Andrew Craig resigns from CART post.

Andrew Craig's three year tenure as CEO of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) came to an in Detroit on Friday when he announced his resignation from the post during a board of directors meeting this morning.

Team-boss Bobby Rahal who sits on the board of directors, has been appointed as the interim CEO while Craig's position as chairman of the board by James Hardymon.

The move comes after weeks of pressure from the team owners concerning the company's drop in value on the stock exchange. Share's in the series have dropped by $19 per share since the company was first floated in March 1998 while share prices have recently risen to $22 dollars pre share. Many of the team owners hold shares in the company and were angered by the hectic schedule of the Champ Car series.

Rahal, who won three Indycar titles and the prestigious Indy 500 in his prestigious career, will take control as CEO immediately until a permanent successor can be found, although many within the CART fraternity are tipping Rahal to take the job on a full time basis in the near future. Craig, who joined the company in 1994, has agreed to continue as a consultant with the series for another 12 months and has stated that he will make every effort to ensure that the company remains stable.

In a statement released in Detroit on Friday, Craig said. "I have enjoyed my six years at Championship Auto Racing Teams. During this time, the company has grown from a privately-held company with revenues of approximately $25 million to publicly-held company almost three times the size. However, a motorsports sanctioning body is only as good as its race teams, and it is a great tribute to them that the Company has prospered over the years. I now want to move in another direction, but I remain committed to assist the Board in a consulting capacity during the transition.''

Since Craig's tenure began in January 1998, the CART series has maintained immense popularity all across the world. The series has expanded with state of the art venues such as Fontana and Motegi in Japan and next year is scheduled to hold races in Mexico, Germany and England. CART has never been as popular outside the US before in its entire history. The series has shown that it can survive without the Indianapolis 500 and still produce world class drivers and host world class races. However, the situation isn't quite as rosy back in the series 'home'. Attendance figures for many of the North American races have dropped in recent seasons and the series has fallen behind NASCAR in the popularity stakes. New races in Miami, St Louis and Houston have failed to attract the predicted amount of interest while traditional CART event at Michigan, Detroit and Nazareth have all suffered a sharp drop in ticket sales.

The team-owners are unhappy that Craig appears to be neglecting the series 'home' and feel that the cost of travelling all across the world, would be too great. Craig's decision to quit ironically comes just day's after CART announced a major link-up with Dover Downs Entertainment with the intention of finding suitable venues for a series of highly glamorous races around the streets of a number of America's biggest cities. Potential venues to be discussed include New York City, Washington D.C, San Francisco and Boston.