DIAZ LOOKS STRONG AT MONTREAL AFTER SCORING FOURTH IN PROVISIONAL QUALIFYING

                
                        
        MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada (August 22, 2003) - A tremendous effort
prefaced a tremendous result as Luis Diaz, of Mexico City, expertly
maneuvered around Montreal's Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve to finish fourth
place in provisional qualifying for Saturday's 10th round of the 12-race
Toyota Atlantic Championship.

        Diaz, who was coming off one of his better morning practice
sessions of the season where he ran as high as third quickest, recorded a
fast lap of 1:33.972 (103.780 mph) in the Telmex//Dorricott Racing Swift
014a. Michael Valiante, of Canada, won the provisional pole with 1:33.225
(104.611 mph).

        Today results create a near "showdown" style of final qualifying on
Saturday morning in preparation for tomorrow afternoon's 27-lap race
(73.143 miles) around the 13-turn, 2.709-mile Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

        Although Valiante is confident and experienced at Montreal, he will
be challenged in final qualifying by Diaz as well as provisional outside
pole sitter Aaron Justice (1:33.781 = 103.991 mph) and third place
qualifier Danica Patrick (1:33.870 = 103.893 mph). Right on the heels of
Diaz is Ryan Dalziel at 1:34.162 (103.570 mph). Diaz will be seeking his
second pole of the year when tomorrow morning's one-hour final qualifying
session that begins at 8:45 a.m. (ET).

        "We started the day strong," said Diaz. "We made a couple of
changes when the car began to mishandle and they proved to be the right
changes. The car improved nearly immediately. In practice and qualifying
the car was running faster. Unfortunately, traffic got in my way in the
final two laps so I didn't find a clear lap just when I thought the car was
at its best. I think the car is really good but the unknown factor is how
well Allmendinger will be when he gets back to the track for tomorrow's for
final qualifying. At least we are close to where we think we should be for
the race and we are running among the front-runners."

        Series leader A.J. Allmendinger slid off-course with a blown motor
with less than a minute to go in a 20-minute warm-up that preceded the
qualifying session. He was unable to complete the session but is expected
to qualify a car tomorrow.

        Saturday's Atlantic race is scheduled to begin at 3:15 p.m. (ET).
Live Timing & Scoring data from every session is available on the official
web site of the CART Toyota Atlantic Championship, www.toyotaatlantic.com.

        peeChannel will provide a same-day delayed broadcast for the
Montreal Atlantic race on Saturday, August 23, at 4:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m.
PT). Encore telecasts are scheduled for Sunday, August 24, 3:00 a.m. ET
(12:00 midnight PT), and Friday, August 29, at 5:00 p.m. ET (2:00 p.m. PT)