Portland, Ore. ? Cosworth will manufacture engines exclusively for the CART series over the next two years in a move to control costs for the racing teams.

The Ford-owned company will sell about 100 turbocharged engines to CART, which will then lease them to the teams at an annual cost of just over $1 million per car. The going rate is about $3.5 million.

“We’re going to bring value back into this series,” CART president Chris Pook said.

The new engine package is a major step in Pook’s campaign to slash expenses as CART tries to survive against the Indy Racing League. CART’s top two engine-makers, Honda and Toyota, will jump to the IRL next year.

Pook said CART’s board made a huge mistake last October when it decided to switch from its signature turbocharged engines to non-turbos, similar to those used in the IRL. The goal was to get CART drivers into some IRL races. CART even came up with a new chassis to further increase the similarities between the two leagues, but IRL rejected the idea.

“We put it out as an olive branch, to try and form some type of compatibility with the other side to bring us closer together,” Pook said. “But the olive branch was broken off in two pieces, and we were slapped around the face with it and told to get out of town.”

CART is hoping the cheaper engine contract will encourage teams to stay in the series or add another car, even if they currently use Honda or Toyota engines. Pook also is working to bring new teams into the fold, and he said Saturday he hopes to have the 2003 team roster set in the next two months.

“I think that the car count is going to rise next year tremendously, and this is the kind of stability that CART needs to go through this rocky time and to grow for the future,” said driver Jimmy Vasser, whose Shell Rahal team already uses Ford-Cosworth engines.

Cosworth has supplied engines to CART since the series began in 1979, and Pook called the company an “old, old friend.” Cosworth vice president Ian Bisco said engineers will decrease the RPMs in the motor next year, but that its “glitz” will be maintained by jacking up the turbo boost.

CART also announced a program to subsidize teams, with a combination of direct financial assistance and other cost-cutting measures totaling $1.5 million per team starting next year.

Pook said the team owners approved the Cosworth deal and the new assistance program at their franchise board meeting in Portland on Saturday.

Next year, CART will begin looking for a new engine package for the 2005 season, Pook said.