Ganassi takes delivery of first '03 G-Force.

Panoz G-Force has unveiled its 2003 Indy Racing League challenger, delivering the first car to Target Chip Ganassi Racing - the team that earned pole position for the manufacturer for this year's Indianapolis 500.

The new car was designed at the Panoz G-Force design centre at Kimbolton in England, built at the Elan Motor Sport Technologies headquarters in Georgia, and will again be used by existing customers Ganassi and Mo Nunn Racing, with AJ Foyt Racing the first of several new signings to join forces with the American manufacturer for 2003.

One of the original chassis suppliers of the Indy Racing League, this is the third generation of G-Force chassis and the first to be known as a Panoz G-Force.

"Our team has worked very hard in the wind tunnel to ensure the speed our car showed in qualifying at Indy last year is repeated throughout the entire IRL schedule," company president Tony Mastandrea said.

"We are also very proud of the fact that we are the first manufacturer to deliver one of the new 2003 cars to a customer and our entire design staff is eagerly awaiting the car's on-track debut."

The design group for the new car was headed by Simon Marshall, who joined forces with Panoz G-Force's existing technical team including director of sales, John Biddlecombe, chief aerodynamicist Tony Tyler and technical consultant Nigel Bennett.

"Having the car on track first should give our teams a head start on the competition," new Elan Motor Sport Technologies CEO David Bowes explained, "Both Chip Ganassi and Mo Nunn won races with our car in 2002 and we would love to see AJ Foyt join these teams in the winner's circle in 2003.

"We are in negotiation with several new customers, and hope to be able to announce some further additions to the Panoz G-Force roster in the near future."

Ganassi will debut the new Toyota-powered car next Tuesday at Texas Motor Speedway, with drivers Scott Dixon and Thomas Scheckter at the wheel.

"We're really excited about the upcoming 2003 race season," said team manager Mike Hull, "Team Target is fortunate to have the opportunity to race the Panoz G-Force/Toyota combination next season, and I feel that the hard work that the people at Panoz G-Force have put in will pay off for us and our partners next year."