• Good Morning from the beautiful northern mountains of Mexico for the opening day of the 2001 Champ Car season and for Round One of the FedEx Championship Series, the Tecate Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix Presented by Herdez! Blue skies and calm winds have greeted the early arrivals to the 2.104- mile, 3.387-kilometer Fundidora Park in Monterrey, Mexico. Temperatures are expected to be in the low seventies by the Green Flag for today’s morning practice sessions. The remainder of the weekend’s weather has partly cloudy skies and mild temperatures for Saturday and Sunday’s forecast.

• The CART on-track schedule features the weekend’s first practice session taking the Green Flag at 9:30 a.m. This full-field session will last two hours. At 1:30 p.m., the FedEx Championship Series teams will again take to the track for the one-hour, 45 minute-afternoon practice session. Saturday’s schedule has the Champ Cars again on track at 9:45 a.m. for the 90-minute morning practice session. CART qualifying will then follow, scheduled from 1:45 p.m. to 3 p.m. This single qualifying session will be in the split-group format with the fastest two drivers from previous road/street course qualifying session (last season’s Honda Indy in Australia) joining the drivers with the most points in last year¡¦s title chase in Group Two. Group One will be made up of the other half (lower point totals) of the field. Each group will be on-track for 30 minutes with a 15-minute break between the two Groups. Sunday’s schedule has the traditional 30-minute warm-up beginning at 11 a.m. followed by the Green Flag for the Tecate Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix Presented by Herdez at 3 p.m. CT (All times are local).

• Quite a few changes have taken place in the Champ Car ranks in the off-season leading up to this weekend’s Round One of the FedEx Championship Series season. First, of course, the 2000 Points Champion, GIL de FERRAN takes over the traditional #1 in his Marlboro Team Penske Honda Reynard, leaving #2 unused this season. Teammate HELIO CASTRONEVES remains in the #3.The Target Chip Ganassi Racing Toyota Lola #4 will be piloted this season by Brazilian rookie contender BRUNO JUNQUEIRA with the #12 being piloted by fellow rookie, Frenchman NICOLAS MINASSIAN. The #5 Walker Racing Pioneer/Denso Toyota Reynard will also be piloted by a Rookie contender this year, Japanese driver TORA TAKAGI. Newman/Haas will run the Toyota powerplants this year in both cars with the #6 Texaco/Havoline Toyota Lola now driven by Brazilian CRISTIANO da MATTA, taking the seat of former driver MICHAEL ANDRETTI. #11 CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI becomes the senior driver of the team in his #11 Kmart-sponsored Toyota Lola. Team Rahal switches to Lola chassis this year for the Miller Lite Ford of #7 MAX PAPIS and #8 KENNY BRACK, last year’s Rookie of the Year. Popular Mexican driver MICHEL JOURDAIN Jr. returns to the #16 Herdez-sponsored Ford Lola. Rookie SCOTT DIXON from New Zealand takes over the controls of the #18 PacWest Racing Group Toyota Reynard behind departed driver Mark Blundell. And to make you feel a bit old, DIXON is the first driver born in the 1980’s to compete at CART’s highest level. CART veteran team Dale Coyne Racing has also placed a Rookie driver, German MICHAEL KRUMM, in his #19 Ford Lola sponsored by The Dark Dog. The #21 Dale Coyne entry will be piloted by LUIZ GARCIA Jr. Sigma Autosport is a new team this year, campaigning in the #22 Ford Lola with Brazilian ORIOL SERVIA at the wheel. Another new entry with a Rookie contender is in place in the #25 Arciero Brooke Racing winner B2B-sponsored Lola with Brazilian MAX WILSON at the helm and powered by a new face in the CART engine manufacturers line-up this year, Phoenix. No changes are in place at Team KOOL Green, #26 driven by Canadian PAUL TRACY and #27 by Scotsman DARIO FRANCHITTI in Honda Reynards. Ditto for Player’s Forsythe Racing; #32 wheeled by veteran Canadians PATICK CARPENTIER and #33 by second-year driver ALEX TAGLIANI, both still utilizing the Ford Reynard combination. One change that definitely doesn’t involve a CART Rookie is the new Team Motorola Honda Reynard entry #39 piloted by former FedEx Series Champion MICHAEL ANDRETTI. Patrick Racing’s #40 Toyota Reynard, teammate to #20 ROBERTO MORENO, will be driven by JIMMY VASSER, taking the place of departed driver and new CART team owner ADRIAN FERNANDEZ. The popular Mexican star FERNANDEZ will campaign his two cars this year, personally driving the Tecate/Quaker State Telmex Honda Reynard #51 and teammate Japanese ace SHINJI NAKANO in the Avex/Alpine-sponsored #52. Former two-time Champion ALEX ZANARDI returns to the FedEx Championship Series from a short retirement in his homeland of Italy, taking over the wheel in the #66 Moe Nunn Racing Pioneer/ WorldCom Honda Reynard, joining teammate TONY KANAAN in the #55. American BRYAN HERTA returns to the series full-time this year in the #77 Zakspeed/Forsythe Racing Ford Reynard.

• GREEN FLAG waves at 9:30 a.m. to start the first practice session of the weekend and the 2001 season. Firestone engineers report a track temperature of 79 degrees F. (26 degrees C.) and an ambient temperature of 76 degrees F. (24 degrees C.) at the start of the session.

• At 9:30:50.0 a.m., #40X VASSER is the first driver to pull on the brand-new Fundidora Park Race Course. At 9:32 a.m., #5X TAKAGI is the first driver to log an official lap on the course with an average speed of 35.734 mph.

• At 9:40 a.m., 10 minutes into the session, the fastest driver is now #11X FITTIPALDI with a lap of 69.959 mph (1:49.839), followed by #18X DIXON (67.574 mph; 1:42.090) and #22X (67.522 mph; 1:42.177).

• At 9:50 a.m., 20 minutes into the session the fastest driver is now #20X MORENO with a lap of 70.161 mph (1:47.958), followed by #17X GUGELMIN (69.501 mph; 1:48.982) and #18X BLUNDELL (69.060 mph; 1:49.678).

• At 10 a.m., 30 minutes into the session, the fastest driver is now #11 FITTPALDI with a lap of 70.313 mph (1:47.724), followed by #20X MORENO (70.161 mph; 1:47.958) and #17X GUGELMIN (69.501 mph; 1:48.982). Most drivers have turned four to six timed-laps with each driver probably having four or more laps that were "out-and-back-in," thus not starting the timing equipment.

• RED FLAG waves at 10:07 a.m. to allow CART course workers to inspect the new race surface and also to allow CART safety workers to clean the track with the jet blower.

• At 10:10 a.m., 40 minutes into the session and under the RED FLAG, the fastest driver is #3 CASTRONEVES with a lap of 73.155 mph (1:43.539), followed by #11 FITTIPALDI (71.158 mph; 1:46.445) and #19 KRUMM (70.349 mph; 1:47.669). KRUMM has turned the most timed laps with 10, with most drivers logging three to five laps. The fastest trap speed is #11 FITTPALDI with a speed of 141.173 mph at the Start/Finish Line, followed by #32 CARPENTIER with a clocking of 139.506 mph.

• At 10:15 a.m., CART Race Control announces that the support series, the Copa McCormick Campeonato Mustangs, will take to the track for their first practice session, scheduled to end at 10:55 a.m. It is also anticipated that the heavier Mustangs will scrub in some rubber into the new surface to generate more grip (traction) for all of the series to compete this weekend. The schedule will now be altered to accommodate the traction-enhancing efforts.

• At 10:53 a.m., CART Race Control announces that the first Indy Lights practice of the weekend will take to the track at 11:10 a.m., running until 11:50 a.m. The Champ Cars will return to the track at 12:45 p.m., running until 3:15 p.m.