After being named as "National Driver of the Year" source: F1-Live.com Cristiano da Matta has left the CART series behind him with a final appearance by way of an awards banquet in Miami on Friday night. The 2002 series champion was hailed as the National Driver of the Year and collected his million-dollar prize for securing the CART title and pledged his support to the series despite the fact that he is leaving to compete in Formula One next season. "There's no price that I can put on what I got out of my time in CART," da Matta said. "This series has helped me realize my dreams of winning a championship and I will give all the support I can to the series. The least I can do is support CART any way I can." Da Matta claimed seven wins and seven poles this year on all types of circuits, such as ovals permanent road courses and temporary street circuits. During the course of the season his performances earned the respect of some of the great names, such as Mario Andretti and former CART and Formula 1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi. "Cristiano impressed everybody the last two seasons, including myself,"Fittipaldi said. "His domination of the 2002 CART season, the most competitive category of racing in the world, shows his talent, performance and consistency on four different types of tracks is world class, Formula One, World Champion material. His dominance in a tight field throughout the entire season proved he deserved to be Champion." Now it's time to head to the Paul Ricard circuit in France where his duties as 2003 driver for the Panasonic Toyota team will get underway on Tuesday. The test session next week hails the return to work for the F1 circus after a six week break and da Matta will spend 14 of the next 20 days getting to know the car and the team before heading back to Brazil for a well deserved break.
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