Scott Dixon sixth in IndyCars opener

New Zealand's Scott Dixon has eventually finished sixth after crashing early in a wet opening IndyCars round in Sao Paulo, Brazil this morning.

Dixon's crash put him well back in the field, but he fought back for sixth behind winner Will Power who benefitted through an error by teammate Ryan Briscoe to win the rain-shortened race.

He made a late overtaking move to pass American Ryan Hunter-Reay to win the inaugural Sao Paulo Indy 300 and clinch his second career victory.

Power beat Hunter-Reay by 1.858 seconds when the race ended at the two-hour time-limit with only 61 of the 75 scheduled laps completed.

The race had to be red-flagged near its halfway point after heavy rains made track conditions unsafe.

Home crowd favourite Vitor Meira was third, followed by compatriot Raphael Matos at the 4.2km, 11-turn Anhembi temporary circuit in South America's biggest city.

Power, whose other victory was last year in Edmonton, got out of his car and celebrated with the thousands of fans packing the grandstands of the stadium-like Sambadrome where the race took place.

"I feel awesome," the Penske driver said.

"We battled it out, it was a great day."

Power overtook Hunter-Reay with only about three minutes to go, taking advantage of the long backstretch to move to the lead.

Hunter-Reay dominated much of the race with his Andretti Autosport car, but was not able to contend at the end.

"I had a blast all day," Hunter-Reay said. "I had so much fun with conditions changing all the time, that's what racing is about."

Power's Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe got past Hunter-Reay for the lead late in the race, but he crashed with about 13 minutes left after missing a corner. Both had been battling each other for several laps until Briscoe lost control.

It was the first time in IndyCar Series history that the race was ran on the same day as qualifying, which was postponed from Saturday because the front straight was too slick and drivers complained it made racing unsafe. Officials added grooves to the track overnight and fixed the problem in time for qualifying.

Defending series champion Dario Franchitti earned his 13th career pole earlier in the day. He led the race after it was interrupted, but eventually fell to seventh at the end after sticking with rain tires longer than the other drivers.

The race had to be red-flagged when pouring rain created deep puddles of water throughout the newly built street track.

Just before the red flag, Alex Tagliani - who led early in the race - crashed with Brazil's Tony Kanaan after being touched from behind by Dan Wheldon.

The start of the race was marked by a scary incident involving US driver Marco Andretti, who escaped injury after his car was hit from behind.

The car of Brazilian driver Mario Moraes finished on top of Andretti's and they slid tangled for several yards. The bottom of Moraes' car appeared to be touching Andretti's helmet, and it took more than five minutes for officials to remove Moraes' car so the medical team could attend to Andretti.

The American driver eventually was able to walk away from the scene and made a short visit to the medical center.

Andretti and Moraes were slowing down as other cars made contact in front of them, including former Formula One driver Takuma Sato, Franchitti's teammate Dixon, three-time Indy 500 Helio Castroneves and even Briscoe.

- © Fairfax NZ News