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The CART
FedEx Championship Series and series title sponsor, FedEx,
will be highlighted on Discovery Channel's popular series "On
The Inside" with the premier of "The Secret World of Air
Freight" on Friday, April 12 at 9:00 p.m. ET.
The program peels back the edges of the amazing enterprise of
air freight for a behind-the-scenes look at the machines,
systems and people working to keep our time-definite world
connected. The portion of the hour-long documentary that is
dedicated to the CART FedEx Championship Series highlights the
transportation and logistics expertise provided by FedEx in
shipping $70 million worth of race cars and equipment from the
U.S. to an overseas event.
The show follows PacWest Racing Group (now known as PWR
Championship Racing) as their Champ Cars and support equipment
goes on a 10,000-mile journey from its origination in
Indianapolis to its destination on the other side of the
world, Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia for the 2000
CART FedEx Championship Series Honda Indy 300.
"It's fabulous that the process of moving our equipment
overseas is going to be showcased on Discovery Channel," said
CART Director of Logistics Bill Kamphausen. "Most people
probably don't realize the magnitude of the effort it takes to
get our equipment to and from our overseas events. The fact of
the matter is that it takes a great deal of dedication and
cooperation between those of us within CART, our teams, our
event promoters, the government officials, and our friends at
FedEx. We're very fortunate that we've got such great
cooperation between all of these individuals and
organizations, and I'm sure that will be reflected in this
program."
Roger Brown, producer of the Discovery Channel documentary,
traveled 65,000 miles, across four continents to bring back
this amazing story and spent hours in the cockpits and bellies
of 747s and MD-11s in flight. Brown conceived, developed and
produced this fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the action
packed, deadline-driven world of air cargo that truly knits
together our global economy.
"It was great working with FedEx and Championship Auto Racing
Teams on this documentary," said Brown. "What FedEx does for
CART to transport all the race cars and equipment of the
series overseas for their international events is truly an
amazing feat. What most impressed me with FedEx and the CART
movement to Australia was the incredible amount of work that
was done well in advance of the actual departure date. The
planning and coordination of movements for this daunting task
was so precise. The loadmasters and ground crew, hand picked
by FedEx for this specialized movement, knew exactly where
each race car and each piece of high-tech support equipment
was going to fit on each of the three FedEx MD-11s way before
the planes even arrived in Indianapolis to load for the trip
to Australia."
In addition to the CART FedEx Championship Series segment, the
program covers other unique freight movements including the
transportation of million-dollar thoroughbred race horses from
Lexington, Ky., to new homes in Hokkaido, Japan; the shipment
of millions of bottles of Nouveau Beaujolais wine from a small
town in France to 180 locations worldwide; and a whirlwind
night inside the FedEx Memphis (Tenn.) Superhub-the busiest
air cargo port on earth.
The FedEx MD-11 planes featured in the program will again be
put to use by the CART community later this month when the
series travels to Twin Ring Motegi in Japan for the
Bridgestone Potenza 500-Round 3 of the CART FedEx Championship
Series on Saturday, April 27. In addition to the Japan
movement, the community will also rely on FedEx for the
transportation of its equipment to the other overseas venues
on the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series schedule, which
include Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, England;
EuroSpeedway Lausitz, in Germany; and Surfers Paradise in
Queensland, Australia..
As the "Official Transportation Company of CART", FedEx offers
its legendary time-definite, delivery service to meet the
transportation and distribution needs of CART and provides
freight and document shipping solutions for CART, its race
teams and promoters.
CART
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Ricardo González
News and Commentary
