Gold Coast Indy Car Grand Prix

Gold Coast Indy 300

Surfers Paradise Street Circuit
Race information
Most wins (drivers)	Sébastien Bourdais (2)
Most wins (constructors)	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (6)
Circuit length	4.47 km (2.79 mi)
Race length	269.88 km (167.70 mi)
Laps	60
Last race (2008)
Pole position
Will Power KV Racing Technology 1:34.9451
Podium
1. R. Briscoe Team Penske 1:45:50.3868 2. S. Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Racing +0.5019s 3. R. Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman Racing +9.1179s
Fastest lap
D. Franchitti Target Chip Ganassi Racing 1:35.1552

The Gold Coast Indy 300 was an open-wheel motor race event that took place at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia from 1991 to 2008. The challenging 4.47-kilometre (2.78 mi) track, alongside a strip of beaches, had several fast sections and four chicanes. The event had various names during its history for sponsorship reasons; in its final year it was known as the Nikon Indy 300.

The race had been an annual event since 1991 originally as part of the CART IndyCar World Series, then, following the split between CART and the newly formed Indy Racing League (IRL) in 1996 and the subsequent dissolution of CART in 2003, as part of the Champ Car World Series. Following the merger of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series in February 2008 the future of the race had been secured until 2013 as an IRL IndyCar Series event; however the race was omitted from the 2009 IndyCar Series season calendar, and subsequently dropped by the IRL completely.

In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Gold Coast Indy 300 was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as an "event and festival".

The event arrived in Australia on the back of lobbying from a consortium of businessmen from the state of Queensland. The event's early years were dogged by controversy as Australia's motor sport governing body, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), initially refused to sanction the event. The Queensland State Government had been largely supportive of the event, whereas support at local level from the Gold Coast City Council varied, and was occasionally openly hostile to the event.

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Wikipedia