Rain halts CART season finale

With conditions getting worse and worse at Fontana, CART officials have postponed the 2000 title decider to Monday 18:00GMT.

The battle for the championship is now down to three drivers, with Roberto Moreno and Paul Tracy now unable to take the title. Meanwhile, Gil de Ferran, Adrian Fernandez and Kenny Brack have to sweat it out for another night before taking up where they left off on Monday morning.

Rain set in during a full course caution. Initially it looked set to be just a passing shower, with CART even ordering the teams to prepare for a restart around two hours after the initial green flag. No sooner had they done so, however, than the heavens opened properly, soaking the California Speedway.

Prior to the stoppage, Penske team-mates Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves had been swapping the lead between them. De Ferran's main title rival Adrian Fernandez had been struggling with understeer and had dropped to 17th position.

The yellows came out after Paul Tracy's engine blew shattering the engine cover and ending the Canadian's hopes. "There was no warning, nothing. We were just cruising, kind of taking it easy and all of a sudden we lost the engine.

"I looked at the car when I got out and the top of the engine was gone," Tracy added. "It's a disappointing day, but I can't complain. There's no reason to be upset, everyone involved in Team KOOL Green has done their best."

A piece of debris from Tracy's car flew into the suspension of Cristiano da Matta's PPI Reynard-Toyota, sending the Brazilian into the wall. It was while the safety crews were clearing up the mess that the rain began.

Autosport.com will be back to deliver lap-by-lap coverage on Monday.