CART TO BEGIN CRITICAL SEASON.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

Now that the dust has settled, the CART Champ Car Series begins its season Sunday in St. Petersburg, Fla., minus most of its stars, including Michael Andretti, Christian Fittipaldi and its reigning champion, Cristiano da Matta.

In addition, two of its engine manufacturers, Toyota and Honda, have defected to the rival Indy Racing League, leaving Ford-Cosworth as the sole power plant in the series. In what is evolving into a make-or-break season for CART, here is a look at who should contend for the championship, or more to the point, who is left:

Losing most of its recognizable drivers has left the CART championship wide open. Newly formed teams and rookie drivers have aspirations of winning races and even challenging for the Vanderbilt Cup. And there's little reason to think otherwise.

``It would be nice to have some top race winners like Bryan Herta and Max Papis,'' said former CART champion Jimmy Vasser, one of the few veteran drivers in the series, ``but there are a lot of good, young drivers that are very good so there's a lot more to it than just trying to get a guy in.''

Topping the list of CART title contenders is Bruno Junqueira, the 2002 runner-up who landed in the Newman-Haas entry da Matta drove to the championship last year. Da Matta has since moved on to Formula One. Junqueira is coming from Chip Ganassi Racing, which abandoned its CART program in favor of the Indy Racing League.

``I had a chance to choose to drive for them,'' Junqueira said about his new team owners, Carl Haas and Paul Newman. ``I knew they were a good team and a professional team. I talked to other teams, especially Ganassi. My goal first was to stay in CART. Newman-Haas was the only team I talked to that was 100 percent committed to CART.''

Patrick Carpentier is one of the few CART drivers who will remain with the team he drove for last year. The Player's Forsythe driver has the benefit of stability and experience, commodities most CART teams lack. His three career CART victories match Junqueira's total and that might be a liability for both as the season progresses.

Vasser, a Canoga Park-native driving for the newly formed American Spirit Team Johansson, is the only current CART driver who has won a CART championship. He won the title in 1996 while driving for Ganassi, the first of four consecutive CART championships for Ganassi.

His championship and experience make Vasser one of the top drivers, but he also will be dabbling in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Division this year. He is planning to enter 10-12 Busch Series races, and that might be a distraction during the CART season.

Alex Tagliani has emerged as a favorite despite never winning a CART race. He has five career podium finishes in 59 starts and finished a career-best eighth in points last year.

``Three years in CART was still a rookie when you were around guys like Jimmy (Vasser), (Paul) Tracy, Michael Andretti, but now there is going to be a lot of rookies in the series, and I am pretty sure knowing the tracks is an advantage,'' Tagliani said.

``They are going to be able to learn the track really quickly, but as for the fine tuning and the preparation with the engineer, the input and working together to go there as fast as possible, and getting the car out of the trailer, you know, quick. I think that's where the advantage is for me. But I think you can expect a season that's going to be pretty competitive.''

But he, like Vasser, is driving for a newly formed team, Rocketsports, owned by Paul Gentilozzi.

Paul Tracy, who has the most CART victories of any active driver with 19, will be Carpentier's teammate on the Player's Forsythe team. He was left looking for a ride after his former owner, Barry Green, left for the Indy Racing League with Andretti and Dario Franchiti.

Adrian Fernandez, Michel Jourdain Jr. and Roberto Moreno might be the only other drivers faithful CART fans will recognize. But name recognition isn't the biggest problem CART faces.

Christopher Pook, CART CEO and president, has done a commendable job securing enough teams and races to make the series viable. With the announcement of the Fittipaldi-Dingman team entering the series, the number of drivers set to the compete is 19, exactly where Pook said it would be when teams started leaving the series last year.

Races that were on the chopping block in England and Germany have been restored. And the addition of nighttime events will bring a new look to the sport.

But the last time a Ford-Cosworth engine won a CART title was when Jacques Villeneuve won the championship in 1995. The engines and the drivers are far from the best the sport has to offer.

Still, some say the crop of young drivers will rejuvenate CART. And having only one engine manufacturer will benefit the series.

``I think we all know it turned into almost an engine formula the last couple of years here with qualifying engines and all the rest of that,'' said Stefan Johansson, owner of Vasser's American Spirit Team. ``So I think that that's going to play a big part to level the playing field a little bit, especially for new teams like ourselves.''

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