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Uniting the abundant traditions of the past with the cutting-edgetechnologies of the present and future, Championship Auto RacingTeams has adopted Championship Cars as the brand name for the carswhich compete in its FedEx Championship Series.
"By calling our cars Championship Cars, we reinforce the idea thatthese cars take part in a national championship," says Andrew Craig,CART president and chief executive officer. "Furthermore, we continueto build on the traditional heritage of the sport, a heritage whichmany of our fans and followers have embraced.
"Our objective is to build the national championship, and it seemsappropriate that at this time we take a name which reinforces theimportance of our championship, while at the same time connectingwith the history and tradition of the oldest automobile racingchampionship in the world."
The "Championship Car" name has its roots in the early 1900s.Championship races were organized by the American AutomobileAssociation as early as 1909, and the AAA formally organized thefirst season-long National Driving Championship in 1916. The term,"Championship Car," first came into vogue in the 1930s, when it wasused to distinguish "Champ Cars" from the midgets and sprint carswhich were also popular during the era.
The AAA served as the sanctioning body for "Championship Car" racingthrough 1955, when the United States Auto Club was formed and begansanctioning those events. On Nov. 25, 1978, Championship Auto RacingTeams, Inc. (CART) was founded and the fledgling open-wheel serieslaunched its inaugural season in 1979. It has blossomed into one ofthe premier racing series in the world.
The 1998 FedEx Championship Series includes a record 19 events onfour continents. Regular competitors in the series include MichaelAndretti, Al Unser Jr., Bobby Rahal, Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser andPaul Tracy. The FedEx Championship Series is broadcast to 188countries and territories and has a cumulative worldwide audience ofmore than 973 million viewers.
The FedEx Championship Series season opens with the Marlboro GrandPrix of Miami on March 15 at the Metro-Dade Homestead MotorsportsComplex in Homestead, Fla. and concludes with the Marlboro 500Presented by Toyota on Nov. 1 at the California Speedway in Fontana,Calif. The series includes two new events in 1998, the Budweiser 500,March 28 at the new Twin Ring Motegi motorsports complex in Motegi,Japan and the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston, Oct. 4 on the streets ofdowntown Houston, Texas.
Source: CART News Service