CART Preview: Round 19 - Surfers Paradise.

Australia's glamorous Gold Coast is the setting for the penultimate round of this year's CART Fed-Ex Championship Series and although Gil De Ferran has a 19-point lead there are still eight other drivers who can win the title.

Surfers Paradise - the name says it all and with Olympic fever still very much gripping Australia, the Champ Car driver's and team's are in for a very special welcome when they take to the 2.8-mile circuit on Friday morning.

Surfers Paradise is one of the most popular tracks on the Champ Car calendar and the challenging ten turn temporary street course demands the very best out of both car and driver.

This year's Honda Indy 300 marks the 10th Anniversary of the event that became the first round of the CART Series to be held outside North America in 1990. Since then the event has grown in stature and popularity and this weekend sees a bumper programme on offer for the fans.

In addition to the Champ Car event, the roaring Holden and Ford V8's of the Australian Touring Car Championship will grace the beautiful coastal resort. The Australian fans will also get a chance to cheer one of their own in the main event as Jason Bright takes the place of Memo Gidley in the Della Penna outfit this weekend.

However the main focus will be on the Championship contenders as Gil De Ferran needs only to outscore his rivals by three points this weekend to take his first Fed-Ex title and Penske's first since 1994. With 153 points, the Brazilian driver holds a 19-point advantage over Team KOOL Green's Paul Tracy who is just three points clear of Roberto Moreno and seven clear of Michael Andretti and Adrian Fernandez.

Others still in with a shout are Juan Montoya (31 adrift), Kenny Brack (35 back), Helio Castroneves and Jimmy Vasser who are both 36 points behind De Ferran with just 44 left available. It may take a minor miracle for the latter four to emerge as 2000 CART Champion but in a season of great unpredictability, anything is possible and everyone still in mathematical contention will be trying harder than ever.

Sunday's 65-lap race will be critical for many reasons. If De Ferran strikes trouble then the door would be thrown wide open for everyone else to reduce his lead at the head of the table but on the flip side of the coin, one mistake from any of the pursuing pack would signal the end of their Championship challenge. Finding the limits of the car will be of the utmost importance this weekend.

De Ferran's Team Penske Reynard-Honda will certainly be amongst the pace-setters when practice gets underway and the Brazilian will be hoping that the Team Penske package, which has been consistently good all year, continues its stranglehold on the event, which it won with Dario Franchitti last year.

Surprisingly no one has ever won at Surfers more than once although of the title contenders, Andretti, Vasser and Tracy have all tastes victory here in the past. Michael has particularly fond memories of the venue as he won the 1994 event for Reynard in their debut race and on his return to the series after a disastrous Formula One campaign with McLaren.

Andretti will have to pick himself up after another bad result in Houston and the Lola-Ford driver has to regain momentum after watching his once comfortable Championship lead evaporate. Lola may not be quite the match for Reynard on street courses and yet again Michael will have to rely on his immense experience to keep him at the front.

Of the other Championship contenders, Montoya and Vasser are the only other Lola exponents and the Target/Chip Ganassi team is currently riding the crest of a wave after scoring its first one-two for Toyota in Houston. Both drivers are very much Championship outsiders and Montoya was not comfortable with the track last year but with the car and engine now working well, the two red cars could be the team to beat this weekend.

Dario Franchitti must be wondering what he is doing wrong after squandering yet another chance to score his first win of the year. The Scotsman produced possibly the race of his Champ Car career here last year as he scored a maximum 22 points to take the Championship lead. This year it is difficult to see that happening, not because he is off the pace but because he simply cannot get a break.

There are several other potential championship spoilers present this weekend including Max Papis, Christian Fittipaldi and Tony Kanaan, all of whom are capable of springing a surprise result. Papis was second last year while Fittipaldi has been carrying the Newman-Haas torch for much of the second half of the season despite his lowly championship position. Kanaan meanwhile has come on strongly in the Mo Nunn Reynard-Mercedes in recent races and he would dearly love to send Mercedes out of the CART series on something of a high-note.