Pace car team hosts PGA stars.

Before the PGA Golf Tour stars teed off for the second annual Ford Championship at Doral in Miami yesterday, Champ Car's Pace Car Team joined the Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure Tour and a host of Ford NASCAR drivers to show PGA standout Phil Mickelson and a dozen other Tour professionals some high speed driving tips on the Homestead-Miami Speedway infield road course.

Ford, the official powerplant of the Champ Car World Series, sponsored the second-year event and offered PGA Tour stars a chance to take the driver's seat with assistance from the Champ Car Pace Car team, along with Ford NASCAR pilots Dale Jarrett, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Elliot Sadler.

Allison Altzman, Linda Pobst, Gail Truess and Kelly Williams were all on hand to represent the Pace Car Team in Miami as Ford brought out an all-star lineup of performance cars highlighted by its 500-horsepower Ford GT supercar. The event may have provided one of the golfers with a glimpse of their future wheels, as the winner of the 2004 Ford Championship at Doral will receive one of the high-powered machines. The same Ford SVT Mustang Cobra and SVT Focus that are used at every Champ Car event were also on hand at the event, complementing a race-ready NASCAR Ford Taurus.

The Pace Car Team provided instruction for the golfers around the infield road course before taking them for a hot lap and then releasing them on their own. The friendly on-track competition culminated with an awards ceremony and reception with a trophy being given to Glen Day, the PGA Tour player with the fastest speed at 146 mph.

The Champ Car Pace Car Team is the only one of its kind in all of motorsports. A fleet of high-performance pace cars from Ford Motor Company are piloted by a team of professional women race car drivers, all of whom have earned recognition in various forms of motor racing. With 68 combined years of pace car experience woven throughout this nine-woman squad, their degrees in race car finesse are unparalleled.