Zakspeed team up with Forsythe for 2001 challenge.

Team Zakspeed Forsythe Racing became the second new outfit to announce their entry into the CART Fed-Ex Championship this weekend when team boss Peter Zakowski confirmed an exciting new partnership with Gerald Forsythe.

The German team will campaign a pair of Reynard-Ford's next year with current Forsythe contracted driver Bryan Herta and a top line German driver and the team effectively takes up the entry reserved for the mothballed Forsythe Championship Team, formerly Tasman Motorsports.

Zakspeed become the first European based outfit to tackle the CART Championship and although during the season, operations will be based in America, this is a major step on the road for the series. The German team have an enviable track record in almost every Formula they have been involved with and although success eluded them in Formula One, where they competed with the likes of Jonathon Palmer, Bernd Schneider and Martin Brundle between 1985 and the end of 1989, they are held in the same regard as Joest, Schnitzer and Kremer as multi talented preparation experts.

For Herta, the move represents a great opportunity to challenge for his first CART title and is just reward for a patient, if frustrating year on the sidelines after FCT were forced to withdraw from the series after a dispute with series organisers over Forsythe's stake in the team. Almost a year on and the dispute over TV rights has been largely resolved and Zakspeed are free to make their entry even with the involvement of Forsythe who also owns the Player's Forsythe Racing outfit.

The identity of the second driver remains a mystery although Zakowski's intention to have a German driver in the seat ends any hopes that Johnny Herbert retained of landing the deal. Arnd Meier was the last German to compete in the ed-Ex Series when he ran a half season with the back of the grid Payton-Coyne outfit. Ex-Formula One driver Christian Danner, who spent time in F1 with Zakspeed, is currently the most successful German driver to have competed in Champ Cars and was a regular in the series between 1991 and 1997.

"This is motorsport on the highest international level," said Zakowski on Saturday. "And with Forsythe Racing, we have got the best partner to be found." The veteran team-boss refused to be drawn on Herta's partner but whoever is chosen is almost certainly going to have a background in European circuit racing in either Formula 3000 or Formula 3.

Zakspeed's entry came on the same day that current title contender Adrian Fernandez confirmed that he is setting up his own operation for 2001 and boosts provisional grid numbers for next year's mammoth 22 race series to a massive 30 cars.