The Race Report.(CART's Honda Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise)

No Aussie bloke could have imagined the mess that occurred in the rain at CART's Honda Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise. Minor contact from Jimmy Vasser's nose to Adrian Fernandez's rear at the green flag led to a blocked track and a nine-car pileup. The cars of Vasser and Tora Takagi flipped, the latter nearly striking Fernandez in the head. Michael Andretti and Patrick Carpentier climbed from their mangled cars to help Vasser get his car right-side up. Miraculously, only Takagi (fractured pelvis) was injured. ``There wasn't any visibility,'' said Andretti, who sent Alex Tagliani flying with a ram shot. ``No one could see at all.'' After a 90-minute recovery and cleanup delay, the rain stopped, but only briefly. The 16 cars (minus Takagi and Fernandez) restarted with six green-flag laps in the wet before the rain returned for good.

On lap 10, the conditions really deteriorated. The pace car returned for a second caution period and never relinquished the lead. Standing water built up almost everywhere and drivers squinted through wet and foggy visors to see the car in front of them. The skies darkened and the street lights came on. Still, the show went on, lap after lap. ``The promoter said returning on Monday wasn't an option,'' CART vice president John Lopes said. (The host city always has to get back to business on Monday, and given that such circumstances are unpredictable, perhaps CART should start staging street races on Saturdays.)

Andretti's team was the first to expect the race to be halted just past the halfway point (lap 36), so it pitted on lap 16. With the mandatory 20-lap stop rule in place, ...