Bright stars on CART debut

Bright, who lies fifth in the Lights championship in his rookie year with Dorricott Racing, was having a one-off outing in the Della Penna Motorsport Reynard-Toyota normally driven by Memo Gidley. Having built his reputation in the Australian V8 Supercars series, Bright has a massive following on home ground. He only qualified 24th but ran in a points-scoring position for much of the race and then benefited from a strategic gamble to move up to fifth with twenty laps remaining.

However, he was then caught out when Roberto Moreno crashed while trying to warm his tyres before a restart. As the field took avoiding action, Bright was left with nowhere to go and damaged his suspension on the back of Max Papis' Reynard-Ford.

"It's disappointing," Bright admitted. "I saw Moreno spinning there and thought I could still get through. I didn't expect Max to appear there too. I hit him pretty hard.

"It's a shame because it was all running smooth and we were going well. I feel bad for Della Penna and all our sponsors here."

Gidley will return to the car for the CART finale in Fontana two weeks from now, where Bright will be competing in the Indy Lights decider for Dorricott once more. However, this strong showing is likely to have increased his chances of making an early graduation to Champ Cars in 2001.