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CART fans will miss Montoya

Followers of the Champ Cars series have shown just how much they will miss Formula 1-bound Juan Pablo Montoya next season by voting him CART's Most Popular Driver for the second year running

The departing Ganassi star picked up the majority of the 20,000 votes polled, with Michael Andretti second, followed by Adrian Fernandez, Jimmy Vasser and Paul Tracy.

"I was disappointed that I wasn't able to repeat as the CART champion this year," said the Colombian when he claimed his award at the CART banquet on Monday evening, "but I'm very excited to win a second straight Most Popular Driver award.

"It means a lot to me that people enjoy watching me race, because that's what I love to do."

Montoya will have his first outing proper with the Williams F1 team in December when the teams begin their 2001 testing programmes. F1 fans will be eager to see just how quickly he can get to grips with grooved tyres and get on the pace.

But CART fans are well acquainted with his achievements thus far. In his two seasons with Ganassi, he won 10 races, 14 pole positions and the 1999 drivers' title. He had just turned 24 when he won his title, making him the youngest ever CART champion. He also has the record of most laps led for the past two seasons and is the current Indy 500 winner.

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