Snow halts Nazareth CART.

Bad weather had been forecast, but no-one was quite expecting snow to force the cancellation of Nazareth's Champcar event this weekend.

Two inches fell on the Pennsylvania circuit overnight, leaving CART chief steward Kirk Russell with no option but to officially cancel all racing. The Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix Presented by Toyota will now be run on Saturday 27 May.

The forecast for the rest of the day consisted of less snow, but with high winds it was deemed prudent not to risk an incident. It was better for Monday but, with round three of the series scheduled for Long Beach, California next weekend, the usual option of running a day late was also ruled out.

The cancellation marked the first occasion on which snow had fallen on a CART weekend. The previous occurrence cancelled qualifying for the US 500 at Michigan, although the race eventually went ahead.

''It's just one of those things,'' said PacWest's Mauricio Gugelmin, who was content to watch the San Marino Grand Prix on television, before flying home to Florida, ''Everyone kind of expected weather would be a problem with this date, but hoped it wouldn't happen. To be honest, we were pushing our luck. Even if we run tomorrow, it will still be cold, and you risk losing a couple of cars.

''I've got the pilots de-icing the jet, and Gil [de Ferran] and Max [Papis] have already called me trying to hitch a ride back to Miami - we'll be on the beach by mid-afternoon!''