MARCH 9, 2001

Zanardi returns to CART

ALEX ZANARDI will be back in action this year in CART having sat out the 2000 season after his disastrous relationship with Williams in 1999.

ALEX ZANARDI will be back in action this year in CART having sat out the 2000 season after his disastrous relationship with Williams in 1999. Zanardi, who dominated CART in 1997 and 1998, wants to rebuild his damaged reputation and hopes that renewing his relationship with Mo Nunn will help him to do that. Nunn was his engineer at Target Chip Ganassi Racing before setting up Mo Nunn Racing last year. Ganassi is this year running two new drivers from Formula 3000 - Bruno Junquiera and Nicolas Minassian - and he says that he believes that both men will quickly make their mark in CART as Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya previously did.

It remains to be seen which will be most competitive teams this year with champions Penske Racing looking to repeat the success of 2000 with Gil de Ferran and Helio Castro-Neves but strong opposition is expected from Team Kool Green and its satellite operation Team Motorola, which will be running Michael Andretti. Team Rahal's pairing of Kenny Brack and Max Papis should be competitive while Newman Haas should also be on the pace with Christian Fittipaldi and Cristiano da Matta. The series kicks off in Monterrey, Mexico, this weekend.