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Champ Car Series - 2004

Argyle

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Champ Car set to rise from the ashes

TSN.ca Staff

4/15/2004

At the two-day Champ Car season premiere staged last month in Long Beach, there seemed to be more questions than answers for the open wheel series which had just emerged from bankruptcy.
The fallout from that week threatened to derail Champ Car's efforts at rising from the ashes of CART as first Adrian Fernandez and then Bobby Rahal announced their intentions to join the rival Indy Racing League.
Champ Car officials managed to shake off the bad news and with the delayed start of the new season just days away, a quick glance at the lineup reveals a starting field which may be stronger and tougher than the one Paul Tracy held off to win the championship a year ago.
"It is going to be a very competitive series this year and good finishes are going to be harder to come by, so this could make a difference," said Tracy, who won seven races last season. "All I wanted was to come back this year with a car to drive and a place to race it, and I've got that now."
"I want to win another championship."
Tracy returns to defend his title with Forsythe Racing, which begins its first season without principle backing from cigarette maker Player's. Despite being unable to find a suitable replacement sponsor, Gerald Forsythe has elected to run three cars this season - the only three car team in the series. But that wasn't always the plan. At the spring preview, it was announced that Patrick Carpentier would likely start the season with another team albeit under contract from Forsythe. Whether Forsythe's attempt at dropping Carpentier was a ploy to try and force potential sponsors from coming forward, the industrialist and series co-owner relented last month and confirmed he would run a third car for the full season. Rodolfo Lavin brings his much needed Corona Beer sponsorship to the team after a season with Derrick Walker Racing. It will be interesting to see if Lavin is able to grow within the Forsythe stable or if the added pressure of fielding a third car will have a negative impact in defending the series championship.
Newman/Haas returns with the same two car lineup from a year ago with Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais. While there was talk of expanding to a three car outfit, the team will prove to be Paul Tracy and Forsythe's biggest challenge to the championship. They will be one of the best funded teams in the series with insurance provider PacifiCare returning for a second year and McDonald's on board full time, thanks to co-owner Paul Newman's association. While Newman/Haas will field an entry in the Indianapolis 500, that is as far as the team is prepared to go when it comes to racing in the IRL, thanks to Newman's belief in the Champ Car series and his open disgust for anything to do with Tony George.
Last season, Herdez Competition emerged as a contender in the Champ Car series with Mario Dominguez posting his second career victory - his first since a controversial and some would say tainted win at the accident plagued Australian race in 2002. With veteran Roberto Moreno on board, Dominguez strung together three straight top five finishes to start the year and put together a nine race point scoring streak which helped him finished sixth in the championship. This year, the team has opted for promising driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, who captured his first career win last year in Australia for the underpowered and financially strapped American Spirit Team Johansson squad. With the benefit of a Lola chassis at his disposal, Reay is expected to be among the challengers at the front of the grid this season.
Series co-owner Paul Gentilozzi follows up his Champ Car rookie campaign by expanding to two cars in 2004. Canadian Alex Tagliani returns after a strong season which saw the rookie team challenge for victories. He is joined by 17 year old Nelson Philippe, the youngest driver in Champ Car history. However, age aside, the young Frenchman has shown flashes of being competitive in pre-season testing. How the team handles the transition of expanding from a one car to a two car effort will determine their chances of challenging for the title this year.
After taking the Toyota/Atlantic series by storm, A.J. Allmendinger and the RuSport team will attempt to make the transition to Champ Car. Carl Russo was planning to expand to a two car effort in 2005 but the availability of proven racer Michel Jourdain Jr. and his Gigante sponsorship helped to expedite that timetable. Allmendinger has all the credentials to be one of series future stars while Jourdain is coming off a career best third place showing in the championship, however, that was with the proven Rahal racing team. Fielding a first year team was going to be a challenge for Russo. Adding a second car in the weeks leading up to the start of the season may prove to be more than the team can handle at this stage of its development.
Veteran driver Jimmy Vasser returns with a new team. After spending a difficult season with American Spirit Team Johansson, there was talk of Vasser retiring or taking the helm of another team in some sort of managerial position. Instead, he's signed on as a minority owner with PKV Racing, which has undergone a bit of a facelift since last season. Kevin Kalkhoven enjoyed the series so much in his rookie season as an owner he decided to buy it, joining Gentilozzi and Forsythe as co-owner of Champ Car. The "P" in PKV Racing now stands for Dan Pettit as Craig Pollock has parted ways with the team, which should put to rest persistent rumors of Jacques Villeneuve's return to the series. Roberto Gonzalez, who bought his way into several rides last season, lines up alongside Vasser as part of a two-car effort in 2004.
Up until a week ago, it appeared Derrick Walker was set to start this season on the Champ Car sidelines. Despite losing Lavin to Forsythe and having rented out part of his Indianapolis shop to Pat Patrick's IRL effort, Walker emerged to say he would field a one car team with Brazilian Mario Haberfeld at the helm. Canadian Michael Valiante is under contract to Walker as well, but once again, sponsorship remains a stumbling block in getting to the starting line.
Dale Coyne Racing will once again field two cars, which will no doubt help the series in its all important car count. In the past, Coyne has helped some of Champ Cars best drivers gain a foothold in the series such as Paul Tracy, Buddy Lazier, Roberto Moreno, Michel Jourdain Jr. and Eric Bachelart - now an owner in the series himself. Oriol Servia and Tarso Marques recently tested for the team in California and are the likely candidates for the openings.
Eric Bachelart returns with a two car effort, which includes fielding one of only two Reynard chassis in the series. Former F1 driver and F3000 champion Justin Wilson will make his Champ Car debut, joined by Brazilian Alex Sperafico, who will start the year in a Reynard but hopefully graduate to the Lola after the first few races. Sponsorship for both cars will come from longtime supporter, industrial machinery manufacturer Mi-Jack.
Presenting sponsors and suppliers Bridgestone and Ford are back on board for another year as well.
Champ Car's television plans have also changed for 2004. Betelgeuse Productions, probably best known for producing "The Actors Studio" series for Bravo, has been hired to produce Champ Car broadcasts. Despite winning dozens of Emmies for its shows, they have no previous experience in the area of auto racing.
Champ Car has dumped SpeedTV in favour of Spike TV as its cable partner for 2004. The network, which bills itself as the first network for men, will carry all 16 races this year, meaning CBS is out of the picture as well. All races will also air in two hours blocks at 4 pm et on Sunday afternoons, giving fans a consistent time slot in which to follow the series. Of course, that means not all the events will be aired live.

As for the schedule itself, 14 of the 16 race dates have been confirmed. The only new event on the calendar is a stop in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of only two international stops at this time along with Australia however there has been talk of a September race in South Africa.
European races in England and Germany have been scrapped as the series owners get away from promoting events themselves. As well, there is just one confirmed oval race, Milwaukee. The traditional season ending stop in Fontana the past few years is gone due to pending legal proceedings against CART. Currently the season ending event is yet to be announced with strong speculation that Las Vegas will make a return to the Champ Car fold.
On the track, minor rule changes this off season should help produce a better show for the fans. The controversial pit window rule has been scrapped and teams will now be mandated to stop twice or three times under green. The length of races have also been altered with most events running in 1 hour and 45 minutes, down a half hour from last season.
As well, drivers will have access to a new push-to-pass feature which will provide an extra 50 horsepower, hopefully creating more passing on track. Drivers will be limited to just 60 seconds worth of extra boost with television viewers being kept abreast of each driver's remaining push-to-pass time on-screen.
The number of drivers earning points has also been increased from 12 to 20. Finishing first will net the winner 31 points while second place earns 27, with totals dropping by two points for positions three through 10. Finishing 11th will earn 10 points and down through 20th the total decreases by one point. Points will also be awarded to the fastest qualifier as well as fastest race lap, leading at least one lap and the driver who gains the most positions from start to finish will also pick up a bonus point.
"There was never a debate on our part that we were going to go forward," Gentilozzi said. "A lot of the negative stuff was put into people's heads by outsiders.
"All that stuff is behind us now and there is a nucleus of people who believe in Champ Car now."

The series is back, and I looks to be in fairly good shape. With the new TV contract, and all the races to be shown at reasonable times, the series might make a come back...and rise from the ashes :bronco: :wa: :knvb:
 

Argyle

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TRACY WINS AT LONG BEACH

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Charging from third on the starting grid, Paul Tracy dominated the 30th Anniversary Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach en route to his second consecutive victory in the popular Southern California race. Finishing second, 5.681 seconds in arrears of Tracy was polesitter Bruno Junqueira, with Sebastien Bourdais third. Tracy's Forsythe Racing teammate Patrick Carpentier was fourth and Mario Dominguez filled out the top five.

The start was brilliant for PT, but a late mistake in the pits cost a podium finish for Tags. All in all a great first day for the new series...
 

TheRob

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I wouldn't call it a mistake. The wheel nut was cokced up.

Great start for PT though. Wasn't that the same top three as last year?
 

Argyle

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Champ Car World Series - 2004

Speaking on Speed Channel's "Wind Tunnel" program, columnist Robin Miller claims Tracy was offered a ride in this weekend's Nextel Cup race at Sonoma, California but he could not get the necessary permission from Champ Car owner Gerald Forsythe.
Tracy says he was offered a ride by Richard Childress, who has spoken highly of Tracy as a potential future NASCAR driver. However, both Forsythe and fellow Open Wheel Racing Series owner Kevin Kalkhoven thought such a move "would confuse people" and lead to speculation that Tracy was leaving for the premier stock car series.
Champ Car is rebuilding its series and brand following a turbulent winter which included bankruptcy proceedings and an attempt by rival Indy Racing League to take over the former CART assets.
Tracy tells Miller the move "would have been good for Champ Car".

I would have liked to seen what he could do in a stock car though...
 

TheRob

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It would have been pretty cool, but you don't want to see your series' star driver driving in another series when your series is seriously struggling.

Get it?
 

Argyle

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Got it, but he is going to end up there within the next couple of years. :cool:
 

Argyle

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Report: Champ Car coming to Calgary

TSN.ca Staff

7/6/2004

Champ Car racing could be coming to the streets of Calgary in the near future.

The Toronto Star reports Molstar Sports and Entertainment vice-president Bob Singleton has had preliminary discussions with city officials in Calgary about the possibility of staging a fourth Molson Indy in Canada.
"We've asked if they would be interested in a race in Calgary," Singleton is quoted as saying. "But what does that interest entail? That's all where we're at. I heard someone say today that Calgary's a done deal. Holy cow. Geez, Lord Murphy. It's not anywhere near a done deal."
Molstar currently operates the Champ Car races in Toronto and Vancouver and holds the rights to the Montreal event.
Singleton says he wants to see how Champ Car comes through this year following a difficult winter, which saw the former CART series go into bankruptcy before having its assets purchased by Open Wheel Racing Series Inc.
While there has been talk of adding some new races to the schedule, a fourth event in Canada has never been mentioned by Champ Car officials.
What's next? Are they going to get an NHL team?

Could you imagine the topless girls on 17th for this event? www.calgarychampgirls.com
Why does everything come back to naked women???? Strange...
 

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