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CART

CART is an acronym for Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc, a company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana in the United States. It was founded in November 1978 by Roger Penske, Pat Patrick, Dan Gurney and several other team owners who had been participating in USAC Champ Car (Indycar) events. They oversaw the day-to-day business and sanctioning of Champ Car racing at locations that today include the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.

In 1909 the American Automobile Association (AAA) established the national driving championship and became the first sanctioning body for auto racing in the United States. In 1956, the United States Auto Club (USAC) was founded to take over sanctioning from the AAA which wanted to focus on its membership program. USAC controlled the championship until 1979 when CART took over. CART runs the Champ Car World Series, the Toyota Atlantic Championship and the Barber Dodge Pro Series

A CART car has a Ford Cosworth turbocharged, 2.65-liter (161.703 cubic inch) V-8 engine, fuelled by methanol to produce about 850 horsepower. It has a top speed of about 240mph. The car is 190 - 199 inches long, weighs 1,550 pounds, and sits on a 120 - 126 inch wheelbase.

CART, like its predecessor USAC, was dominated by North American drivers until the 1980s when former Formula One drivers like Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal, and Danny Sullivan competed. After former Formula One champion Emerson Fittipaldi won in 1989, the team managers finally conceded that European and South American drivers were highly competitive.

Non-US drivers discovered that competing in CART could often be more lucrative than an average career in Formula One and consequently there was an increased presence of non US drivers (from mainly Formula One and the European Formula 3000).

The easy victory of world champion Nigel Mansell in 1993 highlighted the competitiveness of non-US drivers which some interpreted as superiority. This led to a split of the series in 1994 due to a dispute between CART and Tony George, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The breakaway series, Indy Racing League (IRL), focused on ovals, whereas CART had and still has the versatility of speedways, street and road courses. CART drivers generally have street/road racing backgrounds and are considered by some to be more skilled than those in the IRL who have ovals-only backgrounds.

AAA Season Champions: (1909-1955)

1909 - George Robertson
1910 - Ray Harroun
1911 - Ralph Mulford
1912 - Ralph DePalma
1913 - Earl Cooper
1914 - Ralph DePalma
1915 - Earl Cooper
1916 - Dario Resta
1917 - Earl Cooper
1918 - Ralph Mulford
1919 - Howard Wilcox
1920 - Tommy Milton
1921 - Tommy Milton
1922 - Jimmy Murphy
1923 - Eddie Hearne
1924 - Jimmy Murphy
1925 - Peter DePaolo
1926 - Harry Hartz
1927 - Peter DePaolo
1928 - Louie Meyer
1929 - Louie Meyer
1930 - Billy Arnold
1931 - Louis Schneider
1932 - Bob Carey
1933 - Louie Meyer
1934 - Bill Cummings
1935 - Kelly Petillo
1936 - Mauri Rose
1937 - Wilbur Shaw
1938 - Floyd Roberts
1939 - Wilbur Shaw
1940 - Rex Mays
1941 - Rex Mays
1942 - 1945: No racing due to World War II
1946 - Ted Horn
1947 - Ted Horn
1948 - Ted Horn
1949 - Johnnie Parsons
1950 - Henry Banks
1951 - Tony Bettenhausen
1952 - Chuck Stevenson
1953 - Sam Hanks
1954 - Jimmy Bryan
1955 - Bob Sweikert

USAC Season Champions: (1956-1978)

CART Season Champions:

Other Less-Frequent Meanings of the CART Acronym

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "CART".