Chassis limit could thwart Lola

The IRL apparently plans to limit the number of chassis manufacturers to three and sent a letter requesting that all interested manufacturers re-submit their application to compete by April 15. Dallara and GForce have participated in the league since 1997 and both have indicated that they plan to continue when the IRL formula is updated for 2003. The IRL letter was also issued to Lola as well as Penske Cars, Reynard Motorsport, Swift and an unnamed Japanese manufacturer.

"We applied in April, 2001, and although our letter was never approved, we had some IRL people at our factory over the winter and we've already spent about 750,000 US dollars on the programme," remarked Lola's US president, Dan Partel.

"But there were two themes in the letter than concern us - the first said you had to have IRL experience, which Lola doesn't. And the second suggested that to be an IRL supplier, you couldn't supply chassis to another series."

CART announced in October that it planned to adopt the basic IRL engine and chassis rules for 2003 in an effort to harmonize American open-wheel racing. Lola has maintained for several months that it would like to supply chassis to both series.

If Lola is indeed being blackballed from the IRL, it will mark the clearest indication yet that IRL founder Tony George will do everything he believes necessary to put CART out of business.

Patrick Racing's Jim McGee told ESPN: "I though things were starting to come together a little bit. I hope what we're hearing isn't the case because it would be very disappointing."