Jacques Villeneuve won the opening race of the 1995 PPG IndyCar World Series in Miami, Florida on Sunday March 5th 1995.

Villeneuve took the lead with a rapid pit stop under the yellow flag two-thirds of the way through the race and led from there to the finish.

The twenty four strong Canadian was under heavy pressure in the closing stages from a string of cars led by Brazilian Mauricio Gugelmin, who finished second.

Gugelmin led a handful of laps and ran very strongly all day but could not challenge the brilliant Villeneuve.

Two weeks before IndyCar Australia, round two of the PPG Cup at Surfers Paradise, the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami coincidentally was a triumph for IndyCar's Australian connections.

Villeneuve's Reynard Ford Cosworth is owned by West Australian Barry Green and managed by Green's brother Kim.

Gugelmin drove his Reynard Ford for PacWest Racing, whose team manager is former Sydney-sider John Anderson. Both Reynards were designed by Malcolm Oastler from Sydney.

Villeneuve's pass for the lead took place during pit stops at the end of fifty five of ninety laps, while Gugelmin was leading. Gugelmin was surprised to see Villeneuve ahead of him when they raced our of the pits.

"I actually said a word I can't say here," Gugelmin said later. "I didn't see any mistakes from our pit stop, but when I came out of the pits I saw Jacques three hundred yards ahead."

Villeneuve scored the second victory of his Indy career by surviving heavy pressure from Gugelmin and Bobby Rahal (Lola Mercedes-Benz).

Rahal came through the field from eleventh starting position to finish an impressive third, battling hard with Gugelmin in the closing stages.

An equally impressive fourth place was taken by Scott Pruett (Patrick Racing Lola Ford), who was on the Firestone tyres in the company's return to IndyCar Racing after twenty years.

Another driver to impress was twenty four year old Brazilian Christian Fittipaldi - an IndyCar rookie, but veteran of three Formula One seasons - who finished a very competitive fifth ahead of Raul Boesel, Rahal's team mate.

Pole winner Michael Andretti, in his return to Newman/Haas Lola Ford, dominated the first half of the race - leading until his suspension failed.

Also failing to finish the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami was Andretti's team mate Paul Tracy, who crashed on lap two.

A series of crashes and incidents caused plenty of yellow flags and kept the field in close order for an exciting battle to the finish among the top five cars.

Other front runners who failed to finish included: Gil de Ferran and Robby Gordon.

De Ferran struck mechanical trouble early in the race ad Gordon crashed while holding off Walker Racing team mate Christian Fittipaldi in the final laps.

Also out of luck were Penske drivers Al Unser Jr and Emerson Fittipaldi. Both ran into mechanical problems, with Fittipaldi - Christian's uncle - being forced to retire from the race. Unser hung in and ran to finish after repeated pit stops to deal with a troublesome engine.

DRIVERS POINTS - MIAMI INDYCAR 1995:

First:

Jacques Villeneuve - 20 points.

Second:

Mauricio Gugelmin - 16 points.

Third:

Bobby Rahal - 14 points.

Fourth:

Scott Pruett - 12 points.

Fifth:

Christian Fittipaldi - 10 points.

Sixth:

Raul Boesel - 8 points.

Seventh:

Christian Danner - 6 points.

Eighth:

Jimmy Vasser - 5 points.

Ninth:

Danny Sullivan - 4 points.

Tenth:

Bryan Herta - 3 points.

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