MARCH 11, 2002

Toyota wins opening CART race

THE first race of the CART series has been won by Cristiano da Matta at the wheel of a Lola-Toyota. The event, in Monterrey, Mexico, saw da Matta beating Dario Franchitti's Reynard-Honda by just under two seconds. Franchitti later complained that his progress in the last few laps had been impeded by the lapped car of former F1 man Tora Takagi at the wheel of a Reynard-Toyota.

Franchitti said he was "disgusted" by the way Takagi drove and said that CART needs to look at such behavior.

Da Matta's Newman-Haas team mate Christian Fittipaldi was third.