Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc

Cal Wells III keeps peeking through the blinds from his second floor office. Overlooking the eight mechanics' bays below him--four are full of race cars--Wells is eyeing his crew piecing together the Toyota Tundra that Ivan "Ironman" Stewart will drive next month in the Baja 2000. It looks as if Wells would rather be turning wrenches with them. In the old days, when he and his brother, Dave, were Wells Racing, that's what Cal would have been doing.

California Speedway officials continue to make safety improvements, designed for both competitors and spectators, at the Fontana facility Several hundred more yards of asphalt have been added to what last year was a grassy area on the backstretch between the racing surface and the inside retaining wall. It was across this grassy section that Greg Moore's car slid in a fatal crash during last year's Marlboro 500.

Precision Preparation Inc., the Cal Wells III company that fields a two-car team in the CART Championship Series, will remain at its Rancho Santa Margarita location for another year. PPI Motorsports, which also fields a NASCAR Winston Cup team out of its Hickory, N.C., racing shop, had announced July 19 that it was consolidating into one facility in North Carolina.

Juan Pablo Montoya, the Indianapolis 500 winner and the most exciting driver in America the last two years, made official Thursday what everyone has anticipated for months. He is leaving Chip Ganassi's CART team to drive for the BMW Williams team in Formula One next year. A native of Colombia, Montoya joined Ganassi last year after testing for Williams in 1997 and winning the Formula 3000 championship in 1998.

First it was champions Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Zanardi and Juan Montoya who left CART champ cars to drive in Formula One. Now CART is losing its interim president and chief executive to Formula One. Bobby Rahal, three-time CART champion who has been running the organization since Andrew Craig resigned at midseason, announced here Wednesday that he is accepting an offer from the Ford Motor Co. to become chief executive of Jaguar Racing, Ford's Formula One team.

The lack of American drivers in the CART series receives constant mention from the media and fans. Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vasser and Memo Gidley are the only American-born drivers competing full-time in the series, which usually features a 26-car field for races.

Former champion Bobby Rahal assumed control of Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc. after chairman and CEO Andrew Craig resigned under pressure Friday. Rahal, one of the nine-member CART board, took the position on an interim basis. The former Indianapolis 500 winner and three-time CART champion will continue to operate his racing team while the board initiates a search for a new leader.