2003 Infiniti Pro Series

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
← 2002 2004 →

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

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 like Homestead (last featured in 1999), Phoenix (absent since 1995) and Fontana, which hosted the last race of the original Indy Lights series in 2001.

Round	Race	Pole position	Fastest lap	Most laps led	Race Winner
					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

Scoring system

• 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) 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.