Business Notes Entrepreneurs

What is made of sleek composite fiber glass and rockets around a track like a wayward cruise missile? Not a race car or a bobsled. No, it's a high-tech chariot powered by two Arabian horses. Welcome to an ancient new sport. "Chariot racing is very fast, very colorful and very exciting," says Jim Hall, an Arabian horse farm owner, who has teamed up with engineer Phil Lawrence to launch Chariots International to promote the sport. The two Michigan natives spent the past year developing eight 350-lb., $6,000 chariots. In late September, professional harness drivers raced four of the chariots for the first time -- without a spill. Hall and Lawrence hope to find sponsors for individual races or a series so they can develop chariot racing into an "entertainment event" much like TV's American Gladiators. "The ultimate goal," says Lawrence, "is to have each country at the '96 Olympics represented with a chariot at the opening ceremonies." It never hurts to think big.