CART teams will have chance to race at Indy in 2001

PORTLAND, Ore. - The door remains opens for more CART teams to race in the rival Indy Racing League's Indianapolis 500.

Bobby Rahal, finishing has first week as interim president and CEO of Championship Auto Racing Teams, said Saturday the time needed for the CART teams to run at Indy will again be left open in 2001.

In fact, Rahal indicated that the schedule, still being worked on, will leave three weekends free in May, as opposed to the two free weekends this year.

"I'd say it's going to be better," Rahal said of the planned May schedule. "It'll be the opening weekend, qualifying and then the race. We'll leave that open so our teams can participate."

CART's top teams and drivers had not raced at Indy since 1996, when Tony George, the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, started the IRL and made the 500 the new league's centerpiece.

After reunification talks broke off last summer, CART decided to leave two weeks open this year for any of its teams that wanted to race at Indy. Only Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, which has won the last four CART championships, took advantage of the opportunity.

Ganassi's drivers, Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser, finished first and seventh. Since then, several other team owners have expressed interest in going to Indy in 2001.

Among the things that Rahal did after replacing Andrew Craig - who resigned under pressure on June 16 - was phone George.

"I have talked to Tony, purely a social call, as I have with many people," Rahal said. "It was mainly, 'Hey, here I am, the new sheriff in town.' We are obviously ready to talk, if that's what they want to do, arrange to go forward in some way, shape or form.

"I was just volunteering, as I always have, no matter what my position, a willingness to communicate and try to solve an issue that's on everybody's mind all the time."

Rahal, who is a CART team owner and a member of the board of directors, said it is important to at least keep the schedule open for the teams that want to go because "that truly is the race that is important to our teams and increasingly important to our sponsors."

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GREAT JUAN SLIPS: Juan Montoya, the defending series champion, will start seventh in Sunday's Freightliner/G.I. Joe's 200 at Portland International Raceway, the first time this season he has failed to qualify among the top three.

"We've been lucky because we really haven't been too off on the set-up all season," the 24-year-old Colombian said. "But, this weekend, we've just had the car on edge. We made some changes that didn't get us anywhere, so we'll fine tune and get ready to race."

Montoya has led 541 of 1,075 laps this season, but has been running at the finish only three times in seven races. After winning seven times last year as a rookie, he has won just one CART event (Milwaukee) so far this season.

Still, going into Sunday's race, The Great Juan is sixth in the standings, trailing leader Paul Tracy by just 13 points.

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TOO LOW: Mauricio Gugelmin will have to start last in Sunday's 25-car field after his qualifying effort was disqualified.

CART officials said Gugelmin's PacWest Reynard-Mercedes failed to pass post-qualifying inspection because it failed the 2-inch rule, which says the bottom of the car must measure at least that much above the ground.

Gugelmin's time on the 1.969-mile road course would have placed him 14th.

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PASSING FANCY: Tracy, who still leads runner-up Jimmy Vasser by five points despite failing to score in the last two races, will have his work cut out for him again Sunday.

The Canadian driver will start 17th. Only the top 12 finishers score points.

Referring to the award given the driver who makes the greatest position improvement in the race, Tracy joked, "I'm trying to collect as many Budweiser Hard Charger Awards as I can."

He has now qualified 17th or worse at five of eight races this season.

"We just can't get the car figured out for qualifying," he said. "We change everything on the car and nothing seems to make a difference. As a race car, it's fine. I can drive at race pace all day long."

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