CLEVELAND -- Throughout its history CART has always been able to count on Burke Lakefront Airport for an entertaining show. Its wide, bumpy runways make for a race that is easy on the eyes, hard on the equipment and challenging for the drivers.

But a new dimension is going to be added this weekend when the Champ Cars attack the fast 2.1-mile road course under the lights. Thanks to the Musco Lightning Company, the annual four-wheeled fireworks on Lake Erie will run Saturday night.

Other than sports car enduros at Daytona and Sebring, this will be the first major road race ever staged at night.

"It should be an adventure for all of us," said Adrian Fernandez, who is coming off his initial victory of 2003 at Portland and his first as an owner/driver. "I mean Cleveland is always a Wild West show and running at night should only add to that.

"It's hard to believe you can light a place as big as Cleveland but it was like daytime at Milwaukee so I'm sure it's going to be the same."

Fernandez' reference was to CART's first-ever night show on May 31 at Milwaukee where Musco handled the lighting. This weekend there will be 21 lighting towers covering the airport layout. By comparison, the Battle of the Big Horn golf match a few years ago with Tiger Woods required eight of those towers.

"I actually preferred the lighted conditions to the normal afternoon sunshine," said Michel Jourdain Jr., who scored his first CART win at Milwaukee and ranks third in the point standings.

"We had consistent light instead of having to deal with shadows, clouds and the changing light. I liked it and not just because we won the race."

	The Champ Cars will race under the lights at Cleveland for the first time on Saturday.

The green flag isn't scheduled to drop until 8:30 p.m. ET and that is usually dusk at this time of the year.

"There are a whole new set of variables with night racing in Cleveland," said Patrick Carpentier, last year's winner here. "For instance, is the setting sun going to be a factor on that first turn? That's always a free-for-all, going into Turn 1, when you can see.

"Fortunately we'll have some practices to get used to the conditions and it doesn't matter if it's day or night -- you always know Cleveland is going to be exciting."

Running at night should make this 115-lap grind a little easier on the drivers since the sun won't be beating down on them.

"I've lost quite a few pounds over the years, sweating them off in a cockpit, because Cleveland is famous for one of its heat waves," said point leader Paul Tracy, who leads Bruno Junqueira by four points and Jourdain by eight. "Racing at night should make it more pleasant for us, no doubt.

"But you can always expect the unexpected at Cleveland. There's always plenty of action and things are going to happen when you're racing in tight quarters, like in Turn 1, and then being able to go flat-out, wheel to wheel on the runway sections. That's why I'm looking forward to it."

Tracy opened the season with three straight wins, followed by rookie Sebastien Bourdais sweeping the next two races. Since then, Jourdain, Carpentier and Fernandez have found Victory Lane and the Lola chassis has been a perfect 8-0.

"The Reynard (chassis) seems to like the cooler conditions, although I don't think it's going to be 45 degrees like it was at Milwaukee, but I know a Reynard (Carpentier) won Cleveland last year so that's encouraging," said rookie Darren Manning, who along with fellow rookie Mario Haberfeld have had some strong runs in 2003 with their older equipment.

"We keep improving every race and that's all we can do."

Following his back-to-back triumphs in England (Brands Hatch road course) and Germany (EuroSpeedway oval), Bourdais and his Newman-Haas crew have run into a string of mechanical failures. The 24-year-old Frenchman has never seen anything like Burke Lakefront.

"I've heard Cleveland is good from a driver's perspective because the track is so wide open and you can push yourself harder without the increased risk of hitting the wall like on street courses," said Bourdais.

"We are due for a good result after not finishing the past two races and we need to start scoring some points."

CART wisely opted not to go head-to-head on television with NASCAR's annual Pepsi 400 from Daytona Beach. Saturday night's race will be shown Sunday afternoon at 3:30 (ET) on CBS.

Andretti's drive
Things should go a lot better this weekend for Mario Andretti than they did in May, when he escaped uninjured after flipping an IRL car he was testing for son Michael's team at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Andretti will drive the pace car at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, where CART races Saturday night. He'll be in a 2005 Ford GT.

"Mario should be used to running at the front of the pack in a Ford GT, since his experience with the original GT40 race car includes a win at Sebring," Ford's Neil Hannemann said.

Andretti teamed with another racing great, Bruce McLaren, and drove to victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1967.

Bring out the bikes

	Tracy

Race fans and cycling enthusiasts will have the unique opportunity on Saturday night to ride with Paul Tracy around Burke Lakefront Airport's 2.106-mile course to celebrate the Champ Car driver's 200th career race start.

The event, titled the "PT200" in honor of the 22-time race-winner's 200th start in a career that began in 1991, allows up to 200 cyclists to join Tracy in a one-lap tour of the track before the U.S. Bank Presents The Cleveland Grand Prix later that evening. Tracy, an avid cyclist who trains for Champ Car events by riding, will lead the pack around the lake front airport circuit from a CART Champ Car pace vehicle.

The PT200 is open to any and all cyclists over 13 years old but only the first 200 will make the cut by registering online at PT200@cart.com. All participants will get a free ticket for Saturday night's race. Detailed instructions will be sent to all confirmed participants through a return e-mail. On-site registration will open at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and the PT200 goes off at 7:15 p.m.

Robin Miller covers open wheel racing for ESPN and ESPN.com. Information from CART's official Web and the Associated Press site was used in this report.