2003 Infiniti Pro Series

2003 Infiniti Pro Series season
2003 Infiniti Pro Series season
IRL Infiniti Pro Series
Season
Races	12
Start date	March 2
End date	October 11
Awards
Drivers' champion	Mark Taylor
Teams' champion	Panther Racing

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.

Team and driver chart

Team	No.	Drivers	Rounds
Brian Stewart Racing	3	Marty Roth	1–2, 10–12
	3	Jonathan Urlin	3–7
	33	Jonathan Urlin	1–2
		Craig Dollansky	3
		Dave Steele	6
		Marty Roth	7
		Paul Dana	8–11
		Tony Turco	12
Panther Racing	4	Mark Taylor	All
Panther Racing	41	Dane Carter	12
Sinden Racing Service	5	Arie Luyendyk Jr.	All
Sam Schmidt Motorsports	6	Lloyd Mack	1
		Marco Cioci	3
		Ross Fonferko	6–7
	9	Tom Wood	1–9
	9	Taylor Fletcher	10–12
	99	Brandon Erwin	1–9
		Marco Cioci	10
		Brad Pollard	11–12
REV 1 Racing	8	Ronnie Johncox	1–3
Roquin Motorsports	11	Rolando Quintanilla	12
Bowes Seal Fast Racing	11	Rolando Quintanilla	3
Bowes Seal Fast Racing	37	Billy Roe	3
Beardsley Motorsports	12	Matt Beardsley	1–7, 11–12
A. J. Foyt Enterprises	14	Ed Carpenter	All
Keith Duesenberg Racing	20	Jeff Simmons	All
Kenn Hardley Racing	24	Paul Dana	1–7
		Moses Smith	8
		Billy Roe	9–12
AFS Racing	25	Scott Harrington	3
	25	G. J. Mennen	5, 7–12
	27	Gary Peterson	1–5, 7–12
Genoa Racing	36	Thiago Medeiros	All
Hemelgarn 91/Johnson Motorsports	91	Aaron Fike	1, 3–12
	91	Tony Ave	2
	92	Cory Witherill	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
Round	Race	Pole position	Fastest lap	Most laps led	Driver	Team
1	Homestead–Miami Speedway	Thiago Medeiros	Mark Taylor	Mark Taylor	Mark Taylor	Panther Racing
2	Phoenix International Raceway	Mark Taylor	Mark Taylor	Mark Taylor	Mark Taylor	Panther Racing
3	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter	A. J. Foyt Enterprises
4	Pikes Peak International Raceway	Jeff Simmons	Cory Witherill	Aaron Fike	Aaron Fike	Hemelgarn 91/Johnson Motorsports
5	Kansas Speedway	Ed Carpenter	Aaron Fike	Ed Carpenter	Mark Taylor	Panther Racing
6	Nashville Superspeedway	Mark Taylor	Brandon Erwin	Mark Taylor	Mark Taylor	Panther Racing
7	Michigan International Speedway	Arie Luyendyk Jr.	Matt Beardsley	Mark Taylor	Mark Taylor	Panther Racing
8	Gateway International Raceway	Brandon Erwin	Mark Taylor	Mark Taylor	Jeff Simmons	Keith Duesenberg Racing
9	Kentucky Speedway	Jeff Simmons	Ed Carpenter	Jeff Simmons	Jeff Simmons	Keith Duesenberg Racing
10	Chicagoland Speedway	Ed Carpenter	G. J. Mennen	Ed Carpenter	Mark Taylor	Panther Racing
11	California Speedway	Mark Taylor	Ed Carpenter	Mark Taylor	Mark Taylor	Panther Racing
12	Texas Motor Speedway	Arie Luyendyk Jr.	Marty Roth	Arie Luyendyk Jr.	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	Mark Taylor RY	1*	1*	3	5	1	1*	1*	9*	13	1	1*	14	482
2	Jeff Simmons	14	5	4	2	14	4	2	1	1*	3	8	2	407
3	Ed Carpenter	15	13	1*	4	2*	13	7	4	5	2*	2	4	377
4	Thiago Medeiros R	2	2	19	6	7	5	3	11	3	9	3	1	371
5	Cory Witherill	12	9	2	12	5	6	15	2	2	6	9	3	336
6	Aaron Fike	8		6	1*	4	14	4	6	6	5	6	5	328
7	Arie Luyendyk Jr.	4	10	15	3	12	9	11	3	4	4	10	13*	299
8	Tom Wood	6	15	13	10	3	2	5	5	10				235
9	Paul Dana R	13	6	7	13	13	7	10	7	8	13	14		234
10	Gary Peterson	11	14	16	8	11		9	12	7	8	15	10	217
11	Brandon Erwin R	3	4	11	11	6	10	12	10	9				213
12	Matt Beardsley	7	8	18	9	9	8	16				7	16	184
13	G. J. Mennen					8		8	8	11	7	4	7	175
14	Jonathan Urlin R	5	7	5	7	10	12	14						166
15	Marty Roth	9	11					6			10	13	12	124
16	Billy Roe			14						12	11	5	8	107
17	Ronnie Johncox	10	12	8										62
18	Ross Fonferko R						3	13						52
19	Rolando Quintanilla			10									6	48
20	Taylor Fletcher R										14	12	17	47
21	Marco Cioci R			9							12			40
22	Tony Ave R		3											35
23	Brad Pollard R											11	15	34
24	Dane Carter R												9	22
25	Dave Steele R						11							19
26	Tony Turco R												11	19
27	Scott Harrington			12										18
28	Moses Smith R								13					17
29	Lloyd Mack R	16												14
30	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)
Blank	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.