American open-wheel car races had been hosted at

Auto Club Speedway Auto Club Speedway (known as California Speedway before and after the 2008–2023 corporate sponsorship by the Automobile Club of Southern California) was a , D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, ne ...

Fontana, California Fontana is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Founded by Azariel Blanchard Miller in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area. It ...

since its inauguration in 1997 until 2015 (except from 2006 to 2011), under both CART/Champ Car and modern-day

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...

sanctioning, representing a continuous lineage of American open-wheel oval racing in the

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

-area that dates back to 1970. For many years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the race served as the season finale for the CART series. From 2012 to 2014, when it was sponsored by

MAVTV Racer Network (formerly known as MAVTV) is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by the motorsports media company Racer, which mainly airs programming focused around motorsports and programming for automotive enthusiasts. C ...

, it served as the finale for the IndyCar Series.(IZOD IndyCar) Series Returning to Fontana in 2012
In 2015, the race was moved to June. Despite several journalists calling the 2015 edition one of the best IndyCar races, the race did not return on the schedule for 2016, ending the lineage of Southern California open-wheel oval races.

History

CART

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

renewed the 500-mile oval race in 1997 at the newly built

California Speedway Auto Club Speedway (known as California Speedway before and after the 2008–2023 corporate sponsorship by the Automobile Club of Southern California) was a , D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, ne ...

. The new track was built just from the previous

Ontario Motor Speedway Ontario Motor Speedway was a motorsport venue located in Ontario, California. It was the first and only automobile racing facility built to accommodate major races sanctioned by all of the four dominant racing sanctioning bodies: United States Au ...

where the California 500 was held between 1970 and 1980. Indy car races were also held at nearby Riverside, but only from 1967 to 1969 (prior to the opening of Ontario) and again from 1981 to 1983 (after Ontario closed). The Fontana race was held under the moniker Marlboro 500, and served as the CART season finale. This event was held through 2002. The race became known for closed-course record speeds, and fast and competitive racing, owing much to the track's width. The 1999 race is considered a tragic day in the history of CART, after the fatal crash of Greg Moore. The 2003 event was cancelled due to the

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. Along with the popular

Long Beach Grand Prix The Grand Prix of Long Beach (known as Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach since 2019 for naming rights reasons) is an IndyCar Series race held on a street circuit in Downtown Long Beach, downtown Long Beach, California. It was the premier race on the ...

, the Southern California area featured two major open wheel CART races annually for a time.

Indy Racing League / IndyCar

In 2002, the

IRL IRL may refer to: Arts and media * ''IRL'' (2013 film), a Swedish drama film about a high school student tormented by peers * IRL (2019 film), an American drama film about "the ups and downs of online dating and modern dating" * ''IRL'' (album), ...

added a 400-mile race to the facility. Fontana became the first facility to host races from both rival open wheel series (CART and IRL), although the race distance was different (500 vs 400 miles). The Toyota Indy 400 was held through 2005. However, crowds dwindled, and the event was removed from the calendar. The now-unified IndyCar Series returned to Fontana for the 2012 season with a 500-mile fall night race under the lights. The race served as the season finale from 2012 to 2014. For 2015, the race was moved to June.

Closed-course speed records

Two world closed course speed records were established in qualifying for the CART event.

Maurício Gugelmin Maurício Gugelmin (born 20 April 1963) is a Brazilian former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from to , and CART from 1993 to 2001. Born and raised in Joinville, Gugelmin began competitive kart racing aged seven, win ...

, driving a

Reynard Reynard the Fox is a list of literary cycles, literary cycle of medieval allegorical Folklore of the Low Countries, Dutch, English folklore, English, French folklore, French and German folklore, German fables. The first extant versions of the cy ...

/ Mercedes established a one-lap time of 30.316 seconds (average speed of in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

. At the time, CART officials recognized the track measurement as . Gugelimin had furthermore turned an unofficial lap of during the morning practice. On October 28, 2000,

Gil de Ferran Gil de Ferran (11 November 1967 – 29 December 2023) was a Brazilian professional racing driver and team owner. De Ferran was the 2000 and 2001 Champ Car champion driving for Team Penske and the winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 500. He also ...

Penske Racing Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Da ...

topped Gugelmin's time driving a Reynard/Honda. The lap time by de Ferran was 30.255 seconds at an average speed of . Using the more common track measurement of 2.0 miles, de Ferran's lap translated into an average speed of . *In 2002, the 500-mile CART series race averaged 197.995 mph, and stood as the fastest 500-mile race in history (either open wheel cars or stock cars) for a dozen years. The record stood until the 2014 Pocono 500. *The 2003 IRL/IndyCar race was the fastest circuit race ever in motorsport history, with an average speed of 207.151 mph (333.306 km/h) over 400 miles (643.737 km).

Race results

*2000: Race started on Sunday but finished on Monday due to rain. *2001: Race started late because of rain and was shortened because of darkness.

Firestone Indy Lights

*2001: Race shortened due to time limit.

References

External links

*Champ Car Stats
Ontario archive
*Ultimate Racing History
Ontario archiveFontana archive
{{IndyCar Series races MAVTV 500 Former IndyCar Series races Champ Car races