SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Helio Castroneves was barely a toddler when he got his first taste of car racing. And it was sweet.

The track was a specially baked, sugary white cake his parents ordered for his first birthday. And when young Helio bit in, it was enough to start his father daydreaming.

	Helio Castroneves has endeared himself to others with his outgoing, emotional personality.

"It may sound silly, and you may not even believe me, but when I saw him eating that piece of cake, I had visions that my son would one day become a racing champion," said his father, Helio Castro Neves.

Maybe not all Brazilian drivers get the bug as early as Castroneves, the reigning Indy 500 champ and a strong contender for the CART championship this year. But the passion for cars in this nation of 170 million has bred a tradition of excellence and a remarkable legion of top drivers.

Gil de Ferran, who last year gave Roger Penske his first CART championship since 1994, heads a list of eight Brazilians in the elite category. Four others drive in Formula One, while five are in Formula 3000, waiting for a chance in the big leagues.

They are heirs to a tradition that began half a century ago, when the late Chico Landi raced for Ferrari in the 1951 Formula One season. But the real trailblazer was Emerson Fittipaldi, who turned Brazilians on to Formula One when he won titles in 1972 and 1974, then led the U.S. invasion with Indy 500 wins in 1985 and 1993 and a Formula Indy title -- what later became CART -- in 1989.

"There is no doubt that Emerson is the man most responsible for opening the doors of international car racing to Brazilian drivers," said Claudio Carsughi, one of the country's most respected race commentators.

It was Fittipaldi who inspired Formula One champions Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna, who each won three titles in a Brazilian-dominated decade between 1981 and 1991.

For today's generation, the model is Senna, considered by many experts the best driver ever. His legend and example survive despite his death on May 1, 1994, when he slammed into a wall at the Imola race track during the San Marino Grand Prix.

"There never was, nor do I think there ever will be a driver as talented as Senna," said Roberto Manzinni, owner of the "Centro de Pilotagem," Brazil's premier racing school. "He was to car racing what Pele was to soccer."

The road to the top usually starts in kart racing. Castroneves began to raise eyebrows at age 12, winning 15 local championship between 1987 and 1991.

When drivers want to go further, they often seek out instructors like Manzinni.

Each month, he takes about a dozen students under his wing to teach some of the basic secrets of car racing -- mainly how to shift gears, accelerate, brake and speed around the corners without wrecking the engine. Of those, "No more than two will be able to dream of becoming a professional," he said.

"Some will move up to Formula Vauxhall, the Tourism category or even Formula 3, but most won't go beyond that," Manzinni said at Sao Paulo's Interlagos race track where he holds his classes.

Still, the odds don't seem to faze his students.

As he waits for mechanics to ready his souped-up Chevrolet Corsa for a few spins around the 2.7 mile circuit, 17-year-old Fabio Ferreira Novaes adjusts his racing suit and says: "I remember watching Senna race when I was younger and thinking how I would like to do the same thing.

"I don't know if I'll get there, but I am certainly going to try," Novaes said.

Fifteen-year-old George Altmann, who is still in the karting stage, had just finished a couple of laps to get his first taste of what it's like to race on a real track.

"Racing is what I've wanted to do since I was 10," Altmann said. "This is not a game nor a hobby. It's my passion. My future."

That kind of passion helps to explain why Brazil has produced so many successful race drivers, says Manzinni, who counts among his former students professional drivers like de Ferran, Bruno Junqueira, Pedro Paulo Diniz and Tarso Marques.

Why this abundance of driving talent? Not even Brazilians can say.

"Maybe it's because of the crazy traffic in our cities that forces our drivers to improvise, seeking ways to get out of the constant bottlenecks," ventured the elder Castro Neves.

Manzinni prefers the explanation once offered by Paul Stewart, the son of three-time Formula One champion Jackie Stewart.

"Maybe it's the water they drink in Brazil," he said.