2003 Infiniti Pro Series

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.

2003 Infiniti Pro Series season
IRL Infiniti Pro Series
Season
Races12
Start dateMarch 2
End dateOctober 11
Awards
Drivers' championUnited Kingdom Mark Taylor
Teams' championPanther Racing

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.[1] 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.[2]

Team and driver chart
Team No. Drivers Rounds
Brian Stewart Racing 3 Canada Marty Roth 1–2, 10–12
Canada Jonathan Urlin[3] 3–7
33 1–2
United States Craig Dollansky[4] 3
United States Dave Steele 6
Canada Marty Roth 7
United States Paul Dana 8–11
United States Tony Turco 12
Panther Racing[5] 4 United Kingdom Mark Taylor[5] All
41 United States Dane Carter[6] 12
Sinden Racing Service 5 Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Jr.[7] All
Sam Schmidt Motorsports 6 United States Lloyd Mack[8] 1
Italy Marco Cioci[9] 3
United States Ross Fonferko[10] 6–7
9 Canada Tom Wood[11] 1–9
United States Taylor Fletcher[12][13] 10–12
99 United States Brandon Erwin[14] 1–9
Italy Marco Cioci 10
United States Brad Pollard[15] 11–12
REV 1 Racing 8 United States Ronnie Johncox 1–3
Roquin Motorsports 11 Mexico Rolando Quintanilla 12
Bowes Seal Fast Racing 3
37 United States Billy Roe[16] 3
Beardsley Motorsports 12 United States Matt Beardsley[17] 1–7, 11–12
A. J. Foyt Enterprises 14 United States Ed Carpenter[18] All
Keith Duesenberg Racing[19] 20 United States Jeff Simmons[20] All
Kenn Hardley Racing[21] 24 United States Paul Dana[22] 1–7
United States Moses Smith[23] 8
United States Billy Roe[24] 9–12
AFS Racing 25 United States Scott Harrington[16] 3
United States G. J. Mennen[25] 5, 7–12
27 United States Gary Peterson 1–5, 7–12
Genoa Racing 36 Brazil Thiago Medeiros[26] All
Hemelgarn 91/Johnson Motorsports 91 United States Aaron Fike[27] 1, 3–12
United States Tony Ave[1] 2
92 United States Cory Witherill[27] All

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. Date Race name Track Location
1 March 2 Western Union 100 Homestead–Miami Speedway Homestead, Florida
2 March 22 Phoenix 100 Phoenix International Raceway Avondale, Arizona
3 May 18 Freedom 100 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana
4 June 14 Pikes Peak 100 Pikes Peak International Raceway Fountain, Colorado
5 July 6 Aventis Racing for Kids 100 Kansas Speedway Kansas City, Kansas
6 July 18 Cleanevent 100 Nashville Superspeedway Lebanon, Tennessee
7 July 27 Michigan 100 Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan
8 August 9 St. Louis 100 Gateway International Raceway Madison, Illinois
9 August 16 Kentucky 100 Kentucky Speedway Sparta, Kentucky
10 September 6 Chicago 100 Chicagoland Speedway Joliet, Illinois
11 September 20 California 100 California Speedway Fontana, California
12 October 11 dreamerscandles.com 100 Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas

Race results
Round Race Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Race Winner
Driver Team
1 Homestead–Miami Speedway Brazil Thiago Medeiros United Kingdom Mark Taylor United Kingdom Mark Taylor United Kingdom Mark Taylor Panther Racing
2 Phoenix International Raceway United Kingdom Mark Taylor United Kingdom Mark Taylor United Kingdom Mark Taylor United Kingdom Mark Taylor Panther Racing
3 Indianapolis Motor Speedway United States Ed Carpenter United States Ed Carpenter United States Ed Carpenter United States Ed Carpenter A. J. Foyt Enterprises
4 Pikes Peak International Raceway United States Jeff Simmons United States Cory Witherill United States Aaron Fike United States Aaron Fike Hemelgarn 91/Johnson Motorsports
5 Kansas Speedway United States Ed Carpenter United States Aaron Fike United States Ed Carpenter United Kingdom Mark Taylor Panther Racing
6 Nashville Superspeedway United Kingdom Mark Taylor United States Brandon Erwin United Kingdom Mark Taylor United Kingdom Mark Taylor Panther Racing
7 Michigan International Speedway Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Jr. United States Matt Beardsley United Kingdom Mark Taylor United Kingdom Mark Taylor Panther Racing
8 Gateway International Raceway United States Brandon Erwin United Kingdom Mark Taylor United Kingdom Mark Taylor United States Jeff Simmons Keith Duesenberg Racing
9 Kentucky Speedway United States Jeff Simmons United States Ed Carpenter United States Jeff Simmons United States Jeff Simmons Keith Duesenberg Racing
10 Chicagoland Speedway United States Ed Carpenter United States G. J. Mennen United States Ed Carpenter United Kingdom Mark Taylor Panther Racing
11 California Speedway United Kingdom Mark Taylor United States Ed Carpenter United Kingdom Mark Taylor United Kingdom Mark Taylor Panther Racing
12 Texas Motor Speedway Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Jr. Canada Marty Roth Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Jr. Brazil Thiago Medeiros Genoa 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 
Points 50 40 35 32 30 28 26 24 22 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
  • The driver who leads the most laps in a race is awarded two additional points.
Pos Driver HOM PHX INDY PIK KAN NSH MIS GAT KEN CHI FON TXS Points
1 United Kingdom Mark Taylor  RY  1* 1* 3 5 1 1* 1* 9* 13 1 1* 14 482
2 United States Jeff Simmons 14 5 4 2 14 4 2 1 1* 3 8 2 407
3 United States Ed Carpenter 15 13 1* 4 2* 13 7 4 5 2* 2 4 377
4 Brazil Thiago Medeiros  R  2 2 19 6 7 5 3 11 3 9 3 1 371
5 United States Cory Witherill 12 9 2 12 5 6 15 2 2 6 9 3 336
6 United States Aaron Fike 8 6 1* 4 14 4 6 6 5 6 5 328
7 Netherlands Arie Luyendyk Jr. 4 10 15 3 12 9 11 3 4 4 10 13* 299
8 Canada Tom Wood 6 15 13 10 3 2 5 5 10 235
9 United States Paul Dana  R  13 6 7 13 13 7 10 7 8 13 14 234
10 United States Gary Peterson 11 14 16 8 11 9 12 7 8 15 10 217
11 United States Brandon Erwin  R  3 4 11 11 6 10 12 10 9 213
12 United States Matt Beardsley 7 8 18 9 9 8 16 7 16 184
13 United States G. J. Mennen 8 8 8 11 7 4 7 175
14 Canada Jonathan Urlin  R  5 7 5 7 10 12 14 166
15 Canada Marty Roth 9 11 6 10 13 12 124
16 United States Billy Roe 14 12 11 5 8 107
17 United States Ronnie Johncox 10 12 8 62
18 United States Ross Fonferko  R  3 13 52
19 Mexico Rolando Quintanilla 10 6 48
20 United States Taylor Fletcher  R  14 12 17 47
21 Italy Marco Cioci  R  9 12 40
22 United States Tony Ave  R  3 35
23 United States Brad Pollard  R  11 15 34
24 United States Dane Carter  R  9 22
25 United States Dave Steele  R  11 19
26 United States Tony Turco  R  11 19
27 United States Scott Harrington 12 18
28 United States Moses Smith  R  13 17
29 United States Lloyd Mack  R  16 14
30 United States Craig Dollansky  R  17 13
Pos Driver HOM PHX INDY PIK KAN NSH MIS GAT KEN CHI FON TXS Points
Color Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green 4th & 5th place
Light Blue 6th–10th place
Dark Blue Finished

(Outside Top 10)

Purple Did not finish
Red Did not qualify

(DNQ)

Brown Withdrawn

(Wth)

Black Disqualified

(DSQ)

White Did not start

(DNS)

Blank Did not

participate (DNP)

Not competing
In-line notation
Bold Pole position
Italics Ran fastest race lap
* Led most race laps

(2 point)

1 Qualifying cancelled

no bonus point awarded

  • Ties in points broken by number of wins, or best finishes.

References
  1. "Brack starts strong in bid to bounce back". The Indianapolis Star. March 22, 2003. p. 45. Retrieved October 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.open access
  2. 2003 IRL Infiniti Pro Series Archived 2017-12-13 at the Wayback Machine, Champ Car Stats, Retrieved 2018-10-30
  3. "F2000 veteran Urlin to compete in IPS". Crash.net. January 17, 2003.
  4. "WOO standout Dollansky to debut at Indy". Motorsport.com. May 14, 2003.
  5. "Panther signs Brit Taylor for IPS". Crash.net. September 9, 2002.
  6. "IRL Notebook". The Indianapolis Star. September 7, 2003.
  7. "Luyendyk Jr. to drive for Sinden in Infiniti Pro Series". Autoweek.com. January 2, 2003.
  8. "Mack completes Schmidt IPS lineup". Crash.net. February 24, 2003.
  9. "Cioci to drive third Schmidt car in Freedom 100". Crash.net. April 18, 2003.
  10. "Schmidt files third entry for Nashville IPS race". Crash.net. July 18, 2003.
  11. "Mack completes Schmidt IPS lineup". Crash.net. February 24, 2003.
  12. "Indy Racing League notebook 2003-09-03". Motorsport.com. September 3, 2003.
  13. "Fletcher to complete Pro Series year with Schmidt". Crash.net. September 12, 2003.
  14. "Erwin gets nod for Schmidt IPS team". Crash.net. February 25, 2003.
  15. "IndyCar Series heads to California; Texas adds drivers for Heroes race". Motorsport.com. September 18, 2003.
  16. "Former IRL drivers join Freedom 100 grid". Crash.net. May 16, 2003.
  17. "Beardsley returning to IPS in 2003". Crash.net. February 9, 2003.
  18. "Carpenter moving to Foyt team in 2003". Motorsport.com. January 13, 2003.
  19. "Western Union, Duesenberg Brothers join IPS". Crash.net. February 10, 2003.
  20. "Homestead: Erwin, Simmons to make debuts". Motorsport.com. February 28, 2003.
  21. "Ex-IRL star plays role with new IPS team". Crash.net. December 4, 2002.
  22. "Dana to drive in IRL Infiniti Pro Series". Autoweek.com. January 28, 2003.
  23. "Moses Smith enters Gateway to IPS". Crash.net. August 6, 2003.
  24. "IRL veteran Roe to complete Pro Series season". Crash.net. August 6, 2003.
  25. "Kansas: Indy Racing League notebook". Motorsport.com. July 2, 2003.
  26. "Thiago Medeiros joins Genoa Racing in Infiniti Pro Series". Autoweek.com. February 4, 2003.
  27. "Witherill and Fike to stay put in 2003". Crash.net. December 31, 2002.
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