JUNE 13, 2003

Pollock and Lemarie part company

Craig Pollock's CART team PK Racing will be running Bryan Herta at Laguna Seca this weekend. Herta replaces France's Patrick Lemarie who is moving on. It is not yet clear whether Herta will keep the drive for the rest of the season but as a replacement for Laguna Seca he is a useful joker in the CART pack as he has won at the Monterey circuit several times in the past. The ranks of Americans in CART has also been swelled by the news that Dale Coyne Racing is to run Geoff Boss rather than Brazilian Gualter Salles. Boss will race for the team for the rest of the year.

Rumours of F1-CART talks continue with the latest suggestion being that there could be a merger between CART and F1 in order to create a two-tier system of events. This would give F1 access to several premium events in North America and would allow CART to expand into Europe. If the rules and regulations are carefully organised it would also allow for Max Molsey's idea of promotion and relegation between two championships and give US teams the chance to break into F1. In order for this to be achieved however Formula 1 costs need to be reduced considerably to bring them into line with the level of spending in the United States.

Pollock has missed the last two CART events, preferring to attend Grands Prix, looking after Jacques Villeneuve and "maybe doing other things".