Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Motorsports
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 11, 2003
INDIANAPOLIS -- Emerson Fittipaldi won races and championships as a driver. Now he will try to do the same as a team owner.
Fittipaldi announced Monday he formed a partnership with James Dingman and will campaign a car in the 2003 CART Champ Car World Series for rookie Tiago Monteiro of Portugal. The Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing entry raises the number entered in the series to 19 heading into the opening race Feb. 23 in St. Petersburg.
Fittipaldi, from Brazil, won two championships in Formula One and one in CART, as well as two Indianapolis 500s before a neck injury ended his driving career in 1996 at age 50.
Monteiro comes to CART from the European F3000 championship, where he ran as a teammate to fellow rookie Sebastien Bourdais of France, who will drive this season for Newman/Haas Racing.
FOREIGN ENTRY: NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. said he expects an announcement "probably by the end of the week" about the involvement of a new manufacturer in one of its three top series.
Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford and Dodge race in the sanctioning body's top stock car series, but Toyota, already competing in NASCAR's Dash Series, said it is working on a truck engine.
NASCAR's rules prohibit foreign cars, but it is expected that the Japanese company, which builds cars in the United States, will make its entry into the truck series official before Sunday's Daytona 500.
F1 CHANGES: Formula One is promoting changes intended to make competition more affordable and ensure the stability of the series. The International Automobile Federation sent a five-page letter to F1's 10 team chiefs last week touting proposed long-life engines and cost-cutting measures designed to retain independent teams.
Under the changes, teams will be limited to one engine per car, per weekend next year. The engines must last two races in 2005 and six in 2006. Teams currently can go through several engines in a racing weekend. The deadline for approval is Oct. 31.
OBITUARY: Les Griebling, founder and designer of the course used for the annual CART Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio, died Thursday in Bradenton. Mr. Griebling opened the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 1962 as a driver's training school.