The 1999 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was the third round of the 1999 CART FedEx Champ Car World Series season, held on April 18, 1999, on the streets of Long Beach, California.
This marks the first Long Beach Grand Prix without former Long Beach winners Bobby Rahal and Al Unser Jr. Rahal retired at the end of 1998, and Al Unser was injured in the inaugural race of the season.
Report
Race In qualifying, Tony Kanaan, the Rookie of the Year in 1998, took his first CART career pole after a close battle with Dario Franchitti. At the start, it was Bryan Herta who took the lead after passing both Kanaan and Franchitti at the first corner, but that did not last long, as both Kanaan and Franchitti passed Herta on the second lap. The duo pulled away and built a gap, whereas Herta was passed later in the stint by Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya was running very quickly, and passed Franchitti at a restart later on and put pressure on Kanaan. As the laps went by, it was clear that Montoya was faster, and that Kanaan was under increasing pressure. On lap 46, the pressure told, as Kanaan made a mistake and crashed at Turn 6. Montoya took the lead and dominated the rest of the race to take his first career win ahead of Franchitti and Herta.
Classification
Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 4 Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing 85 1:45:48.688 5 20 2 27 Dario Franchitti Team Green 85 +2.805 2 16 3 8 Bryan Herta Team Rahal 85 +7.003 3 14 4 40 Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing 85 +8.610 6 12 5 11 Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Racing 85 +8.831 11 10 6 5 Gil de Ferran Walker Racing 85 +13.566 7 8 7 6 Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Racing 85 +15.594 13 6 8 99 Greg Moore Forsythe Racing 85 +17.399 8 5 9 7 Max Papis Team Rahal 85 +17.718 4 4 10 12 Jimmy Vasser Chip Ganassi Racing 85 +22.128 9 3 11 10 Richie Hearn Della Penna Motorsports 85 +23.621 24 2 12 20 P. J. Jones Patrick Racing 84 +1 Lap 15 1 13 18 Mark Blundell PacWest Racing 84 +1 Lap 12 14 17 Maurício Gugelmin PacWest Racing 84 +1 Lap 14 15 24 Scott Pruett Arciero-Wells Racing 84 +1 Lap 20 16 22 Robby Gordon Team Gordon 84 +1 Lap 21 17 33 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 84 +1 Lap 17 18 19 Michel Jourdain Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 82 Fuel 23 19 9 Hélio Castro-Neves Hogan Racing 76 +9 Laps 18 20 25 Cristiano da Matta Arciero-Wells Racing 75 Contact 16 21 26 Paul Tracy Team Green 48 Suspension 10 22 44 Tony Kanaan Forsythe Racing 45 Contact 1 1+1 23 36 Alex Barron All American Racing 34 Brakes 22 24 71 Luiz Garcia Jr. Payton/Coyne Racing 28 Off course 27 25 2 Tarso Marques Team Penske 24 Contact 19 26 16 Shigeaki Hattori Bettenhausen Racing 21 Contact 16 27 34 Gualter Salles Payton/Coyne Racing 17 Wing 25
Caution flags Laps Cause24–26 Hattori (16) contact 28–31 Castro-Neves (9), Pruett (24), Marques (2) contact47–52 Kanaan (44) contact 56–57 Jones (20) spin78–81 da Matta (25) contact
Lap leaders
Laps Leader1 Bryan Herta2–45 Tony Kanaan46–85 Juan Pablo Montoya Driver Laps ledTony Kanaan 44Juan Pablo Montoya 40Bryan Herta 1
Point standings after race PosDriverPoints 1 Greg Moore 39 2 Adrián Fernández 33 3 Gil de Ferran 33 4 Michael Andretti 32 5 Dario Franchitti 30
References