In Tuesday's nine-hour meeting in Phoenix, the 11-man Delaware Board supposedly presented Heitzler with two options -- resign as CEO and president or put his fate to a vote.

	Christopher Pook, right, remains the favorite to replace Joe Heitzler, left, as CART's CEO and President.

Heitzler opted to step down and retain the title as Chairman of the Board and ESPN.com has learned that Chris Pook, founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix, is all but signed to become the new leader of the troubled organization.

"We had more than the seven votes necessary to remove Joe and more than 40 percent of our public shareholders had made their voice heard and wanted Joe's resignation so this was a nice, civil compromise," said one of the board members, who asked not to be identified.

"Chris Pook is our No. 1 choice, but he's still got to be released by his current employer."

Another source reported that the vote would have been 10-1, with Gerry Forsythe (CART's largest shareholder) the lone Heitzler supporter.

While CART's news release stated Heitzler would continue to oversee the day-to-day operations and search for his successor, the wheels were already in motion to hire Pook.

The 60-year-old native of Somerset, England, whose mid-1970s idea of an American street race similar to Monaco has been CART's marquee event in Long Beach, Calif., since 1984, is currently a member of Dover Downs Entertainment Inc. -- which owns the Long Beach Grand Prix.

In a letter to Heitzler last month, DDE's legal counsel indicated Pook was under contract and not available to become CART's fifth different leader since 1990.

But Jon Vannini, CART's third largest shareholder who privately began the push to replace Heitzler with Pook several weeks ago, indicated last week that Pook could get out of his contract.

"Mr. Pook has the ability to come work for us," Vannini.

Pook couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday night at his home in Los Angeles, but the thought of someone with his savvy in racing, promoting and business coming to work for CART appeals to one of its co-founders.

"CART has been run by owners and non-owners and we've not had an experienced racing person," said Pat Patrick, who helped start and bankroll CART (along with Roger Penske) in 1979 and served as the first president.

"The people we've had didn't have the experience to cope with the unique situations and to run a professional racing series. Joe (Heitzler) is fully aware of this and we need a man with that kind of experience to run this thing."

Heitzler, encouraged to apply for the CART job by his neighbor, 1963 Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones, previously worked in television and orchestrated CART's new TV pact with CBS and SpeedVision. It was perceived to be weak by many but, with CART's ever-shrinking ratings, they were about the only options available.

Heitzler also inherited several controversies in 2001, including canceled events at Brazil and Texas, in addition to a major rules war between his three engine manufacturers -- all of whom announced they were leaving CART's turbocharged formula following 2002.

In the end, he was criticized for trying to run CART from his cell phone in L.A., not communicating with CART participants and lacking an overall knowledge and plan to deal with CART's many needs.