The London Champ Car Trophy has arrived!!

The skies are overcast, the crowds are gathering and the traffic is building up nicely on the A20, the most eagerly anticipated event on the 2003 British Motorsports calendar is here a last... the London Champ Car Trophy.

Although the blue skies, warm temperatures and sunshine witnessed on Sunday has yet to make a raceday reappearance over the 1.2-mile Brands Hatch Indy circuit, excitement levels are building ahead of what promises to be a closely fought affair amongst 19 of the world's top drivers and their brutish 800hp turbo-charged Champ Cars.

Ahead lies 165 intense; physically gruelling laps around the wonderfully compact Indy circuit where passing is expected to be extremely difficult but the racing very close nonetheless.

Set to lead the field across the starting line for the 2pm (UK Time) start is Player's Forsythe Racing's Paul Tracy, who goes searching for a fourth consecutive race victory in his No.3 Lola-Ford.

Leading the jostling pack behind him will be Newman-Haas Racing teammate's Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira, both of whom are looking to score the defending Championship winning team's first victory of the 2003 season while Harrogate's own Darren Manning keeps the flag flying for Britain and will start eighth

Prior to the race start the Champ Cars will take place in a 30-minute warm-up session set to begin at 10am local time. With temperatures much lower than on Sunday, teams will be trying to revert their set-ups to something more similar to that used on Saturday, when conditions were similarly blustery.