The 2001 Motorola 220 was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on August 19, 2001, at the Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. It was the 14th race of the 2001 CART season, and the 19th annual edition of the event. Chip Ganassi Racing's Bruno Junqueira who started from tenth position won the 45-lap race. Michael Andretti finished second for Team Green and Fernández Racing driver Adrián Fernández was third.
Kenny Bräck took pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying, and held the lead until the race was stopped because of a flooded track on the backstraight. After a 47-minute delay to address the problem, the race restarted with Hélio Castroneves leading after a switch onto slick tires at his first pit stop before it was stopped. Castroneves led a race-high 24 laps until his final pit stop for fuel to reach the end of the race. Christian Fittipaldi assumed the lead, keeping it until he and Michael Andretti made contact, allowing Junqueira into first. Junqueira maintained the lead for the rest of the race to achieve his first CART victory. There were six cautions and two lead changes among three different drivers.
The result of the race left Castroneves as the new Drivers' Championship leader; Bräck fell to the second position with five points separating him and Castroneves. Gil de Ferran maintained the third position, Andretti's second-place result advanced him from fifth to fourth, and Scott Dixon took fifth from Dario Franchitti. Honda increased their advantage over Toyota in the Manufacturers' Championship to 35 points while Ford Cosworth dropped to third. Lola lowered Reynard's advantage at the top of the Constructors' Championship to 37 points with seven races left in the season.
Background
The Motorola 220 was confirmed as part of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) 2001 schedule for the series in August 2000. It was to be the 19th consecutive year the race was held in the series, and the sixth and final event to be held in the Midwestern United States. The Motorola 220 was the 14th race of 21 scheduled by CART for 2001. It took place at the 14-turn Road America permanent road circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on August 19 and was set to run for 55 laps. The Barber Dodge Pro Series, Trans-Am Series, and Toyota Atlantic Championship held support races during the weekend.
Prior to the event, Kenny Bräck for Team Rahal on 104 points led the Drivers' Championship by one point over Team Penske driver Hélio Castroneves. Gil de Ferran was third on 89 points, eight ahead of fourth-placed Dario Franchitti, who in turn was a further eight points in front of Michael Andretti in fifth. Honda led the Manufacturers' Championship with 212 points; Ford Cosworth was second on 185, with Toyota 11 points behind in third. Reynard led the Constructors' Championship by 41 points over Lola. Paul Tracy was the race's defending champion from the 2000 event.
Andretti, who won at Road America three times, said he was feeling additional positive pressure heading into the race. He and his team wanted to go to the track and please his team's primary sponsor. Castroneves won the previous race of the season (at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course) and stated he needed to maintain his recent momentum and increase his points tally. He spoke of his hope that he would be able to improve his result from the previous event at Road America in 2000. Bräck said his team had to improve his car, which he hoped would be fast on the straightaways since its engine produced a large amount of horsepower. He said that everything that had occurred during the season was in the past, and he had to focus on the race and attempt to win it.
Practice and qualifying There were two 75-minute practice sessions preceding Sunday's race. A test session, scheduled for Friday afternoon, ran for 90 minutes. Conditions were warm and sunny for both Friday practice sessions. Two red flags were shown in the first practice session. The first was for Roberto Moreno who stalled his engine in the eighth turn while on an out lap. The second was for Scott Dixon who spun into the turn five gravel trap and stalled his car, necessitating its removal from the circuit. Tora Takagi was fastest with a time of 1:42:202; Jimmy Vasser, de Ferran, Bräck, Franchitti, Bruno Junqueira, Moreno, Andretti, Bryan Herta and Castroneves rounded out the session's top ten drivers. De Ferran recorded the fastest lap of the day in the second practice session with a time of 1:41.055, ahead of Vasser, Franchitti. Andretti; Moreno, Cristiano da Matta, Junqueira, Tony Kanaan, Castroneves and Bräck.
A further five stoppages occurred; Max Papis spun into the turn 12 tire barrier, sustaining rear wing damage. Max Wilson simultaneously went off the track leaving the second turn and stalled. Herta slid into the turn three gravel trap, and Wilson stalled after exiting turn three. Vasser went off into the turn four gravel trap. Weather conditions became cloudy for the Saturday practice session due to a low pressure area developing to the west of the track. The session was stopped twice when Alex Tagliani spun into the turn six gravel trap and stalled his car, and Bräck's engine failed heading into the 12th turn and steered right towards the pit lane entry but stalled. De Ferran was fastest with a time of 1:40.511; Moreno, Vasser, Junqueira, Takagi, Castroneves, Adrián Fernández, Franchitti, Herta and Bräck completed the top ten. After the session ended, Alex Zanardi stopped his car in Fernández's pit stall to prevent him from entering it because Fernández blocked him in while on a timed lap. Zanardi then nudged Fernández in an accusatory manner before others stepped in to defuse the situation.
Saturday afternoon's 75-minute qualifying session saw cars divided into two groups with the leading championship point-standing leaders and the fastest two drivers from the previous road course race composing the second group. Both groups were allowed 30 minutes on the circuit with a 15-minute interval in between the two groups recording their lap times. A heavy rain shower, which ended one hour before qualifying began, made the track surface slippery and all cars were required to use wet-weather tires. Rain returned as the second group of cars drove onto the track. Several drivers slid off the track, but most avoided damaging their cars. Bräck achieved his fifth pole position of the season with a time of 2:03.531 and took one point for scoring the pole. He was joined on the grid's front row by Tagliani in his best qualifying performance on a road course in 2001. Tagliani could not claim the pole position as he slowed for Castroneves at Canada Corner during his final two timed laps. In his first time competing at Road America, Dixon qualified in third place on his final timed lap.
De Ferran spun twice and entered the pit lane to make changes to his car to allow him to go faster; he took fourth, ahead of da Matta. Castroneves elected to drive his team's backup car, which was optimized for wet-weather. He took sixth due to the effects the drying track had on his strategy. Andretti qualified in seventh place, pushing Memo Gidley to eighth position. Fittipaldi took ninth, and Junqueira tenth having two wheels into the gravel on the side of the track on his final lap. Vasser started 11th, nearly one-tenth of a second faster than Patrick Carpentier in 12th, and Takagi in 13th. Moreno and Maurício Gugelmin, Herta (who was delayed by Zanardi) and Kanaan, Oriol Servià, Wilson and Michel Jourdain Jr. filled the next six positions. Shinji Nakano, Papis, Zanardi and Tracy qualified in positions 21 to 24. Tracy caused the session to be stopped for four minutes when he spun into the turn four infield grass section. His session ended prematurely because he subsequently reported by radio a transmission failure to his team. Franchitti spun into the turn 12 gravel trap and was unable to go faster; he started 25th. Fernández did not set a lap time after he had spun at the third turn and hit the outside wall with his rear wing.
Qualifying classification +Final qualifying classification Driver Team Time 1 8Team Rahal2:03.531117.969— 2 33Forsythe Racing2:03.674117.832+0.143 3 18PacWest Racing2:04.631116.928 +1.100 4 1Team Penske2:04.909116.667 +1.378 5 6Newman/Haas Racing2:06.001115.656 +2.470 6 3Team Penske2:06.042115.619 +2.511 7 39Team Motorola2:06.572115.134 +3.041 8 12Chip Ganassi Racing2:06.865114.869 +3.334 9 11Newman/Haas Racing2:07.085114.671+3.553 10 4Chip Ganassi Racing2:07.422114.366 +3.891 11 40Patrick Racing2:07.597114.210 +4.066 12 32Forsythe Racing2:07.664114.150 +4.133 13 5Walker Racing2:07.792114.035 +4.261 14 20Patrick Racing2:08.811113.133 +5.280 15 17PacWest Racing2:09.015112.954 +5.484 16 77Forsythe Racing2:09.073112.904 +5.542 17 55Mo Nunn Racing2:09.330112.679 +5.799 18 22Sigma Autosport2:09.453112.572 +5.922 19 25Arciero-Blair Racing2:11.014111.231 +7.483 20 16Bettenhausen Racing2:11.061111.191 +7.530 21 52Fernández Racing2:11.735110.622 +8.204 22 7Team Rahal2:11.801110.561 +8.277 23 66Mo Nunn Racing2:12.328110.126 +8.797 24 26Team Green2:12.695109.822 +9.164 25 27Team Green2:22.978101.923 +19.447 26 51Fernández Racing
Warm-up The drivers took to the track at 9:30 a.m. local time for a 30-minute warm-up session. Rain continued to fall on the track overnight but stopped before the session began. Kanaan was fastest in the warm-up session with a time of 1:51.743. Dixon and Wilson were second and third. The session was disrupted when Andretti spun in the 11th turn and damaged the right-front quarter of his car upon hitting the wall. Andretti was unhurt.
Race
A further deluge came over the track with over of rain falling in less than half an hour. Race officials worked quickly to remove standing water from the track surface. It was announced the race would be a "Wet Start" and all cars were required to start with the rain tires installed. The air temperature ranged from and the track temperature was between . The race began at 12:15 p.m. local time behind the pace car. The vehicles drove alongside each other to lift the remaining standing water on the track surface. A jet dryer was sent onto the track on lap two to assist in the drying efforts. The pit lane was opened on lap four with teammates Tracy and Franchitti making pit stops. Both drivers rejoined the race at the back of the field. The pace car entered the pit lane at the end of the fifth lap and the cars restarted in a single line.Page, Johnstone (2001) Bräck maintained the lead heading into the first turn. Dixon was blocked by another car, and he was overtaken by de Ferran for third. Farther back, Junqueira clashed wheels with Fittipaldi at the fifth turn, dropping him to the rear of the field.