Molson Indy Vancouver

Molson Indy Vancouver was an annual Champ Car race held in a street circuit near BC Place and running past Science World (Vancouver) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada held in July or August from 1990 to 2004.

On September 2, 1990, the first race took place on the original circuit, which was won by Al Unser Jr. From 1998 a new circuit was created to the east of the old Pacific Place, where only a small part of the original circuit was used. The circuit was popular with drivers and often produced an entertaining race. However, from 2004, Vancouver was left off the Champ Car fixture list, and no race has taken place since.

Controversy and cancellation

For much of its time in Vancouver, the Molson Indy was a source of considerable local controversy, as local residents complained of the noise and disruption caused by this major event. As the lands of the former Expo 86 site were developed into the billion-dollar condominium development by Concord Pacific, debates raged over whether the Indy made Vancouver a "world-class city" or an "urban nightmare." Such debates were chronicled by Mark Douglas Lowes in his 2002 book, "Indy Dreams and Urban Nightmares: Speed Merchants, Spectacle, and the Struggle over Public Space in the World-Class City."

The only official explanation for the cancellation came from an Associated Press article stating "Indy-car race in Vancouver canceled: The Molson Indy Vancouver race was canceled after 15 years. 'The bottom line is the business model couldn't work,' said Jo-Ann McArthur, president of sponsoring Molson Sports and Entertainment."

CART/Champ Car race winners

Season	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Team	Report
1990	Al Unser Jr.	Lola	Chevrolet	Galles-KRACO Racing	Report
1991	Michael Andretti	Lola	Chevrolet	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
1992	Michael Andretti	Lola	Cosworth-Ford	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
1993	Al Unser Jr.	Lola	Chevrolet	Galles Racing	Report
1994	Al Unser Jr.	Penske	Ilmor	Marlboro Team Penske	Report
1995	Al Unser Jr.	Penske	Mercedes-Ilmor	Marlboro Team Penske	Report
1996	Michael Andretti	Lola	Ford	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
1997	Maurício Gugelmin	Reynard	Mercedes-Benz	PacWest Racing	Report
1998	Dario Franchitti	Reynard	Honda	Team KOOL Green	Report
1999	Juan Pablo Montoya	Reynard	Honda	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Report
2000	Paul Tracy	Reynard	Honda	Team KOOL Green	Report
2001	Roberto Moreno	Reynard	Toyota	Patrick Racing	Report
2002	Dario Franchitti	Lola	Honda	Team KOOL Green	Report
2003	Paul Tracy	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	Team Player's	Report
2004	Paul Tracy	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	Forsythe Championship Racing	Report

Indy Lights/Atlantic winners

Indy Lights Season Winning Driver 1990 Vinicio Salmi 1991 Not held 1992 Mark Smith 1993 Bryan Herta 1994 André Ribeiro 1995 Pedro Chaves 1996 Claude Bourbonnais 1997 Cristiano da Matta 1998 Cristiano da Matta 1999 Not held 2000 Scott Dixon

Atlantic Championship Season Winning Driver 1990 Claude Bourbonnais 1991 Stéphane Proulx 1992 Patrick Carpentier 1993 Claude Bourbonnais 1994 David Empringham 1995 David Empringham 1996 Patrick Carpentier 1997 Memo Gidley 1998 Andrew Bordin 1999 Will Langhorne 2000 Not held 2001 Joey Hand 2002 2003 Not held 2004 Ryan Dalziel

Deaths

At the inaugural race in 1990, a track worker pushing a car on the racing circuit was struck by another car after accidentally getting caught in its path. The worker, Jean Patrick Hein, was slammed to the ground and run over after running in front of Willy T. Ribbs' car and colliding with Ribbs' rear tire. Footage of the incident is included in the shock reality compilation Traces of Death.

References

• Champ Car Stats
• Ultimate Racing History

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Molson Indy Vancouver. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.