OCTOBER 30, 2000

F1 hopefuls head to America

TORANOSUKE TAKAGI has announced his plans to race for Toyota in CART next year and says that his intention is to score some good results and return to Formula 1 in the near future.

TORANOSUKE TAKAGI has announced his plans to race for Toyota in CART next year and says that his intention is to score some good results and return to Formula 1 in the near future. Takagi's target appears to be a drive with the ToyotaÊMotorsportÊF1 team in 2002. Takagi raced in F1 in 1998 and 1999 but this year returned to Japan and raced in Formula Nippon, which he dominated, winning eight of the nine races to date. The switch to Toyota brings to an end a lengthy association with Honda.

In addition to Takagi, several other Formula 1 hopefuls are now securing CART drives as there do not appear to be any decent drives left in F1. Target Chip Ganassi Racing has announced that it is going to run Formula 3000 rivals BrunoÊJunqueira and Nicolas Minassian, who finished first and second in this year's title race for the Petrobras Junior Team and SuperÊNovaÊRacing respectively. The pair will replace Ganassi's current drivers Juan-Pablo Montoya and Jimmy Vasser.

As we predicted Zakspeed is also turning its attention to the United States having failed in its bid to get back into FormulaÊ1. The German operation has joined forces with Gerry Forsythe to establish Zakspeed Forsythe Racing which is expected to run two cars out of the old Tasman Motorsport premises in Hilliard, Ohio. These previously housed the McDonalds-sponsored Forsythe Championship Racing. One of the drivers is expected to be Bryan Herta and the team hopes to sign up a German for the second drive.

Johnny Herbert's future in the United States is still to be settled and although several opportunities are closing down, Johnny still has a variety of competitive drives to chose from. PacWest Racing has a drive available alongside Mauricio Gugelmin and Patrick Racing is looking for a replacement for Adrian Fernandez who has just announced his plans to establish FernandezÊRacing to run a pair of Reynard-Hondas next year for the Mexican and for Japan's Shinji Nakano.