Toyota Atlantic Cost Reduction ...

[Cygni]

INDIANAPOLIS (August 12, 2003) - In an effort to maintain a high level of
competition while reducing teams' operating costs, CART Toyota Atlantic
Championship officials today announced plans to implement several new
regulations that will take effect for the 2004 racing season in the areas of
testing and technical specifications.

Within the next month, the series will identify off-season testing rules for
teams in the series, and will limit the number of days that teams will be
allowed to test during the off-season. This will be the first time that
off-season testing will be limited by the series. Once the 2004 season
schedule is available, the series will announce in-season testing rules, and
by limiting in-season and off-season testing, teams should realize a
significant savings to their operating budgets.

On the technical side, the series is moving forward with plans for a single
engine builder for the 2004 season. This will provide an opportunity to
prepare all engines with an eye toward equality and prevent changes in
configuration during the season. The CART Toyota Atlantic Championship and
Toyota Racing Development (TRD) will also look to reduce costs by working
with the engine builder to improve mileage between engine rebuilds.

Likewise, the series is investigating the possibility of using specified
components such as shocks and limited slip differentials. Announcements
identifying the single engine builder and specified component providers will
be made after agreements are finalized. In addition to lowering costs for
the teams, another goal of the new regulations is to maintain parity on the
race track.

"One of the biggest challenges every racing team faces -- no matter what
series they choose to compete in -- is putting together a proper budget to
compete in a season," said CART Toyota Atlantic Championship President Vicki
O'Connor. "While racing is inherently expensive, we have listened to our
teams in their requests for assistance in reducing their budgets, and these
new regulations are a direct response to their concerns. We feel that these
regulations will provide balance to our fields and make it significantly
easier for all teams to compete on relatively equal footing in 2004 and
beyond."

The CART Toyota Atlantic Championship is one of the world's premier
open-wheel development series and the top rung on the CART Champ Car "Ladder
System." The series boasts $100,000 race purses and is noted for its long
history of graduating its stars into Champ Car competition. Among the
drivers who have graduated from Atlantic are current Champ Car competitors
Jimmy Vasser, Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani, Roberto Moreno, Ryan
Hunter-Reay and Rodolfo Lavin, as well as former Champ Car champions Bobby
Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Michael Andretti and Jacques Villeneuve.

The thing i find stupid? "
On the technical side, the series is moving forward with plans for a single
engine builder for the 2004 season. This will provide an opportunity to
prepare all engines with an eye toward equality and prevent changes in
configuration during the season. The CART Toyota Atlantic Championship and
Toyota Racing Development (TRD) will also look to reduce costs by working
with the engine builder to improve mileage between engine rebuilds. "

Hello? Bueller? Comptech lost their last customer earlier in the year do to team politics, AKA Certain people believing that they MUST be down on horsepower, because they are such an AMAZING team with an AMAZING driver talent... then switching engines, and finding themselves WORSE in almost every race, but i digress. Hasselgren IS THE ONLY ENGINE SUPPLIER IN TA. Amazing work "moving forward" on those plans. Ridiculous.

[dog-ring]

The engine contract was up this year and they have been looking at reducing the costs charged by the previous builders. I have heard of several engine builders interested in the contract.