The race moved to Nazareth, the first time being held on an oval. Bobby Rahal came home third, throwing an aggressive block on Teo Fabi down the homestretch. Sullivan grabbed second when Emerson Fittipaldi ran out of fuel on the final lap. Unser ran out of fuel pulling into victory lane, after holding off second place Danny Sullivan by 4 seconds at the finish line. stretched his fuel to the finish, and captured the Marlboro Challenge in its first running at Laguna Seca. The race turned into a battle of fuel mileage calculations. Michael Andretti avoided contact, and drove to victory. Unser hit a deep puddle of standing water which caused the car to bobble, spin, and crash into the outside wall. ![]() With two laps to go, the leaders were dicing through traffic, and Unser attempted to pass for the lead going into turn 9. Andretti emerged as the leader, but the two cars were nose-to-tail. With the track beginning to dry, Andretti switched to slicks during his pit stop on lap 30, as did Unser. On lap 20, Unser and Andretti became locked in a fierce battle all the way to the finish. took the early lead, but Michael Andretti who started sixth charged through the field in the early going. Heavy rain delayed the start of the race by over an hour, and the race started with a damp track at Tamiami Park. Fittipaldi charged to catch Rahal, but ran out of fuel on the final lap as Rahal drove to victory. Meanwhile, after pitting early, Rahal was charging through the field and re-assumed the lead during Fittipaldi's stop. Fittipaldi pulled out to a 20-second lead, but he had to make his pit stop on lap 32. Rahal gave up the lead when he pitted on lap 18, handing the lead to Emerson Fittipaldi. Raul Boesel started from the pole, but Bobby Rahal jumped into the lead at the start. Drivers were required to make at least one pit stop (changing at least two tires and adding at least 5 gallons of fuel) during the 42-lap race. The inaugural Marlboro Challenge was held at Tamiami Park, and featured a field of race winners, pole position winners, and top drivers in the points standings from the 1987 season. Pennsylvania International Raceway (1990, 1992).The non-championship race will be the first open-wheel championship race in Riverside County, California since the 1983 Budweiser 500K at the former Riverside International Raceway, 75 miles northwest of The Thermal Club. The idea came after the NTT Ind圜ar Series in 2023 held its preseason open test at The Thermal Club. The event is scheduled for March 22-24, 2024. The winning team and assigned member will win $1,000,000. The top six finishers in each group participate in the Thermal $1,000,000 Challenge. The field will be determined by a heat race with each group. There will be a standard qualifying session, after which teams are separated into two groups. Each team will be drawn with a member of The Thermal Club at the draw party. ![]() The distance was typically one half the accompanying points-paying race distance (≈200 miles).Īll teams will participate, part of an Open Test in Thermal, California. The race distance each year was approximately 100 miles, which normally required one pit stop for fuel. In most years the event was held in conjunction with the final race weekend of the season, but in some years it was at the second-to-last race. If the field was still small, it could be filled out by top race finishers (most second places, third places, etc.) in the current season's standings. The selection criteria were as follows: all race winners and pole position winners since the previous year's Marlboro Challenge previous year's season champion and defending Indianapolis 500 winner. In the other editions, ten drivers were selected. Twelve drivers qualified for the 1987 race, although only ten started the race. Details were announced on Septemduring the INDYCAR Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey season finale. In the INDYCAR era, the race is scheduled to be conducted in 2024 as the INDYCAR Thermal $1,000,000 Challenge. After 1992, the race was discontinued, in part because Phillip Morris reorganized its race sponsorship after the Marlboro Grand Prix of New York fell through. ![]() In the CART era, the race was held from 1987–1992, sponsored by cigarette brand Marlboro as the Marlboro Challenge. In both eras, the race was considered a non-points exhibition race, and did not count towards championship standings or official statistics. The INDYCAR Thermal $1,000,000 Challenge is a non-championship all-star race in American Championship Car classes, held over two different eras, the CART PPG Cup (1979-2008) era and once in the INDYCAR era (2008-present) era.
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