Honda's CART pull-out

Honda's departure, which was expected in the wake of CART's sudden decision to adopt a normally-aspirated engine formula beginning one year earlier than expected in 2003, is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Champ Car sanctioning body.

Honda was known to be unhappy about building engines to Indy Racing League specifications, on which the as-yet unfinalised CART regulations are expected to be modeled. But American Honda executive vice-president Tom Elliott said on Friday that the new engine formula itself was just one element that affected Honda's decision to call it quits after one more year.

"This was not an easy decision, but there were two key reasons," Elliott said. "First it was the lack of engine rules stability. For any manufacturer, this is critical, and that has not been the situation in CART for the last year. Second is that we have lost our confidence and trust in CART. That is something that takes a long time to develop that can be erased very quickly.

"I think all of you know that every manufacturer, including Honda, invests a tremendous amount of time, money and effort in any racing programme. " Elliott added. "For us to continue to work in an environment where the sanctioning organisation has so little regard for its engine manufacturers is not really acceptable for us."

Elliott and Honda Performance Development general manager Robert Clarke said that they have been concerned about CART's decision making process over the last year. They cited several examples that influenced Honda's departure.

"It has been ongoing, and this year, there was the cancellation of the Rio race, the Texas situation, then the (turbo boost regulator valve) spacer," said Clarke. "We had growing concerns about CART, but when the spacer issue hit, it brought it to a whole new level. What came out of that process ­ the protest and the appeal ­ things came out of that process that were very disturbing to Honda.

"In our minds, CART was basically on notice. We were waiting to see if CART was able to conduct itself in a professional and consistent manner as an organization."

CART's recently-appointed senior vice-president of racing operations John Lopes reacted to Honda's announcement.

"We were disappointed to learn of the decision by Honda to not continue as a CART engine supplier in 2003," Lopes stated. "Honda has been a valued partner and supporter of the FedEx Championship Series and will be missed.

"CART is committed to creating engine specifications that are in the best interest of our sport. We believe this matter was of great enough importance that it was deliberated very seriously by all affected members of our organisation. That was done over several months by all those involved in this decision. CART has worked very closely with Honda, as well as our other engine suppliers, throughout this process and we understand their disappointment in the decision not going the way they were hoping it would.

"Our mission is to aggressively grow CART and CART racing and a significant element of that challenge is maintaining and building the technical and competition side of our sport. We are actively pursuing our engine supplier options and will continue to do so over the coming weeks and months. We are confident those efforts will develop engine alternatives that will enhance our sport."

Honda's move to leave the CART series will likely be viewed as a victory for Toyota in its lengthy political struggle with its Japanese rival over the future direction of American open wheel racing. By announcing its intention to build IRL engines in 2003 and to stop development on the turbocharged CART engine at the same time, Toyota essentially forced CART's hand in adopting the normally-aspirated formula in 2003, one year earlier than expected.

Toyota is also contracted to supply CART's revamped Formula Atlantic feeder series in the future and was also a key behind the scenes player in the implementation of the popoff valve spacer that caused so much grief in June and July.