Mario and Pat step down from CART board.

Racing legends Mario Andretti and CART Champ Car co-founder UE 'Pat' Patrick will relinquish their positions as members of the Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc board of directors next month, although both plan to stay involved in the sport they have helped define for five decades.

Andretti is stepping down to enter into a more defined business relationship with CART Champ Car and the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. He is currently a spokesperson for the open-wheel racing sanctioning body in which he won his fourth and final Champ Car title in 1984.

Most recently, Andretti served as liaison for CART Champ Car and Road America, helping reinstate the long-time Champ Car race at Elkhart Lake, which resulted in the renaming of the 3 August event as the 'Mario Andretti Grand Prix at Road America Presented by Briggs & Stratton'.

"I've very much enjoyed serving on CART's board of directors, and I'll continue to be a very active and vocal supporter of CART and Champ Car racing," Andretti said, "CART's unique mix of road, street courses and ovals continues to be the best challenge in racing and a true test of a race car driver, and I will always support that challenge."

Patrick, one of the most respected names in Champ Car racing, and CART's first president, will also not stand for re-election. He will continue to pursue his many business interests in addition to his role as owner of Patrick Racing, which finished second in the latest round of the 2003 series, under lights in Milwaukee, with Oriol Servia.

Patrick and Andretti will formally step down from the board at next month's annual meeting of stockholders at the company's Indianapolis headquarters, where respected businessman Robert D Biggs will be up for election to the board.

Biggs retired from the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers in October 1999, where he served as the managing partner of the company's office in Peoria, Illinois from 1984-1990. He was also the managing partner of the Indianapolis office from 1992-1999. Biggs has been the responsible partner for accounting services for a variety of New York Stock Exchange listed companies throughout his career.