Preview: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The FedEx Championship Series launched its 2001 schedule in spectacular fashion last month with an inaugural event in
Monterrey, Mexico that drew 116,000 fans on race day and 318,000 over the four-day weekend - now, the series returns to the United States for one of its traditional crown jewels.

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is round two of the championship, scheduled over 82 laps of the 1.968mile temporary street circuit located in downtown Long Beach, California, and marking CART's 18th appearance at the venue since 1984.

While its annual visit to Long Beach has become one of CART's great institutions, the series arrives with a bit of a new look as Cristiano da Matta of Newman-Haas Racing sits atop the drivers' championship for the first time in his three-year career. da Matta, the 1998 Dayton Indy Lights champion, assumed top spot by virtue of his victory at Monterrey in his debut with the Newman-Haas team last month, and says he aims to stay there.

"We were able to get the season off to a good start by winning in Mexico and I think it will only get better after we get a few races under our belts together," the Brazilian said, "My expectations are good for Long Beach. We have had good off-season tests at
Sebring, which is a bumpy track and the same kind of rough circuit as we have at Long Beach. So, I would imagine that we are going to have a good competitive car there. I won at Long Beach in Indy Lights in 1998 but have not done so well since then in my two races in a Champcar."

da Matta, who spent his first two Champcar seasons with PPI Motorsports, stepped into the Newman-Haas seat vacated by Michael Andretti when Andretti joined Team Motorola at the start of this season. While the Brazilian, who has 21 points so far this season, is new to the championship lead, his nearest rivals are anything but and each has enjoyed success on the streets of Long Beach.

Coming off a runner-up finish in Mexico, defending CART champion Gil de Ferran of Marlboro Team Penske stands second with 16
points. He is also a three-time and defending pole-sitter at Long Beach - 1996, '97 and 2000 - and owns the track qualifying record of 104.969mph, established last year.

Paul Tracy, the defending Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach champion, finished third in the season opener and thus stands third in
the championship with 14 points. He claimed his first career CART series victory at Long Beach in 1993 and earned the pole in
1994. His victory from the 17th starting position last year represented the second-deepest position on the grid from which anyone has driven to victory in a CART road- or street-course event.

Michael Andretti holds down fourth place in the championship with 12 points after finishing fourth at Mexico in his Team
Motorola debut. The American, who announced last week that he would be competing in this year's Indianapolis 500 for the first time since 1995, is CART's all-time victory leader, with 40 wins, one of which came at Long Beach in 1986. He also has nine top-ten finishes and three pole positions - 1991, '92 and '95 - to his credit in 16 career starts at the venue.

Other former Long Beach winners on this weekend's entry list include a pair of drivers who parlayed triumphs at Long Beach into FedEx Championship Series championships during their tenure at Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

Jimmy Vasser, now with Patrick Racing, won at Long Beach during his championship-winning campaign of 1996, while Alex
Zanardi, now at Mo Nunn Racing, captured back-to-back Long Beach victories in 1997 and '98 en route to series titles
in both those seasons.

By starting this weekend's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Jimmy Vasser will take sole possession of tenth place on the CART career starts list, with 149. Vasser tied the late Scott Brayton at 148 career starts when he started the 11 March Tecate Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix in Monterrey, where he went on to finish sixth overall.

In five of the past seven seasons, the winner at Long Beach has gone on to claim the championship. In addition to Vasser and
Zanardi, the feat was also accomplished by Al Unser Jr. in 1994 and Juan Montoya in 1999. Paul Tracy went into the last round of the 2000 series with an outside chance of landing the title, but eventually lost out to Gil de Ferran

Honda-powered drivers have won the past five events contested at Long Beach, getting victories from Vasser, Zanardi, Montoya and Tracy. Honda also owns four of the past five poles at Long Beach. Three of them came from de Ferran, with the other the property of Zanardi's Mo Nunn team-mate Tony Kanaan, in 1999.

Last year, Paul Tracy recorded the 16th victory of his ten-year Champcar career and his second on the streets of Long Beach, Calif. when he captured the 2000 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The victory gave Tracy sole possession of eighth place on CART's all-time victory list, breaking a tie with two-time FedEx Championship Series champion Alex Zanardi. The Canadian led the final 21 laps of the 82-lap event en route to a 3.191secs victory over Helio Castroneves of Marlboro Team Penske. Jimmy Vasser (Target-Ganassi Toyota Lola) finished third. Tracy's victory allowed him to take a 34-26 points lead over Vasser into round three of the championship in Brazil. Max Papis of Team Rahal stood third in the championship with 20 points.

Long Beach race history
(17 events - race winner/pole position)

1984 Mario Andretti Mario Andretti
1985 Mario Andretti Mario Andretti
1986 Michael Andretti Danny Sullivan
1987 Mario Andretti Mario Andretti
1988 Al Unser Jr Danny Sullivan
1989 Al Unser Jr Al Unser Jr
1990 Al Unser Jr Al Unser Jr
1991 Al Unser Jr Michael Andretti
1992 Danny Sullivan Michael Andretti
1993 Paul Tracy Nigel Mansell
1994 Al Unser Jr Paul Tracy
1995 Al Unser Jr Michael Andretti
1996 Jimmy Vasser Gil de Ferran
1997 Alex Zanardi Gil de Ferran
1998 Alex Zanardi Bryan Herta
1999 Juan Montoya Tony Kanaan
2000 Paul Tracy Gil de Ferran