CICERO, Ill. -- A little hair is a small price to pay when you're celebrating a World Cup championship.

CART's quartet of Brazilian drivers -- Cristiano da Matta, Christian Fittipaldi, Tony Kanaan and Bruno Junqueira -- got up early to watch Brazil's 2-0 victory over Germany and jumped for joy at the finish.

	Cristiano da Matta, left, and Christian Fittipaldi, sport new Ronaldo-inspired hair cuts to show their support of Brazil.

All of the drivers, who raced later in the day in the CART Chicago Grand Prix, were in front of a TV in a hospitality area at Chicago Motor Speedway when the final between Brazil and Germany began at 6:30 a.m. local time.

After the game, they lined up to honor ''football'' hero Ronaldo by having their hair cut like the man who led the World Cup in goals and scored both on Sunday.

All had their heads shaved to stubble from mid-head back, leaving a triangle of hair at the front -- just like Ronaldo.

Former CART driver Roberto Moreno, who is bald, also got into the act, picking up some of the cut hair and doing a makeshift version of Renaldo.

Diana Junqueira, Bruno's sister, said that after the game she suggested, ''If one of the Brazilian drivers wins the race, I think you should all cut your hair like Ronaldo. Cristiano said, 'Why wait?' So we got scissors and some clippers and started cutting.''

Kanaan said, ''It was something we decided to do, and nobody backed down. It's cooler this way, anyway.''

Da Matta won the race and spent part of that celebration throwing hats across the track to a large group of flag-waving Brazilian fans -- many of whom come to every CART race.

''In Brazil, soccer is the first sport,'' he said, smiling. ''Motorsport is the second, but there is a big difference. The president of Brazil made tomorrow a national holiday, but I don't think it was because I won the race.''

Difficult day
Michel Jourdain remains the only driver in the CART FedEx Series running at the finish of every race this season. Still, he wasn't very pleased with his 10th-place run Sunday.

''It was a very, very long day,'' the Mexican driver said. ''The way this track is, you can't pass anybody and that makes it very difficult.''

He had two other problems during the 250-lap event.

First, the air jacks that are normally used to raise his car off the ground for tire changes, stopped working and the team had to use an old-fashioned jack on his stops.

''We didn't have the fastest pit stops of the race today, but they were very fast considering the circumstances my guys were working under,'' Jourdain said.

Just past the halfway point in the race, rookie Townsend Bell made Jourdain's day a little tougher, slamming into the rear of the Team Rahal car and sending Jourdain spinning.

''I saw him coming in close and he tried to beat me into the corner,'' Jourdain said. ''I was already there and he hit me. We didn't lose too many positions, but we lost a set of tires, and that's not good.''

Overall, though, the driver wasn't too unhappy.

''We keep finishing races and that's important,'' he said. ''We just need to get back to finishing in the top five like we were earlier in the season.''

New engines
Ian Bisco, vice president of Cosworth Racing, said Sunday that the engines used in CART, beginning in 2003, will not be ''the same old tired engines from this year.''

CART recently announced its intention of continuing to use turbocharged engines and having all of its teams powered by Cosworths.

''The engines that are used next year will be 70 to 80 percent new. They'll have new cranks, rods, heads and more,'' Bisco said. ''We want an engine that will last longer and run at slightly lower RPMs. Teams will be able to run the same engine two or three weekends.''

This year, with Ford-Cosworth, Toyota and Honda all competing in CART, the routine is for teams to use one engine for practice and qualifying and another for the race. Then each of those engines is rebuilt -- a costly process.

The current engines run at up to 16,000 RPMs and produce up to 850 horsepower. Bisco said next year's numbers should be closer to 12,000 RPMs and 700 horsepower -- slowing the Champ cars considerably.

''That's not something we've dictated,'' Bisco explained. ''That's something the chassis manufacturers have hinted will allow them to build something that will allow the drivers to get back to running side-by-side.''

Two debuts
A pair of promising young drivers will move up in class next weekend at the Toronto-Molson event.

Danica Patrick, who recently signed a multiyear contract with Team Rahal, will get her new affiliation started with a Barber Dodge Pro Series race.

The 20-year-old from Roscoe, Ill., was scheduled to drive in three Barber Dodge races in August, but her success in testing last week in Sebring, Fla., accelerated her timetable and added two races to her schedule.

''By starting now, I get to run on a couple of street courses this year, which will better prepare me for the opportunity next season,'' Patrick said.

The other newcomer is 18-year-old Kyle Krisiloff, son of a former Indy-car driver and nephew of Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George.

The younger Krisiloff, who won the Formula Ford runoffs last year and most recently competed in the SCCA National Formula Atlanta Series, will step up to CART's Toyota-Atlantic Series in Toronto.

''I'm definitely not planning to come out with a win and beat everybody, but I expect to be competitive,'' he said.

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