DECEMBER 5, 2003

CART deal off. Future uncertain

The merger between CART and Open Wheel Racing is off and the CART company now faces the prospect of being placed in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. OWR may then try to buy the assets and run the series in 2004 but with time being short, the prospects do not look good and it seems more likely that the rival Indy Racing League will break out of its oval-only position and will run road races as well. The IRL warned its teams and chassis builders in the summer that they should be ready with update kits to run the cars on road courses in 2004 in case CART did fold. The IRL has to date run only on ovals. Several CART teams are already looking at switching to the IRL and it may be that the whole OWR concept will fade away if the team owners involved cannot come up with enough cars to run the series.