CART: graceful, but under pressure: the quality on the road was there, but for CART—starting with the cancellation of the Brazil race—it was everything else that didn't fall into place in 2001 - The 2001 Season In Review: CART - Championship Auto Racing Teams

Auto Racing Digest, Feb-March, 2002 by Chris Dolack

WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED this? Did anyone see it coming? Somehow, somewhere, sometime after February 2001, the Indy Racing League drop-kicked the monkey it had been carrying on its back--the one which said this series will never survive--and landed it squarely on the shoulders of the Champ Car teams.

The 2001 CART season had so much promise. Roger Penske's team had ended the four-year championship reign of Chip Ganassi's teams. Michael Andretti had left Newman-Haas for a fresh start at another title. Two-time champion Alex Zanardi was returning from an unsuccessful stint in Formula One to drive for a team owned by his former chief engineer. The rookie class was expected to be the best in years.

There were new venues on the schedule, too. CART became more international, with a season-opening event in Mexico as well as races in Europe. The series was also set to compete at Texas Motor Speedway, where the IRL attracts its largest crowds outside of Indianapolis.

Would this be the year that a Ford or Toyota driver world capture the championship? Or would a Honda pilot win for the sixth consecutive season?

Could one of the two-year-old Lolas win a championship, or would Reynard once again find itself the chassis of a champion?

The story lines seemed endless, but as the season came to a close there were more questions than answers about the series' future. In 2001 it was easy to see why the IRL--with less costly equipment, a pseudo alliance with the International Speedway Corporation, a new television deal with ABC Sports, and some thrilling finishes--was the only American open wheel series striving to dent some of NASCAR's popularity.

Which is a shame, because if CART proved one thing in 2001, it was that its racing is second to none. From the first race in Monterrey, Mexico, where Cristiano da Matta, who took over for Andretti, put his Newman-Haas machine in victory lane, to Gil de Ferran's late-season charge to become only the fourth driver to win consecutive CART championships, the racing was often breathtaking.

By winning the ninth season championship for owner Penske, de Ferran matched Rick Mears (1981-82), Bobby Rahal (1986-97), and Alex Zanardi (1997-98) as the only repeat champions.

Unfortunately for CART, it was often the off-track happenings that made the headlines. The first bump was when the series was forced to cancel its race in Brazil, the native country of many CART drivers.

While the series expects to return to that country in a new city, don't expect CART back at several tracks in the near future. The first is Texas, which never actually dropped the green flag on a race, anyway. CART earned a huge black eye when its drivers deemed the high-bank oval too unsafe on which to race. Some drivers experienced light-headedness as they reached speeds in excess of 235 mph on the 24-degree banking. The race was postponed for two hours before being suspended and officially canceled 22 days later.

New rules limiting testing were partially to blame, but with the number of engineers and other technicians working for CART, someone should have realized long before the race weekend that Champ Cars and high-banked ovals are a dangerous mix.

CART also decided it will not return to Nazareth Speedway, the home track of the Andrettis, and most likely will not be back at Michigan International Speedway.

Not returning to Nazareth is somewhat understandable. In 2000, the race was postponed because of snow and attendance has usually been low. However, there is no credible explanation for not returning to Michigan, a two-mile oval owned by ISC. For the fans, no race in any series over the past five seasons has been as exciting as a Champ Car race at Michigan--especially since the Handford device was added to slow the cars and create draft. Heartstopping passes and fantastic finishes were the norm at MIS.

For 2002, CART has instead added races on a street course in Denver and on a road course in Montreal to the schedule. These conditions are unique to CART, but there are now only six ovals left in the series--and of those only The Milwaukee Mile, Chicago Motor Speedway, and California Speedway are in North America.

The IRL, which races only on ovals, will compete at Michigan and Nazareth next season.

But once CART does decide on which types of courses it will run in coming seasons, what isn't certain is what types of engines will be powering the cars. In a bold move, CART president and CEO Joseph Heitzler announced in October a new engine formula for CART. He wants to get rid of the turbochargers in favor of a 3.5-liter, normally aspirated engine--very similar to what the IRL is using.

The announcement left some manufacturers fuming. Toyota had previously announced it would join Chevrolet and Infiniti and build only normally aspirated engines for the IRL. Honda and Ford declared they can't create a new engine from scratch by the 2003 season, which is the deadline Heitzler imposed.

Honda, which has powered the past six CART champions, and Ford, which won the 2000 manufacturer's championship, will not build a normally aspirated, 3.5-liter engine. "This decision is a great disappointment to Honda," says Tom Elliott, president of development at Honda. "We have informed CART from this beginning of the process that it is impossible to supply a new engine conforming to their proposed specifications prior to the 2004 season.