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It Never Snows in Long Beach, California

© Gary Presley

Home from church, find the remote, check the TV schedule for the starting time of the CART race, and the first thing I see is a white-haired Mario Andretti. Okay, he's retired, but I didn't think his hair was totally white.

Wait! That's snow. Snow in Nazareth, and the cars are on the transporters. No racing today, unless you want to watch the full-fendered tanks on the bullring at Martinsville.

Quoting Speedvision, "According to CART CEO Andrew Craig, the decision to postpone until late May and not try to race tomorrow was made because (a) there's no guarantee that the weather would be any better tomorrow, (b) the teams have to be in Long Beach, Calif. by Thursday for next weekend's race and (c) the fans will have to return to work tomorrow and this gives them a better chance to see the race."

Nazareth will be run Saturday, May 27th, which happens to be one day prior to the Indy 500. CART also specified that qualifying times will stand, which put Juan Montoya's Toyota/Lola on the pole for the Bosch Spark Plug Gran Prix.

If you've been keeping up with CART, and with the machinations of Craig, the team owners, Tony George and the IRL, you know that the Target-Chip Ganassi Team entered the Indy 500. That means Montoya and Vasser will hop out of their Lolas and head for the Hoosier State to compete in the Big Race the following day.

Nazareth would've proved an interesting race. Good grief, there was a Toyota-powered car on the pole, and Dan Gurney - owner of the team who put in several hard years of development work to make the engine competitive - was sitting home in California while Chip Ganassi got the glory.

Now, according to Seventhgear , Dan Gurney's AAR team will reenter the fray with Swifts powered by Fords. Gurney's has history with Ford, and Swift could use the heart and smarts of a Gurney to rub on its chassis and find the magic to make them equal to the Lolas and Reynards. If it can be done, the legendary driver/owner/engineer can do it.

But Gurney won't have a team at Long Beach, which is the next race for the CART gang. The cars are on the transporters heading west, the drivers are in their private planes heading off to personal appearances, and the people at Long Beach are busy turning the city streets into a newly designed race course.

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