| | Associated Press
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Championship Auto Racing Teams will be racing in Monterrey, Mexico, next March.
The exact date is still to be determined, but CART said it has signed a five-year deal for the race.
The Mexican event raises the Champ Car schedule to 21 races, with another new event, in either Rockingham, England, or the eastern part of Germany, expected to be announced later this season.
CART officials said Friday the race in Monterrey will be run on a 1.9-mile temporary road circuit to be built in the 172-acre Fundidora Park near the center of the sprawling industrial city, which has 3½ million inhabitants.
The race was organized by CART team owners U.E. "Pat" Patrick and Jerry Forsythe, who worked for more than a year with officials from the city of Monterrey and the state of Nuevo Leon to make it happen.
"Our goal is to build the most beautiful road course in the world and develop a premier racing event," said Patrick, one of the founders of CART.
CART currently has two Mexican drivers -- Adrian Fernandez and Michel Jourdain Jr. Fernandez drew a crowd estimated at more than 50,000 for an exhibition last year in Monterrey by simply driving one of the Champ Cars along a city street.
CART, which was formed in 1979, raced in Mexico City in 1980 and 1981.
The race weekend will also include an Indy Lights support event.
Twice as many Yanks
Thanks to a couple of accidents -- one on the racetrack and the other of the household variety -- the number of American drivers in CART has doubled for Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Joining remaining series regulars Michael Andretti and Jimmy
Vasser are Bryan Herta and Memo Gidley.
Herta is temporarily replacing rookie driver Shinji Nakano, who
was injured in a crash during testing in Milwaukee. Herta was
supposed to have a full-time ride this year with Forsythe
Championship Racing, but team owner Jerry Forsythe -- who also owns
a separate two-car team -- withdrew Herta's entry in a franchise
dispute with CART.
Gidley, who ran 10 races last year as a rookie, was considered for the ride with Walker Racing before Herta got the job. But, when Patrick Carpentier fell in his home and broke his wrist, Gidley got the call from Forsythe's Players team.
Herta is expected to replace Nakano for three races, while
Gidley's deal is tentatively for two events.
A little longer course
The course winding around the Convention Center in downtown Long Beach has undergone its fifth distance change since CART began running here in 1984.
All of the changes have been made due to ongoing construction in the area Long Beach harbor.
The latest version of the 11-turn track was officially measured Friday morning at 1.968 miles just before the Champ Cars went out for their first practice session.
The original version of the course was 1.67 miles. That was cut to 1.59 miles in 1993, modified to 1.586 miles in 1998 and extended to 1.824 miles last year.
More changes are expected in the future as the area continues to grow.
The Long Beach race began in 1975 as a Formula 5000 event and switched to Formula One the next year. There were also several course changes prior to CART's arrival.
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