CART

CART Remain in Spotlight with Night Races

The CART motor racing series will hold two races under floodlights this year, its president Chris Pook announced on Thursday. The Milwaukee Mile on May 31 and the Cleveland Grand Prix, run on a temporary 2.1 mile track over the tarmac of Burke Lakefront Airport, on July 5, will mark the first ever Champ Car events run at night as the series attempts to put itself back into the motor racing spotlight.

"We wanted to do something to stimulate even more interest in what has always been a very successful event in Cleveland," said Pook. "The spectacular lighting of the track will spark interest from not only all the great Champ Car fans of Cleveland, but also every person that passes by the track on the highway for the days leading up to the event."

The temporary lighting required to illuminate Cleveland's circuit will be the largest outdoor lighting project ever attempted, CART officials claimed. Musco lighting, the company that provided the temporary lighting used at Ground Zero after the attacks on the World Trade Center and worked on such events as the Sydney Olympics will use 22 lighting towers to illuminate the circuit. Ground Zero needed just five towers while the Battle of Big Horn outdoor golf match used eight.

CART hopes that night racing will attract badly needed attention to the troubled series that has suffered a string of setbacks and high profile defections to the rival Indy Racing League over the last two years, leaving it on the brink of collapse.

But Pook has promised there would be 20 cars on the starting grid for the season opener on the streets of St Petersburg, Florida on February 23 and has set a 20-race schedule with events in Europe, Australia, Mexico, Canada and the United States this season.

The announcement of the two night races comes the day after Craig Pollock, the former BAR Formula One team boss, confirmed he was putting together a CART team.

Report provided by Reuters

  Rally

Visiting Monte

After the annual pre-season teaser of the Dakar, the international motorsport season proper gets under way this weekend with the Monte Carlo Rally. A mad dash over the mountains above the principality of Monaco on old roads winding up and down the side of rocky cliffs with sheer drops on one side of the route, on bitumen often coated with treacherous black ice. Cold, fast and slippery, but a rally steeped in tradition like few others.

The Marlboro-backed Peugeots head into the rally wearing the #1 plate as reigning series champions. Marcus Gronholm will kick off 2003 in the lead Peugeot. Richard Burns, tarmac specialist Gilles Panizzi and Cedric Robert in the FFSA car underline Peugeot's strength. Last year, the Pugs were far from their best on the Monte, but they have the best car, the best team, and driver ability spilling over the door sills. They will be more than merely hard to beat.

Ford take a three car squad into the Monte, but the team is young and without the star studded ex-champions of recent years. Markko Martin leads the team of Francois Duval and Mikko Hirvonen. A young team, and more importantly for the team, a cheap team, allowing much more to be spent on research and development. Martin is poised to take his first WRC victory having fought Petter Solberg all the way in the RAC last year.

Subaru have a new team leader, as proved by his performance on the RAC. It is Petter Solberg who will carry the flag for the blue painted cars from Japan. Tommi Makinen, in his swansong year takes up the elder statesman role amongst the field, but it still a deadly competitor. After a year in which focus seemed to wane, Makinen should be back to the form of old. Otherwise it will be a long season for the four time champion. Solberg though is the threat to Peugeot.

Hyundai have scaled back their operation but Armin Schwarz and Freddy Loix will hit the black ice of Monaco while 1994 World Champion Didier Auriol makes his return, leading Toni Gardemeister in their Skoda Octavias.

Which leaves the wild cards of the early season, Citroen. Citroen are taking three cars to the Monte. The man who might have won the Monte last year, Sebastien Loeb, and a pair of refugees from Ford called Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz. How McRae performs at Citroen will be one of the developing stories of the season. With a new car and a new, or is that old, co-driver, his 1995 World Championship partner Derek Ringer, McRae should be back at his yump leaping best.

Put your skates, or should that be studs, on and step onto the ice ladies and gentlemen.

Leading entries:

No. Driver              Car
 1  Marcus Gronholm     Peugeot 206 WRC
 2  Richard Burns       Peugeot 206 WRC
 3  Gilles Panizzi      Peugeot 206 WRC
 4  Markko Martin       Ford Focus RS WRC 02
 5  Francois Duval      Ford Focus RS WRC 02
 6  Mikko Hirvonen      Ford Focus RS WRC 02
 7  Petter Solberg      Subaru Impreza WRC 2003
 8  Tommi Makinen       Subaru Impreza WRC 2003
10  Armin Schwarz       Hyundai Accent WRC
11  Freddy Loix         Hyundai Accent WRC
14  Didier Auriol       Skoda Octavia WRC Evo 3
15  Toni Gardemeister   Skoda Octavia WRC Evo 3
17  Colin McRae         Citroen Xsara
18  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen Xsara
19  Carlos Sainz        Citroen Xsara
20  Cedric Robert       Peugeot 206 WRC

Makinen Ready to Go Out on a High

Former world champion Tommi Makinen wants to end his rally career in style with a record fifth title this season. The 38-year-old Finn was quoted in Britain's Autosport magazine on Thursday as saying that he plans to retire at the end of the year.

"In my mind, I am already thinking about retiring," he said. "This is not going to have any effect on the way I drive this year, though. I will be pushing hard and giving everything 100 percent effort to make sure I go out on a high and win this year."

Makinen, now with Subaru, won four world titles with Mitsubishi from 1996 to 1999 and no driver has so far managed to win more championships. The Finn said he intended to make a clean break from the sport and would not be emulating his compatriot Juha Kankkunen, also a four-times champion, who is 43 and still a competitor.

"There's no way I want to do that," said Makinen. "I don't just want to keep on working. When I give up, I'll give up."

Two More Manufacturers Set to Join World Championship

Two more carmakers are set to join the world rally championship (WRC), according to rally supremo David Richards.

"I think one of them will be announced in Monte Carlo and they are going to come in in 2006," Richards told reporters in a briefing ahead of the first round of the season starting in Monaco this week. "I don't know when the other one is coming in yet."

The world championship currently has six teams - champions Peugeot, Citroen, Ford, Hyundai, Subaru and Skoda - with Mitsubishi taking a year out. Richards said organisers were also looking to introduce new rounds to the calendar, with Mexico and Japan likely venues in the near future. Africa, without an event after the Safari Rally was cancelled, was also likely to return although he hinted it would be in South Africa rather than Kenya.

"We will have a rally in Africa again I am sure in the near future," he said.

Figures released on Friday showed that rallying grew in popularity last year with viewers showing a marked increase at a time when Formula One's ratings were sliding. The WRC registered a total global audience in 2002 of 556 million people, an increase of 12 percent.

"Viewing figures for WRC in Britain have overtaken Formula One on a per event basis for the first time in a climate where many mainstream sports are experiencing falling audiences," the organisers said in a statement.

Makinen and manufacturers reports provided by Reuters

  Briefs

• Canadian Alex Tagliani has finally announced his 2003 plans. Tagliani, who holds a contract with the Forsythe-run Team Player's has been placed with the Michigan-based fledging CART team Rocketsports Racing. Traditionally a Trans-Am outfit, owner-driver Paul Gentilozzi announced his intention to take advantage of CART's generous assistance package to make the big step up to a full CART series program. Player's will continue to sponsor Tagliani, with some personal sponsorship and as an associate sponsor of Rocketsports.

• While CART tries to entice every Formula 3000 team it can get a hold of to move to America, a driver is travelling in the other direction. Former Patrick Racing driver Townsend Bell has been signed by Arden International to contest the International Formula 3000 Championship.

  "I am delighted to be joining the top team in F3000 and thank Arden for giving me this opportunity," said Bell. "The FIA F3000 Championship is the obvious step to Grand Prix Racing and I am really looking forward to racing on European circuits.

• MotoGP testing is well under way with Loris Capirossi impressing with fast times set on the Ducati Desmosedici at Phillip Island, Jerez and Sepang. The most recent test at Sepang had Honda present as well, testing updated 2002 RC211Vs in the hands of Daijiro Kato, Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi. Kawasaki's program has been set back after Garry McCoy crashed at Phillip Island. McCoy gave himself a mild concussion in the crash at the Siberia hairpin. Yamaha meanwhile have been at Jerez, with Alex Barros testing the M1. Last week also saw Sepang busy with Kenny Roberts Jr, John Hopkins and test rider Kosuke Akiyoshi testing the 2003 Suzuki.

  Upcoming Events Calendar

• January 22 - World Rally Championship, Round 1 of 14; Monte Carlo Rally, Monaco
• February 1 - Daytona 24 Hours, Daytona International Speedway, Florida, United States
• February 5 - World Rally Championship, Round 2 of 14; Swedish Rally, Sweden
• February 8 - Budweiser Shootout, Daytona International Speedway, Florida, United States