2002 Honda Indy 300

The 2002 Honda Indy 300 was the seventeenth round of the 2002 CART World Series season, held on 27 October 2002 on the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia.

2002 Surfers Paradise

Race details
Race 17 of 19 in the 2002 CART season
Map of the track
Date	27 October, 2002
Official name	Honda Indy 300
Location	Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Queensland, Australia
Course	Temporary Street Circuit 2.795 mi / 4.498 km
Distance	40 laps 111.800 mi / 179.920 km
Weather	Rain
Pole position
Driver	Cristiano da Matta (Newman-Haas Racing)
Time	1:30.204
Fastest lap
Driver	Cristiano da Matta (Newman-Haas Racing)
Time	1:56.457 (on lap 7 of 40)
Podium
First	Mario Domínguez (Herdez Competition)
Second	Patrick Carpentier (Forsythe Racing)
Third	Paul Tracy (Team Green)

The race was marred by extremely wet conditions. The initial start resulted in a multi-car crash injuring Fernandez and Takagi. CART officials allowed teams to repair their cars or pull out backups. Postponing the race was not an option due to international travel, limited TV window, and logistics of the street course circuit. The race restarted on lap 3 with slightly improved conditions, but went back under yellow at lap 10 where it would remain until the race was called at lap 40.

Michael Andretti's team believed the race would be called once the race passed official race status of the full lap past the halfway point (35 laps plus one) of the original distance (70 laps, but the race was shortened to 50 laps by officials after the start crash), but officials instead waited until lap 40 to force each car to make two pit stops. This gave Domínguez his first career win in the slowest race in CART history. For 2003, rules were changed to allow the race to be called prior to halfway with only half points being awarded. This rule was not implemented by IndyCar after the 2008 reunification.