1983 CART PPG Indy Car World Series

1983 CART season
1979 IndyCar season
PPG Indy Car World Series
Season
Races	13
Start date	April 17
End date	October 29
Awards
Drivers' champion	Al Unser
Constructors' Cup	March
Manufacturers' Cup	Cosworth
Nations' Cup	United States
Rookie of the Year	Teo Fabi
Indianapolis 500 winner	Tom Sneva
Chronology
Previous season	Next season
1982	1984

The 1983 CART PPG Indy Car World Series season was the 5th national championship season of American open wheel racing sanctioned by CART. The season consisted of 13 races. Al Unser, Sr. was the national champion, and the rookie of the year was Teo Fabi. The 1983 Indianapolis 500 was sanctioned by USAC, but an arrangement was made such that it counted towards the CART points championship. Tom Sneva won the Indy 500, after three previous runner-up finishes.

Al Unser, Sr. jumped out to the early points lead, with second-place finishes in the first three races of the season. Unser, Sr. finished second at Indianapolis to Tom Sneva, but not without some controversy. Rookie Al Unser, Jr. was accused of blocking for his father, but Sneva prevailed, making the winning pass with ten laps to go. Unser won at Cleveland, finished second at the Michigan 500, and third at Road America. After 6 of 13 races, Unser, Sr. had a 35-point lead over Tom Sneva in the standings.

Rookie Teo Fabi made headlines at Indianapolis, becoming the first rookie to win the pole since 1950. His car dropped out, however, with a failed fuel o-ring. After a mixed start to the year, Fabi's season came alive in July, winning his first career race at the Pocono 500. Fabi jumped from 8th in points to as high as second following his win at Mid-Ohio. Fabi began to whittle away at Unser's point lead. Unser was running consistently, and had no finish worse than 11th.

In the next-to-last race of the season at Laguna Seca, Fabi dominated. He won the pole position and led 95 of 98 laps, winning his third race of the season. With only one race to go, Unser's point lead was down to 15 points. At the season finale in Phoenix, Fabi put in another dominating performance. He won the pole and led 138 of 150 laps. Fabi's championship hopes, however, fell just short as Al Unser came home 4th. Al Unser won the title by a mere 5 points over Fabi.

Other top stories from 1983 included Newman/Haas Racing joining the series with driver Mario Andretti, and the rookie debut of Al Unser, Jr. Though Unser, Jr. did not win any races, he had ten top-10 finishes en route to 7th in points.

Race results

Rd	Date	Race Name	Circuit	City/Location	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning driver	Winning team	Report
1	April 17	Kraco Dixie 200	Atlanta Motor Speedway	Hampton, Georgia	Rick Mears	26.730	Gordon Johncock	Patrick Racing	Report
2	May 29	Indianapolis 500	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana	Teo Fabi	2:53.582	Tom Sneva	Bignotti-Cotter Racing	Report
3	June 12	Dana-Rex Mays 150	Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin	Teo Fabi	26.259	Tom Sneva	Bignotti-Cotter Racing	Report
4	July 3	Budweiser Cleveland 500	Burke Lakefront Airport	Cleveland, Ohio	Mario Andretti	1:13.516	Al Unser	Penske Racing	Report
5	July 17	Michigan 500	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	Teo Fabi	35.621	John Paul, Jr.	VDS Racing	Report
6	July 31	Promi Veal 200	Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	Mario Andretti	1:58.898	Mario Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
7	August 14	Domino's Pizza 500	Pocono International Raceway	Long Pond, Pennsylvania	Tom Sneva	46.912	Teo Fabi	Forsythe Racing	Report
8	August 28	LA Times/Budweiser 500	Riverside International Raceway	Riverside, California	Teo Fabi	1:30.887	Bobby Rahal	Truesports	Report
9	September 11	Escort Radar Warning 200	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio	Bobby Rahal	1:21.364	Teo Fabi	Forsythe Racing	Report
10	September 28	Detroit News Grand Prix	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	Bobby Rahal	35.075	Rick Mears	Penske Racing	Report
11	October 8	Caesars Palace Grand Prix	Caesars Palace	Las Vegas, Nevada	John Paul, Jr.	34.888	Mario Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
12	October 23	Cribari Wines 300k	Laguna Seca Raceway	Monterey, California	Teo Fabi	56.920	Teo Fabi	Forsythe Racing	Report
13	October 29	Miller High Life 150	Phoenix International Raceway	Phoenix, Arizona	Teo Fabi	24.947	Teo Fabi	Forsythe Racing	Report

  Oval/Speedway

  Road Course/Street Circuit

• Indianapolis was USAC-sanctioned but counted towards the CART title.

Logo of the series for this year

Final points standings

Pos Driver ATL INDY MIL CLE MIC ROA POC RIV MDO MIC CPL LAG PHX Pts 1 Al Unser 2 2 2 1* 2 3 11 11 4 5 4 11 4 151 2 Teo Fabi 20 26 4 3 15 15 1* 2 1* 3 25 1* 1* 146 3 Mario Andretti 5 23 18 15 3 1 7 16 2 4 1* 2 2 133 4 Tom Sneva 14 1* 1* 5 25 4 12 5 7 21 15 18 3 96 5 Bobby Rahal 21 20 6 19 5 10* 5 1 3 2 9 7 DNQ 94 6 Rick Mears 8* 3 3 7 4 17 3 19 9 1* 13 21 17 92 7 Al Unser, Jr. 6 10 13 9 7 2 2 4* 18 10 10 4 8 89 8 John Paul, Jr. 3 DNQ 21 1* 5 29 3 20 7 2 26 11 84 9 Chip Ganassi 8 13 8 21 26 25 6 3 3 5 56 10 Pancho Carter 16 7 14 8 6 7 6 7 10 15 6 25 10 53 11 Pete Halsmer 4 DNQ 9 2 33 14 14 27 24 14 5 20 7 48 12 Roger Mears 7 28 8 6 DNQ 8 16 9 12 16 7 6 16 43 13 Howdy Holmes 9 6 7 12 32 16 13 13 8 8 17 5 21 39 14 Mike Mosley 13 13 5 4 17 25 4 24 DNQ 11 24 36 15 Kevin Cogan 15 5 20 25 27 19 15 21 6 20 16 22 6 26 16 Gordon Johncock 1 14 23 26 26 20 17 Chris Kneifel 12 27 9 26 8 22 13 24 8 9 15 19 18 Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. 10 17 10 18 18 12 10 8 14 9 21 14 18 19 19 Steve Chassey 17 11 19 22 10 6 25 17 DNP 12 10 19 17 20 Danny Ongais 21 12 28 23 18 24 10 5 14 21 Geoff Brabham 4 22 18 12 20 16 13 22 Josele Garza 25 17 19 11 9 20 23 17 11 12 9 23 Tom Klausler DNP 22 6 DNP DNQ 8 24 Jeff Wood 22 8 5 25 Scott Brayton 9 24 12 28 DNP 13 26 5 26 Derek Daly 22 19 DNS 9 22 18 23 22 4 27 Michael Andretti 19 24 9 4 28 Desiré Wilson DNQ 10 20 31 14 16 23 19 13 3 29 Dick Simon DNQ 15 11 14 13 25 15 19 14 23 2 30 Jim McElreath 11 13 23 DNP 2 31 Greg Leffler DNQ DNQ 24 15 11 2 32 Phil Krueger DNQ DNQ 17 11 27 2 33 Dick Ferguson DNQ 11 22 DNP 2 34 Jerry Karl DNQ 16 DNQ 21 32 12 1 35 Gary Bettenhausen DNQ 22 27 DNS 12 1 36 Doug Heveron 12 DNQ 1 37 Randy Lewis 13 0 38 Bill Alsup DNS DNQ 21 20 16 20 19 22 27 14 0 39 Tom Bigelow DNQ 15 DNQ 29 DNP 17 DNQ 0 40 Bill Whittington 18 15 19 DNP 0 41 Jorge Koechlin DNP 15 0 42 Herm Johnson DNQ 16 24 DNQ 17 0 43 Mike Chandler 16 31 DNP 0 44 Patrick Bedard 30 28 17 0 45 Chet Fillip 19 33 DNQ 18 0 46 Johnny Rutherford 18 DNQ 21 DNP 23 24 20 0 47 Al Loquasto DNQ 18 0 48 Don Whittington, Jr. 27 20 33 0 49 Bill Tempero DNQ 23 DNQ 21 0 50 Johnny Parsons, Jr. 22 30 DNP 0 51 Phil Caliva DNQ 23 0 52 Drake Olson DNQ 23 0 53 Dennis Firestone 24 0 54 Chip Mead DNP 26 25 0 55 Bob Ward 26 DNQ DNS 0 56 Steve Krisiloff 29 DNQ 0 57 Chuck Ciprich DNQ DNP 30 0 58 A. J. Foyt 31 0 59 George Snider 32 0 60 Tom Bagley DNQ 34 0 - Richard Hubbard DNQ DNQ DNQ 0 - Barry Ruble DNQ DNQ DNP 0 - Teddy Pilette DNQ DNS 0 - Harry MacDonald DNQ DNP 0 - Mark Alderson DNQ 0 - Jim Buick DNQ 0 - Larry Cannon DNQ 0 - Bob Frey DNQ 0 - Amber Furst DNQ 0 - Spike Gehlhausen DNQ 0 - Bob Harkey DNQ 0 - Sheldon Kinser DNQ 0 - Bob Lazier DNQ 0 - John Mahler DNQ 0 - Mack McClellan DNQ 0 - Graham McRae DNQ 0 - Dave Peperak DNQ 0 - Roger Rager DNQ 0 - Ken Schrader DNQ 0 - Jerry Sneva DNQ 0 - Rich Vogler DNQ 0 - Bill Vukovich, Jr. DNQ 0 - John Morton DNQ 0 - Lee Kunzman DNP 0 - Dave McMillan DNP 0 - Bobby Olivero DNP 0 - Bill Puterbaugh DNP 0 - Larry Rice DNP 0 - Dale Whittington DNP 0 - David Leslie DNP 0 Pos Driver ATL INDY MIL CLE MIC ROA POC RIV MDO MIC CPL LAG PHX Pts

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 (Ret) 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 (1 point) Italics Ran fastest race lap (N/A) * Led most race laps (1 point) DNS Any driver who qualifies but does not start (DNS) Rookie of the Year Rookie

Point Scoring System:

• Points are awarded based on each driver's resulting place (regardless of whether the car is running at the end of the race):

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Points	20	16	14	12	10	8	6	5	4	3	2	1

Bonus Points:

• 1 For Pole Position
• 1 For Leading The Most Laps Of The Race

See also

• 1982-83 USAC Championship Car season
• 1983 Formula Atlantic season
• 1983 Indianapolis 500
• 1983-84 USAC Championship Car season
• http://www.champcarstats.com/year/1983.htm
• http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf (p. 193-194)