Good Morning from the sunny beaches of Southern California for the opening day of practice and qualifying for Race Two of the 2001 FedEx Championship Series season, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach! Today’s Long Beach weather has greeted the early arrivals to the downtown racecourse with unseasonably cool temperatures

In the mid-forties and a cool ocean breeze from the southwest. Temperatures are expected to only rise to the mid-sixties by the lunch hour, and with a cool track, traction will be a major concern. The remainder of the weekend’s weather forecast holds more possible surprises: rain is expected tonight through the early morning hours but may well be present for the Saturday morning session and afternoon qualifying. Sunday’s prediction improves to partly cloudy skies and milder temperatures.

The CART on-track schedule features the weekend’s first practice session taking the Green Flag at 9:30 a.m. This full-field session will last two hours. At 1:15 p.m., the FedEx Championship Series teams will again take to the track for the final practice session of the day at 1:15 p.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday’s schedule has the Champ Cars again on track for practice from 10 a.m.-11:15 a.m. with CART qualifying scheduled from 1:15 p.m. to 3 p.m. This qualifying session will be the split-group format with the fastest drivers from the Qualifying Round from last month’s Tecate Monterrey Grand Prix Presented by Herdez making up Group Two. Each group will be on-track for 30 minutes with a 15-minute break between the two Groups. Sunday’s schedule has the traditional 30-minute warm-up beginning at 9 a.m. followed by the Green Flag for the 82-lap Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach at 1 p.m. (All times are local.) On hand for your media needs from Championship Auto Racing Teams this weekend are Ron Richards, Vice President of Corporate Communications; Mike Zizzo, Vice President of Competition Public Relations; Steve Shunck, Director of Broadcast Relations Merrill Cain, Manager of Broadcast Public Relations; T.E. McHale, Senior News Manager; Kevin Wilkerson Advance Public Relations, Nate Siebens, New Media Public Relations Manager and Mark Tate, Pit Note Specialist. Feel free to seek out any of these individuals with any questions that you may have concerning this weekend¡¦s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach!

Quite a few changes have taken place in the Champ Car ranks in the off-season leading up to this weekend’s first domestic race of the FedEx Championship Series season. First, of course, the 2000 Points Champion, GIL de FERRAN takes over the traditional #1 in his Marlboro Team Penske Honda Reynard, leaving #2 unused this season. Teammate HELIO CASTRONEVES remains in the #3. The Target Chip Ganassi Racing Toyota Lola #4 will be piloted this season by Brazilian rookie contender BRUNO JUNQUEIRA with the #12 being piloted by fellow rookie, Frenchman NICOLAS MINASSIAN. The #5 Walker Racing Pioneer/Denso Toyota Reynard will also be piloted by a rookie contender this year, Japanese driver TORA TAKAGI. Newman/Haas will run the Toyota powerplants this year in both cars with the #6 Texaco/Havoline-sponsored car now driven by Brazilian CRISTIANO da MATTA, taking the seat of former driver MICHAEL ANDRETTI. #11 CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI becomes the senior driver of the team in his #11 Kmart-sponsored Toyota Lola. FITTIPALDI¡¦s car will sport a dueling blue color scheme this weekend, symbolic of the Kmart Blue Light Special. Team Rahal switches to Lola chassis this year for the Miller Lite Ford of #7 MAX PAPIS and #8 KENNY BRACK, last year’s Rookie of the Year. Popular Mexican driver MICHEL JOURDAIN Jr. returns to the #16 Herdez-sponsored Ford Lola. Rookie SCOTT DIXON from New Zealand takes over the controls of the #18 PacWest Racing Group Toyota Reynard behind departed driver Mark Blundell. And to make you feel a bit old, DIXON is the first driver born in the 1980’s to compete at CART’s highest level. CART veteran team Dale Coyne Racing has also placed a Rookie driver, German MICHAEL KRUMM, in his #19 Ford Lola sponsored by The Dark Dog. The #21 Dale Coyne entry will be piloted by LUIZ GARCIA Jr. Sigma Autosport is a new team this year, campaigning in the #22 Ford Lola with Brazilian ORIOL SERVIA at the wheel. Another new entry with a Rookie contender is in place in the #25 Arciero Brooke Racing winner B2B-sponsored Lola with Brazilian MAX WILSON at the helm and powered by a new face in the CART engine manufacturers line-up this year, Phoenix. No changes are in place at Team KOOL Green, #26 driven by Canadian PAUL TRACY and #27 by Scotsman DARIO FRANCHITTI in Honda Reynards. Ditto for Player’s Forsythe Racing; #32 wheeled by veteran Canadians PATICK CARPENTIER and #33 by second-year driver ALEX TAGLIANI, both still utilizing the Ford Reynard combination. One change that definitely doesn’t involve a CART Rookie is the new Team Motorola Honda Reynard entry #39 piloted by former FedEx Series Champion MICHAEL ANDRETTI. Patrick Racing’s #40 Toyota Reynard, teammate to #20 ROBERTO MORENO, will be driven by JIMMY VASSER, taking the place of departed driver and new CART team owner ADRIAN FERNANDEZ. The popular Mexican star FERNANDEZ will campaign his two cars this year, personally driving the Tecate/Quaker State Telmex Honda Reynard #51 and teammate Japanese ace SHINJI NAKANO in the Avex/Alpine-sponsored #52. Former two-time Champion ALEX ZANARDI returns to the FedEx Championship Series from a short retirement in his homeland of Italy, taking over the wheel in the #66 Moe Nunn Racing Pioneer/WorldCom Honda Reynard, joining teammate TONY KANAAN in the #55. American BRYAN HERTA returns to the series full-time this year in the #77 Zakspeed/Forsythe Racing Ford Reynard. Whew! Can’t stand pat in this card game, can you?

The Long Beach racecourse has presented a tough streetcourse to the competitors of the FedEx Championship Series for the entire history of the Long Beach Grand Prix. The fabled race course has undergone quite a few changes during the last 26 years. The 11-turn course features more gear shifts, hard rights and lefts, coupled with high speeds than almost any course on the FedEx Championship Series schedule. The 1998 course measured 1.586 miles, and the 1999 course was lengthened to 1.824 miles. Last year, the track was again changed featuring 11 turns with the new length mainly being added at the past the Turn 5 area at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. The scheduled race distance has been announced to again be 82 laps (161.376 miles) for this years running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

As the popularity of on-line fantasy Champ Car leagues such as ESPN’s CART Challenge have exploded, added to the ongoing personal debates backed up with tangible assets that fans of the FedEx Championship Series always go through before each race, the Pit Note Specialist would like to hand out the Long Beach Grand Prix averages early in the weekend to aid the discriminating reader in enhancing his/her bottom line over their less-astute buddies. Therefore, one may review the Long Beach race from the past few years in a statistical manner, using 1995 to 2000 as a modern-era basis to get a leg-up on the competition. The winner has come from an average start postion of seventh, up from last year¡¦s average of fifth, due to the PAUL TRACY’s extraordinary run last year from a 17th spot on the grid to take the win. The second place finisher has come from an average start postion of 6.3, while the third place finisher has an average start of 4.3. The average margin of victory has been 6.55 seconds but this stat has polluted by a 23.125 second winning margin from 1995. The race has been featuring tighter margins of victory through the late nineties as 1996 was 3.447 seconds, 1997 was 3.82 seconds, 1998 was 2.917 seconds, 1999 was 2.805 seconds, and TRACY came home first with a 3.191-second margin. The first caution should appear within the first 15 laps, yet two races featured Yellow Flag on the first lap: 1995 and 1998. The number of laps run under the Yellow Flag has been very static, averaging 20.5 over the last six years. The Yellow flew for 19 laps in 1995 and 2000 and 20 laps in 1997 and 1999. The Yellow Flag most likely will fly five times, the exact average over the last six years. Finally you can count on 16 cars running at the end, and this is an amazingly consistent stat, at least until last year. The 1995 race had 18 cars running at the end, 1996 had 16, 1997 had 16, 1998 had 18, 1999 had 17, and the 2000 race fell off to 12. Good Luck with your prognostications for this week’s Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix and watch those capital gains taxes!

At 9:07 a.m. during the first Indy Lights practice session of the weekend, a vendor truck knocks over a fire hydrant outside Turn 4, resulting in surfable waves rolling across the track and a session-ending Red Flag; mute testimony to the unemployment rate in the US of 3.6%. CART safety workers spring into action immediately once the 30-foot high temporary fountain is plugged, but the large amount of water standing in the Turn 4 area will delay the scheduled 9:30 a.m. start of the first Champ Car practice session of the weekend.

GREEN FLAG waves at 9:58 a.m. to start the first Champ Car practice session of the weekend. Firestone engineers report a track temperature of 70 degrees F. and an ambient temperature of 67 degrees F. at the start of the session.

At 10:03 a.m., #3 CASTRONEVES spins at Turn 6 but keeps the engine running and pulls back on course without apparent damage to the car.

At 10:12 a.m., #21 GARCIA Jr. stalls just off course at Turn 5. CART course workers start attempts to restart the car.

At 10:13 a.m., 15 minutes into the session, the fastest driver is #20X MORENO with a lap of 96.862 mph; (1:13.143), followed by #32X CARPENTIER (96.787 mph; 1:13.200) and #16X JOURDAIN Jr. (96.439 mph; 1:13.440).

At 10:28 a.m., 30 minutes into the session, the fastest driver is #77 HERTA with his lap of 99.622 mph (1:11.117), followed by #55 KANAAN (98.573 mph; 1:11.874) and #3 CASTRONEVES (98.253 mph; 1:12.108).

At 10:40 a.m., #52 NAKANO stalls off-course at Turn 8 but CART corner workers get the car restarted and NAKANO continues on course.

At 10:43 a.m., 45 minutes into the session, the fastest driver is now #32 CARPENTIER with a lap of 101.445 mph (1:09.839), followed by #55 KANAAN (100.671 mph; 1:10.376) and #77 HERTA (99.622 mph; 1:11.117).

At 10:46 a.m., #39 ANDRETTI moves to second-fastest with a lap of 100.807 mph (1:10.281) on his ninth lap.

At 10:50 a.m., #3 CASTRONEVES slides into the run-off at Turn 5 and stalls the car.

At 10:51a.m., #22 SERVIA slides into the run-off at Turn 9 and also stalls his car.

At 10:55 a.m., #21 GARCIA Jr. slides into the run-off at Turn 1 and he also stalls his car.

RED FLAG waves at 10:56 a.m. to allow CART safety workers to retrieve the three stalled cars around the course. #21 GARCIA Jr. will receive an eight-minute delay-of-session penalty as this is the second delay caused by the driver. The penalty will start at the appearance of the Green Flag to resume the session.

At 10:58 a.m., one hour into the session and under the Red Flag, the fastest driver is #32 CARPENTIER with a lap of 101.445 mph (1:09.839), followed by #39 ANDRETTI (100.807 mph; 1:10.281) and #77 HERTA (100.716 mph; 1:10.344).

GREEN FLAG waves at 11 a.m. to resume the session.

At 11:13 a.m., 75 minutes into the session, the fastest driver is now #77 HERTA with a lap of 101.638 mph (1:09.706), followed by #33 TAGLIANI (101.525 mph; 1:09.784) and #55 KANAAN (101.494 mph; 1:09.805).

BLACK FLAG is shown at 11:20 a.m. to #21 GARCIA Jr. for a Pit Road speed violation. GARCIA Jr. subsequently pits his car to comply with the Black Flag drive-thru penalty.

At 11:23 a.m., #7 PAPIS slides into the run-off at Turn 5 and stalls the car. CART corner workers quickly restart the car and PAPIS continues on course.

At 11:26 a.m., #33 TAGLIANI moves to first on his 21st lap of the session with a lap of 102.460 mph (1:09.147), with #27 FRANCHITTI appearing near the top with a third-fastest lap of 101.551 mph (1:09.766).

At 11:27 a.m., #32 CARPENTIER slides into the run-off at Turn 1 but continues on course without apparent damage to the car.

At 11:28 a.m., #27 FRANCHITTI slides into the run-off at Turn 1 but continues through the shortcut and returns to the track at Turn 5, forfeiting his timed lap.

At 11:29 a.m., #5 TAKAGI also slides into the run-off at Turn 1 and continues on course.

CHECKERED FLAG waves at 11:30 a.m. to end the first session of the weekend with #33 TAGLIANI remaining the fastest driver of the session with his earlier lap of 102.460 mph (1:09.047), followed by #55 KANAAN (101.989 mph; 1:09.466 on his 35th and last lap of the session) and #32 CARPENTIER (101.925 mph; 1:09.510 on his 24th and final lap of the session.) Last year’s winner #26 TRACY is 17th best with a lap of 100.631 mph (1:10.404) after enduring boost problems until late in the session. Last year’s series champion #1 de FERRAN is 24th best with a lap of 100.023 mph; 1:10.832) after battling shifter software problems for most of the session. The top 12 drivers are separated by less than one second in lap times with the top 28 cars separated by less than two seconds in lap times. FedEx Championship Series drivers introduced 49 different cars to the track in this morning’s session.