2003 Infiniti Pro Series Explained

The 2003 IRL Infiniti Pro Series was the second season of the series under the Indy Racing League ownership, and the 18th in Indy NXT combined history, as officially recognized by IndyCar. All teams used Dallara IL-02 chassis and Infiniti engines.

British rookie Mark Taylor won the series with a total of 7 wins in 12 races, driving for a newly formed program by IndyCar team Panther Racing, who then signed him to drive for the team's main programme in 2004. Taylor's last win at Fontana crowned him as the champion with one race to spare over Indy Lights returnee Jeff Simmons, who won two races at Gateway and Kentucky for another new team, Keith Duesenberg Racing.

The season was notable for the first running of the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this being the first time that a support race was included in the Indianapolis 500 program. Ed Carpenter, driving for reining champions A. J. Foyt Enterprises, won the race over Cory Witherill from pole position, his lone win of the year in route to a 3rd place finish in the standings. Thiago Medeiros won the final race at Texas and finished a mere six points behind Carpenter.

Aaron Fike was also a winner at Pikes Peak, but he missed the Phoenix race early in the season for a DUI offence and didn't score another podium during the year, losing fifth place in the points to Witherill. Fike still finished ahead of 2002 runner-up Arie Luyendyk Jr., who missed out again on race wins with a best finish of third, and would not win a race in the series until 2008. Among former IndyCar competitors Witherill and Brandon Erwin competed full-time in the series, while Billy Roe, Scott Harrington and Ronnie Johncox also took part in the Freedom 100, and Dave Steele in the Nashville race.

As well as Panther and Duesenberg, Kenn Hardley Racing also joined the field. Luyendyk Racing left the series after the 2002 season, while Roquin Motorsports and Bowes Seal Fast Racing only contested a handful of races and REV1 Racing withdrew after the Freedom 100. The series had at least 13 drivers at each round, with 19 competitors at the Freedom 100 and 17 at the season finale in Texas. However, only seven drivers competed in every race, with three more contesting all but one race.[1]

Team and driver chart

TeamDriversRounds
Brian Stewart Racing3 Marty Roth1–2, 10–12
Jonathan Urlin[2] 3–7
331–2
Craig Dollansky[3] 3
Dave Steele6
Marty Roth7
Paul Dana8–11
Tony Turco12
Panther Racing[4] 4 Mark TaylorAll
41 Dane Carter[5] 12
Sinden Racing Service5 Arie Luyendyk Jr.[6] All
Sam Schmidt Motorsports6 Lloyd Mack[7] 1
Marco Cioci[8] 3
Ross Fonferko[9] 6–7
9 Tom Wood[10] 1–9
Taylor Fletcher[11] [12] 10–12
99 Brandon Erwin[13] 1–9
Marco Cioci10
Brad Pollard[14] 11–12
REV 1 Racing8 Ronnie Johncox1–3
Roquin Motorsports11 Rolando Quintanilla12
Bowes Seal Fast Racing3
37 Billy Roe[15] 3
Beardsley Motorsports12 Matt Beardsley[16] 1–7, 11–12
A. J. Foyt Enterprises14 Ed Carpenter[17] All
Keith Duesenberg Racing[18] 20 Jeff Simmons[19] All
Kenn Hardley Racing[20] 24 Paul Dana[21] 1–7
Moses Smith[22] 8
Billy Roe[23] 9–12
AFS Racing25 Scott Harrington3
G. J. Mennen[24] 5, 7–12
27 Gary Peterson1–5, 7–12
Genoa Racing36 Thiago Medeiros[25] All
Hemelgarn 91/Johnson Motorsports91 Aaron Fike[26] 1, 3–12
Tony Ave[27] 2
92 Cory WitherillAll

Schedule

All seven rounds contested in the 2002 season were retained in the schedule, which now supported the IRL IndyCar Series from the beginning of the season and was expanded to 12 races, all held on ovals. For the first time, a racing series would hold a race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a support event for the Indianapolis 500 with the first running of the Freedom 100, followed by the series' first visit to Pikes Peak. New rounds were also added at former Indy Lights venues Homestead-Miami (last featured in 1999), Phoenix (absent since 1995) and California, which hosted the last race of the original Indy Lights series in 2001.

Rd.DateRace nameTrackLocation
1March 2Western Union 100Homestead–Miami SpeedwayHomestead, Florida
2March 22Phoenix 100Phoenix International RacewayAvondale, Arizona
3May 18Freedom 100Indianapolis Motor SpeedwaySpeedway, Indiana
4June 14Pikes Peak 100Pikes Peak International RacewayFountain, Colorado
5July 6Aventis Racing for Kids 100Kansas SpeedwayKansas City, Kansas
6July 18Cleanevent 100Nashville SuperspeedwayLebanon, Tennessee
7July 27Michigan 100Michigan International SpeedwayBrooklyn, Michigan
8August 9St. Louis 100Gateway International RacewayMadison, Illinois
9August 16Kentucky 100Kentucky SpeedwaySparta, Kentucky
10September 6Chicago 100Chicagoland SpeedwayJoliet, Illinois
11September 20California 100California SpeedwayFontana, California
12October 11dreamerscandles.com 100Texas Motor SpeedwayFort Worth, Texas

Race results

RoundRacePole positionFastest lapMost laps ledRace Winner
DriverTeam
1Homestead–Miami Speedway Thiago Medeiros Mark Taylor Mark Taylor Mark TaylorPanther Racing
2Phoenix International Raceway Mark Taylor Mark Taylor Mark Taylor Mark TaylorPanther Racing
3Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Ed CarpenterA. J. Foyt Enterprises
4Pikes Peak International Raceway Jeff Simmons Cory Witherill Aaron Fike Aaron FikeHemelgarn 91/Johnson Motorsports
5Kansas Speedway Ed Carpenter Aaron Fike Ed Carpenter Mark TaylorPanther Racing
6Nashville Superspeedway Mark Taylor Brandon Erwin Mark Taylor Mark TaylorPanther Racing
7Michigan International Speedway Arie Luyendyk Jr. Matt Beardsley Mark Taylor Mark TaylorPanther Racing
8Gateway International Raceway Brandon Erwin Mark Taylor Mark Taylor Jeff SimmonsKeith Duesenberg Racing
9Kentucky Speedway Jeff Simmons Ed Carpenter Jeff Simmons Jeff SimmonsKeith Duesenberg Racing
10Chicagoland Speedway Ed Carpenter G. J. Mennen Ed Carpenter Mark TaylorPanther Racing
11California Speedway Mark Taylor Ed Carpenter Mark Taylor Mark TaylorPanther Racing
12Texas Motor Speedway Arie Luyendyk Jr. Marty Roth Arie Luyendyk Jr. Thiago MedeirosGenoa Racing

Championship standings

Drivers' Championship

Scoring system
Position 1st  2nd  3rd  4th  5th  6th  7th  8th  9th  10th  11th  12th  13th  14th  15th  16th  17th  18th  19th 
Points50403532302826242220191817161514131211
PosDriverHOMPHXINDYPIKKANNSHMISGATKENCHIFONTXSPoints
11*1*3511*1*9*1311*14482
2 Jeff Simmons14542144211*382407
3 Ed Carpenter15131*42*137452*24377
422196753113931371
5 Cory Witherill129212561522693336
6 Aaron Fike861*414466565328
7 Arie Luyendyk Jr.410153129113441013*299
8 Tom Wood6151310325510235
913671313710781314234
10 Gary Peterson111416811912781510217
1134111161012109213
12 Matt Beardsley781899816716184
13 G. J. Mennen88811747175
145757101214166
15 Marty Roth9116101312124
16 Billy Roe14121158107
17 Ronnie Johncox1012862
1831352
19 Rolando Quintanilla10648
2014121747
2191240
22335
23111534
24922
251119
261119
271218
281317
291614
301713
PosDriverHOMPHXINDYPIKKANNSHMISGATKENCHIFONTXSPoints
ColorResult
GoldWinner
Silver2nd place
Bronze3rd place
Green4th & 5th place
Light Blue6th–10th place
Dark BlueFinished(Outside Top 10)
PurpleDid not finish
RedDid not qualify(DNQ)
BrownWithdrawn(Wth)
BlackDisqualified(DSQ)
WhiteDid not start(DNS)
BlankDid notparticipate(DNP)
Not competing
In-line notation
BoldPole position
ItalicsRan fastest race lap
*| align="center" style="background:#F2F2F2;" |Led most race laps(2 point)|-| align="center" style="background:#F2F2F2;" |1| align="center" style="background:#F2F2F2;" |Qualifying cancelledno bonus point awarded|}
  • Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

|}|}

References

Notes and References

  1. http://www.champcarstats.com/ips/year/2003.htm 2003 IRL Infiniti Pro Series
  2. Web site: F2000 veteran Urlin to compete in IPS. Crash.net. January 17, 2003.
  3. Web site: WOO standout Dollansky to debut at Indy. Motorsport.com. May 14, 2003.
  4. Web site: Panther signs Brit Taylor for IPS. Crash.net. September 9, 2002.
  5. Web site: IRL Notebook. The Indianapolis Star. September 7, 2003.
  6. Web site: Luyendyk Jr. to drive for Sinden in Infiniti Pro Series. Autoweek.com. January 2, 2003.
  7. Web site: Mack completes Schmidt IPS lineup. Crash.net. February 24, 2003.
  8. Web site: Cioci to drive third Schmidt car in Freedom 100. Crash.net. April 18, 2003.
  9. Web site: Schmidt files third entry for Nashville IPS race. Crash.net. July 18, 2003.
  10. Web site: Mack completes Schmidt IPS lineup. Crash.net. February 24, 2003.
  11. Web site: Indy Racing League notebook 2003-09-03. Motorsport.com. September 3, 2003.
  12. Web site: Fletcher to complete Pro Series year with Schmidt. Crash.net. September 12, 2003.
  13. Web site: Erwin gets nod for Schmidt IPS team. Crash.net. February 25, 2003.
  14. Web site: IndyCar Series heads to California; Texas adds drivers for Heroes race. Motorsport.com. September 18, 2003.
  15. Web site: Former IRL drivers join Freedom 100 grid. Crash.net. May 16, 2003.
  16. Web site: Beardsley returning to IPS in 2003. Crash.net. February 9, 2003.
  17. Web site: Carpenter moving to Foyt team in 2003. Motorsport.com. January 13, 2003.
  18. Web site: Western Union, Duesenberg Brothers join IPS. Crash.net. February 10, 2003.
  19. Web site: Homestead: Erwin, Simmons to make debuts. Motorsport.com. February 28, 2003.
  20. Web site: Ex-IRL star plays role with new IPS team. Crash.net. December 4, 2002.
  21. Web site: Dana to drive in IRL Infiniti Pro Series. Autoweek.com. January 28, 2003.
  22. Web site: Moses Smith enters Gateway to IPS. Crash.net. August 6, 2003.
  23. Web site: IRL veteran Roe to complete Pro Series season. Crash.net. August 6, 2003.
  24. Web site: Kansas: Indy Racing League notebook. Motorsport.com. July 2, 2003.
  25. Web site: Thiago Medeiros joins Genoa Racing in Infiniti Pro Series. Autoweek.com. February 4, 2003.
  26. Web site: Witherill and Fike to stay put in 2003. Crash.net. December 31, 2002.
  27. News: Brack starts strong in bid to bounce back. The Indianapolis Star. 45. Newspapers.com. March 22, 2003. October 10, 2023.