McDonald's leading sponsors back to CART?

Starting the year with a grid half full on unsponsored cars, Chris Pook and the rest of the CART Series have been working hard to try and entice some of America's major brand names back into the sport to try and replace companies like Marlboro, Target, KOOL, Texaco/Havoline and now Player's.

Although a number of rather modest sponsorship deals have been signed during the opening months of the season, Newman-Haas Racing's new three-race deal with McDonald's is the biggest step yet for the series, as Ronald and Co. becomes the first global brand to re-test the Champ Car waters.

In a fairy-tale start to their new relationship, series rookie Sebastien Bourdais brought McDonald's a victory in their first race with the defending series Champion team, as well as a third win for pharmaceutical industry leader Lilly this season. In addition to last weekend's Champ Car race at Cleveland, McDonald's alliance with Newman-Haas Racing includes Round 15, the Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver on August 31st and Round 16, the Grand Prix Americas in Miami on September 28th.

The victory marked the third on the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season for Bourdais who took the chequered flag 2.241 seconds in front of veteran series points leader Paul Tracy of Player's/Forsythe Racing.

The 24 year-old Bourdais, the latest addition to the NHR fraternity of top calibre drivers, is proving he belongs in CART with backing from one of America's most recognizable companies.

"It feels very good, obviously, because the car turned red for this event with the arrival of McDonald's to complete the Lilly partnership," said Bourdais. "I'm very glad of that because it looked like the black car was a synonym of bad luck and now it's gone. I'm just very proud to score my first win in US. It was an awesome race."

The exposure gained by racing in the Champ Car World Series is starting to help the newer teams in the paddock earn sponsorship for their cars.

In addition to McDonald's relationship with Newman/Haas Racing, the Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing machine driven by Tiago Monteiro signed a deal with Carrera sunglasses as an associate sponsor while Craig Pollock's PK Racing entry with Max Papis behind the wheel inked a deal with Japhiro Swiss Watches. Walker Racing signed an associate deal with Air China for the #15 Reynard-Ford of Darren Manning while Geoff Boss in the #11 Dale Coyne entry has sponsorship from Lacoste and Cross Pens. Gevril watches have also done a deal with the #34 Mi-Jack/Conquest machine driven by Mario Haberfeld.

While the addition of the above list of sponsors is encouraging, many within the hierarchy of the series will be waiting anxiously for McDonalds to complete their three-race agreement and then do the sums to see what kind of advantages they gained from sponsorship a car in the CCWS. Should a company with the global exposure of McDonald's find their investment a wise one it would surely lure other major global brands to consider CART an alternative sponsorship outlet to the favoured NASCAR Winston Cup Championship, soon to be Nextel Cup.