IndyCar News

With the Fed-Ex Championship Series taking a well earned break for one weekend, Christian Fittipaldi and Takuya Kurosawa will be using the time to bring themselves back to full fitness while Norberto Fontana will be grateful that the series is back on circuits that turn right aswell as left.

Swedish driver Kenny Brack was the man to beat on the first day of practice at the Chip Ganassi owned oval in downtown Chicago, taking his Shell sponsored Reynard-Ford to the top of the time sheets with a record lap.

Lap 98 of last Sunday's Michigan 500 saw a frightening accident between Kenny Brack and Christian Fittipaldi and although both drivers were uninjured, the closely following Gil De Ferran suffered more than anyone else.

The fact that half of the 24 starters of Sunday's Michigan 500 failed to make the finish shows how tough the event is. Unfortunately two of the 12 retirements came from the PacWest team in what will rank as one of the most disappointing weekends of the year for the squad.

Reynard Motorsport has confirmed that it will continue to supply Marlboro Team Penske in next year's FedEx Championship Series, after the former constructor switched its own chassis for that of the Bicester marque in 2000.

Under fire Jaguar Racing star Johnny Herbert was an interested spectator at last weekend's CART event at Michigan Speedway - and it was unlikely that he was just paying fellow Brit Dario Franchitti a return visit.

Paul Tracy is not a known qualifying specialist. The Canadian's last pole came at Milwaukee back in 1997 and the Team KOOL Green driver has since built himself a reputation as being a better racer than qualifier.

Michigan Speedway is a fearsome two mile D-shaped oval that makes today's Champ Cars look like Micro Machines even though they are averaging more than 200mph for the entire race, less cautions and pit-stops.

Not content with hosting each major US race series in 2001, Texas Motor Speedway has now put itself forward as the site of the first Olympic auto event.

Memo Gidley will make his return to the Fed-Ex Championship Series this weekend at Michigan for Team Della Penna whose regular driver Norberto Fontana is still not comfortable with driving on Superspeedways.

The tragic accident that claimed the life of Greg Moore at the season ending Marlboro 500 at Fontana last November cast a shadow over what had been a tremendous season of racing.

Eddie Cheever's emotional first win for Infiniti at Pikes Peak put him atop the Indy Racing Northern Light Series standings, and favourite for this years title.

Reynard Champcars will take to the track in the UK for the first time next year, following yesterday's announcement of an oval race at Rockingham Speedway.

Leading motorsport weekly Motoring News this week confirmed that the still under construction Rockingham oval will be a part of the expanded 2001 CART schedule.

For much of this year's Indy Racing Northern Light Series, Eddie Cheever and his self run team have upheld the honours for engine supplier Infiniti, often being the only representative for the Japanese concern.

1999 Indy Racing Northern Light Series rookie of the year Scott Harrington has finally landed a permanent drive in the championship with the Mid-America Motorsports outfit.

Texas Motor Speedway has suddenly become a key figure in a possible reconciliation between America's two leading single seater championships after appearing on a provisional 2001 Champ Car schedule recently.

Roberto Moreno scored an emotional first Champcar win at Burke Lakefront Airport tonight, after dominating the 100-lap race from start to finish.

Back-to-back races are always tough, no matter what series you race in, but at least I can go to Oregon this weekend knowing I have history on my side.

In 1997 Mark Blundell crossed the finishing line with 0.027 seconds to spare over the chasing Gil De Ferran and less than half a second over Raul Boesel, who took the lead just metres after the chequered flag fell, in what still is the closest finish in Champ Car history.

Tony Kanaan's season took a turn for the worse on Saturday when he crashed his Reynard-Mercedes at high speed at the Belle Isle circuit in Detroit.

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.

Although the Formula One circus is in town just across the water, American single-seater focus will fall on the Motor City this weekend.

The hottest story in Belle Isle today is that CART CEO Andrew Craig has quit his role at the head of America's premier single-seater series.