MONTERREY, Mexico -- Nobody is more eager for the 2002 CART FedEx Championship to get under way than Cristiano da Matta.

The diminutive Brazilian has spent a restless winter waiting to find out if the momentum that carried him to victories in the last two races of 2001 will continue in the new season.

	Cristiano da Matta is among the favorites to challenge for the CART championship in 2002.

"We tested so well over the winter that I still feel like we've got that (momentum) going, and now we've got a year together," said da Matta, starting his second season with Newman-Haas Racing.

Da Matta got off to a sensational start with his then-new team by winning last year's opener at Monterrey, Mexico -- the inaugural race in that city. He'll have a chance to back that up Sunday in the second Monterrey Grand Prix.

"I don't think anyone expected it to happen so fast," da Matta said. "I knew I could win and the team knew they could win, but the questions was, could we win together?"

Don't get da Matta wrong, though. If he doesn't win again Sunday, it won't slow him down. His eyes are on a bigger prize.

"I don't feel any pressure at all because I am not thinking of one race in particular," he said. "I am thinking more about winning the championship, and I know that whether I win in Mexico or not, it is not going to make a big difference in my result at the end of the season at this point. It is just a start of the championship."

That championship will be the start of a new era for CART, which saw Roger Penske, one of the founders of the series in 1978 and the owner of its most successful team, take both two-time reigning champion Gil de Ferran and last year's fourth-place finisher, Helio Castroneves, to the rival Indy Racing League this season.

Although that defection obviously hurt the pride of some in CART, Team Penske's departure leaves probably the most wide open title race in the history of the Champ Car series.

"I don't really remember going into a season with so many potential race winners and so many teams thinking they can win a championship," said Michael Andretti, the winningest driver in CART with 41 victories and starting his 19th season.

Besides losing two of its top contenders, there are other changes heading into the season-opening race.

Kenny Brack, last year's series runner-up, has switched from Team Rahal to Chip Ganassi Racing, and former champion Jimmy Vasser took his place on Team Rahal.

Brack, who battled de Ferran for the 2001 title until two races from the end, has joined the only CART team to win four straight championships, but the last one came in 1999 by Juan Montoya, now in Formula One.

"It's hard to win races in CART," said Brack, a former IRL champion. "I believe there's nobody out there that's not competitive in this series. There's 20 first class drivers with as many good cars and engines."

With a new CART president, Chris Pook, in charge, new rules have been implemented to try to make good competition of the past even better.

Getting their first test this week will be the return of Friday qualifying on road courses, a point given for the first time for winning the provisional (first round) pole, drivers qualifying in a single group instead of two, and, perhaps the most significant, the easing of fuel restrictions.

"With the fuel restrictions lifted, we're going to be able to go out and just drive as hard as we can for the whole race, and I think that's going to make for a better show for the fans," Andretti said. "I'm really looking forward to that and I think this is a great example of what Chris is trying to do to improve the CART show.

"The product that we have in CART is second to none, and I think with the leadership we have in CART now that there's a good opportunity to show the positives that CART has to offer."

Among the drivers expected to be title contenders this season are da Matta's teammate, Christian Fittipaldi; Brack's teammate, Bruno Junqueira; the Team Green duo of Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti; Player's-Forsythe drivers Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani; Mo Nunn Racing's Tony Kanaan; the Team PWR (former PacWest Racing) pair of Scott Dixon and Oriol Servia; and, starting his second year as an owner-driver, Adrian Fernandez.

Also expected to make some waves this season are 2001 Indy Lights champion Townsend Bell, now driving for Patrick Racing; Max Papis, moving from Team Rahal to Sigma; and Walker Racing's Tora Takagi and his Japanese countryman Shinji Nakano, Fernandez's teammate.