19 4 10 55 Mario Domínguez Herdez Competition 46 + 1 Lap 8 3 11 27 Mika Salo PK Racing 46 + 1 Lap 10 2 12 51 Adrian Fernández Fernández Racing 46 + 1 Lap 5 1 13 3 Paul Tracy Team Player's 45 + 2 Laps 3 0 14 34 Mario Haberfeld Mi-Jack Conquest Racing 43 + 4 Laps 16 0 15 1 Bruno Junqueira Newman/Haas Racing 36 Contact 2 2 16 4 Roberto Moreno Herdez Competition 23 Contact 7 0 17 2 Sébastien Bourdais Newman-Haas Racing 11 Contact 1 1 18 7 Tiago Monteiro Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing 3 Mechanical 13 0 19 20 Oriol Servià Patrick Racing 1 Contact 6 0

Caution flags Laps Cause1 Yellow start2 Servià (20) contact11-13 Bourdais (2) contact14-15 Restart after red flag (rain)16-17 Salo (27) spun/stalled19-20 Tracy (3), Tagliani (33), Manning (15), Salles (19) & Moreno (4) contact31-34 Tagliani (33) & Haberfeld (34) spun/stalled; Domínguez (55) loose wheel37-39 Junqueira (1) & Haberfeld (34) contact; Haberfeld (34) stopped on course41-42 Fernández (51) spun/stalled

Notes Laps Leader1-29 Bruno Junqueira30-32 Michel Jourdain Jr.33-47 Ryan Hunter-Reay Driver Laps ledBruno Junqueira 29Ryan Hunter-Reay 15Michel Jourdain Jr. 2

New Race Record Ryan Hunter-Reay 1:49:02.803 Average Speed 72.280 mph

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