| | Associated Press
MADISON, Ill. -- Bobby Rahal, a team owner and acting this
season as the interim president and CEO of CART, all but confirmed Sunday that he will take over the leadership of the Jaguar
Formula One team in 2001.
Rahal, who was approached about the job before the start of the
current season, is expected to be in Indianapolis on Wednesday to
make the announcement during the preliminaries of the first United
States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
After spending Saturday in Chicago to take part in a family
gathering, Rahal was met by questions from the media and many of
the people in the paddock at Gateway International Raceway before
Sunday's Motorola 300.
"I've always maintained that this (president and CEO of CART)
is an interim position and I will maintain my commitment to my team
and to CART," Rahal said.
But the 47-year-old Rahal hedged when asked outright if he will
be taking the Jaguar job.
"What the future holds will probably be confirmed in a week or
so," he said.
The Jaguar team was bought by Ford Motor Co. in 1999 and has
struggled through its first two years with the new ownership. Team
Rahal, which is partly owned by David Letterman, uses Ford engines
and Rahal has had a long relationship with the company.
There has also been speculation that Barry Green, owner of
CART's Team Kool Green, will take over the operation of Formula
One's British American Racing team next season.
If they do take on the new projects, both Rahal and Green are
expected to continue running their CART teams as well.
Job hunting
Patrick Carpentier's runner-up finish to Juan
Montoya on Sunday will go right up to the top of the Canadian
driver's resume as he hunts for a ride for 2001.
Carpentier, who currently drives for the Forsythe-Player's team,
has had a generally miserable season, capped by a spectacular crash
on Sept. 8 in Monterey, Calif., in which he escaped injury when his
car skidded off course, became airborne and somersaulted over a
wall.
"I'm so happy for me, the team, everybody," Carpentier said
after racing hard in the closing laps Sunday to try to keep Montoya
from running away with the race.
Carpentier passed Montoya on a restart with 23 laps remaining to
get back on the lead lap, then began to chop big chunks from the
Colombian driver's lead, outrunning his by about 5 mph a lap.
"After the last pit stop, my car got really, really fast and
stayed that way to the end," Carpentier said. "It was nearly
impossible to catch Juan, but I was still going as fast as I could
in case something happened to him."
He wound up cutting the lead from nearly 26 seconds to 11.804 at
the end of the 236-lap race on the 1.027-mile oval.
Asked about his job prospects, Carpentier grinned and said,
"This shouldn't hurt us.
"I'm still talking with Player's and some other teams, but I
feel like I'd like to stay here because I've got some unfinished
business here."
Gearing (down) for the worst
Both of Barry Green's entries in Sunday's race
were plagued by the transmission problems that have been affecting
the team on and off throughout the season.
Dario Franchitti, who started fourth in the 25-car field, went
out with a broken gearbox after just 62 laps and teammate Paul
Tracy hit the wall and brought out the only caution flag of the
race on lap 208 after his gearbox went.
"We were in trouble right from the first couple of laps,"
Franchitti said. "I was just hanging on and then I went to
downshift and lost fifth gear. Then the rest of the gears went away
and that was it."
The mechanical failure was more costly for Tracy, who is part of
the tense eight-man championship battle. He was running fourth when
his gearbox also went on a downshift.
"I feel real bad for the team because we had a really good car
and we were hanging around the top three all day," Tracy said.
"All we were looking for was a solid finish to stay in the
championship."
Thanks to problems by several of the other leaders, Tracy
remains fourth in the standings, trailing leader Gil de Ferran by
just 15 points with three races remaining.
Pit stops
Despite competition from sellout NFL and Major
League Baseball events in nearby St. Louis, Sunday's race drew an
estimated 32,000 spectators for the last CART race at Gateway. The
rival Indy Racing League is scheduled to run here next August after
a four-year run by CART. ... Montoya, whose 10 career wins have
come in just 37 starts, has led 788 of a possible 2,471 laps this
season -- more than double the total of any other driver. ...
Montoya's victory gave engine supplier Toyota its fourth
consecutive oval win. | |
ALSO SEE
Montoya picks up where Andretti leaves off, wins Motorola 300
Motorola 300 results
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