Rule changes introduced to spice up 2002.

In addition to the locking down a long-term Champcar technical package, the CART Franchise Board also approved several rules and resolutions that are designed to enhance the racing competition in the 2002 FedEx Championship Series.

Among the mandates of new CART president and CEO Chris Pook is to increase the 'show' value of CART racing events in order to provide a better and more entertaining event for race fans on site and watching FedEx Championship Series races on television.

"We established, at the St Petersburg board meeting, an environment in which the world's automotive manufacturers and sponsors could justify a new or continuing involvement in CART with the establishment of our four-year rules freeze that will be applied to the new race car package," Pook said.

"Now, we need to shift our attention to our current situation as we head into the 2002 FedEx Championship Series season. We believe that the series provides one of the most entertaining forms of motorsport in the world. Our new partnership with the Fox family of networks, anchored by an unprecedented level of programming on Fox, CBS and SPEED Channel, gives us an outstanding opportunity to showcase our sport in new and innovative ways.

"In order to do this, I urged the board to consider several enhancements to our racing events and I am delighted and grateful that they saw fit to clear the majority of these initiatives yesterday."

The list of enhancements includes the following:

* the return of Friday qualifying at road course races and a revised qualifying procedure that will see the fastest driver from each day of qualifying awarded a bonus point. Each race's pole winner will again be determined by the fastest lap of both Friday and Saturday qualifying sessions, but the provisional pole winner will be guaranteed a front row starting spot regardless of the outcome of final qualifying;

"These enhancements add a couple of additional elements in qualifying on which fans can focus," Pook said, "The front row 'lock' truly awards drivers that are putting it all on the line for the fans on Friday, while the second-day single point bonus creates something for the drivers to shoot for, even in the event of a rain situation.

"Considering the 1999 FedEx Championship Series ended deadlocked [with Juan Montoya winning on a tiebreaker], you can believe drivers will always try to get every point available to them."

* additional qualifying enhancements including the establishment of a maximum of 15 timed laps per session with a guaranteed 45 minutes (of a 60-minute session) of green flag time at road course events. Additionally, all race cars will qualify in one group.

* the penalty for creating a red flag situation in road course qualifying has also been changed. Drivers causing such conditions will now lose their fastest lap in that session rather than be parked for eight minutes in the pits as has been the case the last few seasons. The practice of carry over penalties to the next race has also been abolished;

* oval track qualifying order will also revert to the inverse of that weekend's total practice speeds, with the fastest drivers of the weekend to that point qualifying last. Pit-lane speed limits have also been abolished in oval track qualifying.

"These efforts are being done to put a little showmanship into our qualifying," Pook said, "By having the limited number of laps in road course qualifying, it will be easy to anticipate when a driver is going to make a flying run for the pole.

"On the ovals, lifting the speed limit will bring back tyre warming burnouts as drivers head on to the track to make a qualifying run. And eliminating eight-minute stoppages as penalties will keep our cars and drivers on the race track where they should be. This is all great stuff."

* race finishes under caution have also been addressed with CART committing to red flag stoppages for late-race incidents whenever possible. Extended full-course caution flag periods will also be minimised and CART will now follow the worldwide FIA standard for local caution flag periods whenever possible. This basically lengthens the on-track area of the local caution period from flag station to flag station while leaving the pits open the entire time.

"Even if it comes down to 'green-white-checker' we want our races to end under green when we can," Pook said, "And the more local yellows we have, the more we can keep the pits open and the more racing we can keep on the track."

* Timed races and fuel conscious 'economy runs' have also been given some needed attention. Although miles-per-gallon fuel stipulations will still be in place, CART race operations will develop a formula that will give competitors more than enough fuel to compete 'flat out' in FedEx Championship Series races. The details of this exact formula will be announced at a later date. Additionally, timed races will rarely be mandated this season due in large part to the increased amount of television time available within the SPEED Channel relationship.

"A timed race may occasionally be required but the trend of such timed races becoming the norm rather than the exception is over," Pook said, "Our fans and competitors deserve a full show and that is what they will get. And the fact that competitors will no longer be constrained by fuel restrictions is just another addition to the package.

"This all comes down to creating a competitive and entertaining show."