IRL, ChampCar agree to unification..........................

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IRL, ChampCar agree to unification..........................

Post by mlittle » Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:13 am

Rather than post the link, here is the statement released from both sides via Trackside Online( www.tracksideonline.com )...................................

~~CHAMP CAR, INDY RACING LEAGUE SIGN AGREEMENT TO UNIFY OPEN WHEEL RACING
Owners of Champ Car and the Indy Racing League completed an agreement in principle Friday that will unify the sport for 2008.

Gerald Forsythe, co-owner of Champ Car, signed an agreement in principle in Chicago, Ill., joining his partner Kevin Kalkhoven and Indy Racing League founder and CEO Tony George who had signed late Thursday in Indianapolis.

Details of a press conference about the agreement will be forthcoming.
(courtesy Trackside Online)


I'll have more information over the weekend on this thread, reporting on what has transpired today.......repeating the headline from above, IRL and Champ Car agree to unification; American Open-Wheel Racing is whole once again...........................


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Post by mlittle » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:11 am

So..............how did we get from Point A to Point B?

Here is a brief, thumbnail sketch of what has transpired. Essentially, this merger began when both sides met back in June 2005; there were talks of some length, but nothing transpired. Fast forward to Fall 2007; Tony George met with several ChampCar team owners, bringing the same ideas and plans from Summer 2005 to the table....according to all reports, those talks went well, albeit without anything concrete. Then....in late January/early February, George met ChampCar co-onwer Kevin Kalkhoven and negotiations resumed, this time leading to today's agreement. After both Messrs. George and Kalkhoven signed the agreement, there needed to be one more signature....that of Kalkhoven's business partner, Gerry Forsythe, whereupon Mr. George rushed to the Indy airport, flew up to Chicago, rushed over to Forsythe/Pettit Racing's headquarters and, once there, got the signature from Mr. Forsythe, which cemented the agreement.

Now.......what does this mean, short-term?
~~Chances are there won't be very many, if any, ChampCar teams at the upcoming Homestead test; however, IRL sources report that most of the incoming ChampCar teams will be present, observing the test sessions and getting up to speed on the Dallara/Honda Indycars they will be using; officials from the IRL are at this moment working with several IndyCar teams, including Vision Racing and Andretti-Green Racing, on preparing and shipping as many Dallara/Honda Indycars as possible to the incoming teams.....Dallara officials have been asked to build additional Dallara racecars; in addition, officials from Honda Performance Division and Ilmor Engineering, have been told to prepare several dozen more Honda Indy V8's for this season.
~~On the other hand, with the good comes the bad; there are a couple of hundred ChampCar employees who effectively lost their jobs today. :cry: In the years, I've followed this sport, I've gotten to know a few of them and I'm saddened by what they must be going through, but I suspect they'll land on their feet, hopefully with either the IRL, its' component series or with the various teams. To quote the saying, there is a "new world order" in AOWR...... :shock: :shock:


I don't know about you......but it is going to be one very, very interesting season in 2008. :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
Last edited by mlittle on Sat Feb 23, 2008 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Reactions to IRL/CC unification.................

Post by mlittle » Sat Feb 23, 2008 1:56 pm

~~Tyler Tadevic, Team Director--Pacific Coast Motorsports:
We are thrilled to have a unified series; without a doubt this provides the strongest platform for our partners going forward. It is our intention for Pacific Coast Motorsports to continue its' open-wheel endeavours. Our goal is to be on the IRL grid at the Gainsco Grand Prix of Miami with two Indycars. We are working diligently on our program and welcome all opportunities. In addition, it is our intention to continue our Atlantic program with drivers Frankie Muniz and Carl Skerlong. Vicki O'Connor, Atlantic Series President, has a long, successful history leading the Atlantic series and we are confident that she will find the series a good home. We are grateful to the Champ Car community and to all our fans who have shown us great support and we look forward to a brighter future for open-wheel racing in North America.
~~Charlie Johnstone, President--Grand Prix Association of Toronto:
The unification of Champ Car and the IRL is beneficial to race fans, promoters, sponsors and Canadian motorsports in general. Our team of staff, partners, sponsors and supporters is continuing to work diligently to ensure that Toronto's premier racing festival, the Grand Prix of Toronto, has the most solid foundation on which to build continued success for years to come. From a sport and business perspective, the positives of a unified series outweight the negatives.
~~Erik Berkman, President--Honda Performance Development:
We are elated that the sanctioning bodies have elected to combine into a single, cohesive and powerful IndyCar Series. For some time now, American Honda and HPD have been clearly on record as supporting the concept of a single unified American open-wheel series. We welcome the opportunity to provide our Honda Indy V-8 racing engines to all participants in what we believe will be an instantly larger, stronger and even more competitive field and we look forward to what will surely be a very exciting 2008 racing season.
~~Derrick Walker, Co-Owner--Team Australia:
It's back to the future. It's been a long road, but it has finally come back together. From a fan and business point of view, one open wheel series in North America has long been recognized as something fans and sponsors want and I'm happy to say that Walker Racing embraces the decision. I want to give a special round of thanks to all the past and present CART and Champ Car officials for all their work in giving us some great seasons.
~~Bobby Rahal, Co-Owner--Rahal/Letterman Racing:
This is a great day for open-wheel racing and one that I and my Rahal Letterman Racing team have looked forward to for a long time. I applaud all of those who made this possible, but I want to especially recognize all of those that made sacrifices and concessions to secure the future of open-wheel racing. I turly believe this is the first step towards restoring open-wheel racing and the Indianapolis 500 to not only where it once was, but beyond.
~~Eddie Gossage, President--Texas Motor Speedway:
<GENERAL REACTION>The fans have won and we have to give Tony George and the Indy Racing League credit for making a generous offer to resolve this issue. This is spectacular news, but we have to be cautious because the act of unifying open-wheel racing is not a cure-all for what ails the sport. It is a necessary first step, but there is much work to do. <PROMOTER PERSPECTIVE>The most important aspect is that this gives us the stability of full fields with a depth of talent. Last season, we had a 19-car field and we had not had more than 22 starters since 2002. I'm hopeful that this will provide us with those large fields in excess of 25 cars that used to be commonplace in open-wheel racing. The combination of large fields with the talent depth should ultimately result in even more exciting racing for our fans. <WHAT CHAMPCAR BRINGS TO THE TABLE>(While) most of their stars have already come to the IndyCar Series or in the case of Sebastien Bourdais, (on to) Formula 1, they still have one of the best personalities in the sport in Paul Tracy. They also have several young drivers, such as Graham Rahal and Will Power, that will benefit from the marketing of the IndyCar Series and help them emerge as future stars. <THE FANS>To win back the fans, Indycar racing now has to be humble, stabilize its' schedule, solidify its' driver lineup and feverishly market its' stars. Every decision by everyone in the sport needs to be made in the best interests of the sport. <THE FUTURE>I hope everyone involved doesn't immediately think that the unification on its' own will have Indycar racing challenging NASCAR anytime soon. It will unify interest in the sport, but it will take everyone in the series to make sacrifices to grow the sport and take it to another level. Promotion, marketing, public relations, driver accessibility and sponsor activation are just a few of the many aspects that will have to take advantage of this long-awaited opportunity.

note.....more quotes to follow.
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IRL, ChampCar agree to unification..........................

Post by mlittle » Sat Feb 23, 2008 4:38 pm

more quotes......................

~~Craig Gore, Co-Owner--Team Australia:
There is no doubt that this is a great day in world motorsport history. The unification has been a long time coming, but now we can all go forward together. Kevin Kalkhoven, Gerry Forsythe and Tony George must be congratulated for getting the deal done, a deal that had so many variables attached to it. Both sides (have) their loyal supporters, but at the end of the day we can now all be loyal to the future of open-wheel racing and the fantastic sport that we have all had a belief in. Team Australia will be a part of the new series, but our final make-up and organization will be determined after we see what is on offer from the new controlling body. (It is my belief) that unification (will offer) some tremendous opportunities for the Gold Coast race in October, for Team Australia and for Australian drivers and sponsors. Not only will we get to see a couple of young Australians the caliber of Will Power and Ryan Briscoe going head to head on the streets of Surfers Paradise, we also get the chance to win the Indy 500. I don;t know about you, but that's going to be pretty cool.
~~Michael Andretti, Chairman, Andretti-Green Racing:
This is a huge day for the IndyCar Series and for our sport as a whole. Over the years, whether I was in the role of driver, team owner or promoter, I have always wanted a unified sport. That has been my goal throughout this entire process and I applaud everyone who played a role in making it happen. Everyone can now focus on taking the IndyCar Series to new heights for the good of our sport and everyone involved in it.
~~Kim Green, Chief Executive Officer, Andretti-Green Racing:
Obviously I think this is a very important announcement for the overall health of open-wheel racing in America. I'm pleased that so many people were able (to) work out a lot of very complex and difficult details of a deal that ultimately led to a unified series. As a competitor, I know that the teams and drivers who will be joining the IndyCar Series will only make things more competitive. Although we have spent several years apart, the open-wheel racing community is whole again and I'm personally thrilled that we will be all competing at the same venues once again.
~~John Wildhack, Vice President, ESPN Programming:
This is a good day for fans who have awaited a unification of the two series and we hope that it is the beginning of a bright future for open-wheel racing.
~~Craig Rust, President--Watkins Glen International:
Being not only a promoter but a fan of open-wheel racing, I am thrilled to see the merger happen as it is very important to the success of open-wheel racing to have one unified series. Watkins Glen International is excited to once again host the 4th of July weekend event with our partner Camping World and believe that our open-wheel racing history and heritage makes us a natural fit for the series this holiday weekend. With a host of activities scheduled including a Friday-night block party, fireworks and musical entertainment, along with all the great racing, we hope that all open wheel racing fans will come out to support the unified series July 4-6, 2008.
additional quotes will be posted as they become available................
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Gold Coast welcomes NA open-wheel merger................

Post by mlittle » Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:28 am

Officials with the Gold Coast Indy group, which organizes and runs the weekend's activities every October for both the former ChampCar series(now part of the IRL) and the Australian V8 Supercar Series, greeted the unification news from North America and are in the process of meeting with IRL officials in the hopes of keeping the Surfers Paradise race on the new unified schedule, not just for 2008 but in future years; talks are also expected with V8 Chairman Tony Cochrane in hopes of continuing the co-equal billing the races have held for some time now.................

Greg Hooten, General Manager--Gold Coast Indy:
There is no doubt that this is a fantastic day for open-wheel racing and I believe will provide a new era for our event. Despite the obvious implications of the split the past 12 years our event has continued to grow and become a true world-class spectacle. All indications during the unification talks were that the Gold Coast Indy 300 would remain part of a unified series and we look forward to having those discussions in the US next week. While the Indy 500 would be the highlight of the oval portion of the (unified) series, I believe we can set the standard for street events. The event will be a deja vu' with names like Andretti and Rahal doing battle--this time it will be the sons, Marco and Graham, fighting it out while their racing great dads, Michael and Bobby, watch on from pit lane. When you combine that with the V8 Supercar stars like Garth Tander, Craig Lowndes, James Courtney and Mark Skaife, you really have something special.
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Post by Ed » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:38 am

That must be great news for open wheel racing in the USA. The sport has been suffering for too many years due to the split.

How will this affect the ChampCar teams ? Will the Indy field suddenly double ? Will the extra number of teams and drivers be accomodated for ?
What about the venues ? Will the schedule be altered ? Have events added to it ? What will the mix of street vs oval be now ?

Finally, in your opinion, will this merger affect Nascar in anyway ?

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Post by mlittle » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:25 am

Ed, its' the best news the sport has had, period.........it may sound odd, but I cried when I read the news that the sport had finally unified, I was that happy about it. Like most NA open-wheel fans, I've ******* and moaned about the state of AOWR, so to finally have them under one roof is.....a great feeling, to say the least.

Now to get to the questions at hand...............................
Ed wrote:How will this affect the ChampCar teams?
Short-term, they'll have to get to grips with the Dallara/Honda Indycars; with the exception of Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing, I suspect most all of them have no experience with those cars, so the learning curve is going to be steep. In addition, most of the ChampCar drivers that come over(with the exception of Paul Tracy, Justin Wilson, Will Power and Bruno Junquiera) have little experience on high-speed ovals, which are a good part of the IRL schedule, so they'll have that to deal with also. Most of the former ChampCar teams are going to start learning about their new rides over the next month, so it'll be interesting to see who gets up to speed the quickest; however, this late in the off-season, they're behind the 8-ball, big time.
Ed wrote:Will the Indy field suddenly double?
Assuming the Indy reference is about the 500..........no, it will remain at 33 cars, but................rather than wondering whether their will be enough entries to make a 33-car field, now people can start wondering whether they'll be 40 entries, or 45, or 50, etc......
Ed wrote:Will the extra number of teams and drivers be accomodated for?
There shouldn't be any problems with accomodating the extra teams/drivers; Dallara and Honda, by all accounts, have said they'll have enough for the teams. In addition, a couple of the teams(most notably Vision Racing and Andretti-Green Racing) have spare Dallara chassis' to send to the new teams, so that area should be okay.
Ed wrote:What about the venues?
Shouldn't be any problems there as well; most NA racing venues are built to accomodate large numbers of entries, especially oval tracks. Case in point are the two shortest ovals on the IRL calendar, Richmond(.75-mile) and Iowa(.875-mile); if they can run 43 stock-cars there, they can run 25-30 open-wheel cars easily.
Ed wrote:Will the schedule be altered? Have events added to it?
The current schedule is as follows.................
--29 March, Homestead(oval)
--6 April, St. Petersburg, Fla.(street circuit)
--19 April, Motegi, Japan(oval)
--27 April, Kansas(oval)
--25 May, Indianapolis(oval)
--1 June, Milwaukee(oval)
--7 June, Texas(oval)
--22 June, Iowa(oval)
--28 June, Richmond(oval)
--6 July, Watkins Glen(road course)
--12 July, Nashville(oval)
--20 July, Mid-Ohio(road course)
--9 August, Kentucky(oval)
--24 August, Infineon(road course)
--31 August, Belle Isle(street circuit)
--7 September, Chicagoland(oval)
Of the ChampCar venues, three will be added this year:
~~20 April, Long Beach(street circuit)........the plan will be for the IndyCar teams to run at Motegi while the ChampCar teams will race here, with both events counted as points-races
~~Edmonton(airport/street circuit).....currently it's set for 20 July(which puts it in conflict w/Mid-Ohio); reports are that they're looking to move the race to avoid any conflict......
~~Surfers Paradise(street circuit).......this one's the sticky problem. Currently, its' set for late October, but.....the IRL has Chicagoland set as the '08 season finale and there's uncertainity as to whether the series would want to run Surfers as an exhibition race rather than a points race, but if they're smart, they'll race there irrespective of whether its' counts for points or not.
Ed wrote:What will the mix of street vs. oval be now?
11 ovals, 5 street circuits and 3 road courses. The hope is that, for 2009 and beyond, that venues such as Road America, Toronto, Portland and Michigan will be added as well.
Ed wrote:Finally, in your opinion, will this merger affect NASCAR in anyway?
Not in the short-term; NASCAR's the 800-lb gorilla of NA motorsports and its' going to take years to rebuild the sport, but people forget that, pre-split, CART and the Indy 500 were bigger than NASCAR ever was; while CART and the 500 were nationally-known sports in the U.S., NASCAR was still primarily a regionally-based American series. But with the merger, the sport now can focus on rebuilding its' fanbase, bringing in new sponsors and working on reclaiming its' past glories and building new ones.........I won't kid you, Ed; the split damaged NA open-wheel racing far more than anyone thought and it will take years to repair it, but at least now it can begin to repair and rebuild. As the song goes, only time will tell.
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Post by mlittle » Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:57 am

A few more quotes from over the weekend.............................................

Sarah Fisher, IndyCar Series driver:
As a driver I am extremely excited about the unification of open-wheel racing from an opportunity standpoint. This gives all of us the opportunity to compete against the very best in open wheel racing. It will combine two great fan bases and (help) grow a different fan base that has not previously watched us on either side. In addition, there will be less confusion for fans and potential sponsors in the future. We have a clear vision with a clear goal and objective as a series moving forward.
A.J. Foyt, Jr., 4-time Indy 500 winner/Owner, A.J. Foyt Racing:
I'm glad that they were able to get it done. It'll eliminate the confusion for the race fans and the sponsors becuase there'll be just one type of car and one type of motor and everybody will be running together. May the best team win.
John Barnes, Managing Partner, Panther Racing:
I'm just so proud of Tony George, Brian Barnhart and Terry Angstadt for all the hard work they've done with our sport to put this thing together, and I can't wait for the Champ Car teams to be with us on the track. The Indy Racing League has experienced the biggest growth amongst professional sports leagues in the past two years and time will tell how much unification will help. We still have work to do; continuing to move up and show that growth is important and I believe that we'll be able to do that.
Vitor Meira, Driver, Panther Racing:
I'm just happy that this has finally happened. No matter how this had to be done and the details had to come down, this is going to be good for everybodyin open-wheel racing. The bar has just been raised for everyone. Both series have good drivers, good team members and good sponsors. Now we have more resources, more talent and the value of our championship just took a major step forward. The Indianapolis 500 is going to be like the old days again; everybody is going to be there and it's going to be a huge deal for all of us. I don't think I could be anymore excited about the 2008 IndyCar Series season (than I already am), but now I'm especially energized to load our transporter into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May. I'm happy to be a part of this.
Sam Schmidt, Owner, Sam Schmidt Motorsports:
This is a great day for open-wheel racing and one that everyone at Sam Schmidt Motorsports has looked forward to for a long time. Although the Indy Pro Series experienced record fields in 2007, this unification can only result in a clearer path to the pinnacle of open-wheel racing in the United States, the IndyCar Series. I truly believe that this is the first step towards restoring opne-wheel racing and the Indianapolis 500 to not only where it was once before, but beyond.
Will Power, Driver, Team Australia:
It's great that we've all gotten together for the future. This will give the sport a big boost and allow it to grow. Having one series will put the best open-wheel drivers in the United States (together) and it's going to be a really tough and exciting field. The unified schedule will include more road and street courses than the IndyCar teams have been used to over the past few years and obviously for the Champ Car teams, we have a lot to learn, but this is clearly the best outcome and I think as drivers, we are all excited about going head-to-head with each other. I have only raced one oval event in the past, at the Milwaukee Mile and I really, really enjoyed the challenge; I qualified very well and am looking forward to getting back to the challenge of ovals. The bigger ovals will be something new for me and a lot of the other Champ Car teams, but we are all up for the challenge. The Champ Car teams will be behind the eight-ball to begin with as we will all be using a car that is new to us and the IndyCar guys will have several years experience and development on the car, but as we saw in Champ Car in 2007, when a new car comes aboard you get a very level playing field so the future will be very good indeed. My home race on the Gold Coast is one of the best motorsport events in the world already, but unification will make it even more better and exciting when we hit that street circuit. And one thing remains the same--I've got to win that race! Finally, I can't wait to get to the Indianapolis 500. I've been jealous of my Aussie mate Ryan Briscoe over the past few seasons, watching him run the Indy 500. I live in Indianapolis during the season and the month of May in Indiana is something very special and I can't wait to be a part of it.
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Post by mlittle » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:18 am

In case anyone's interested, there is scheduled to be a press conference at Homestead-Miami Speedway set for 27 February 2008 at 12:15 pm involving Tony George and Kevin Kalkhoven, where they'll discuss the details of the unification between the Indy Racing League and Champ Car. The press conference will be televised live on both Speed Channel and ESPN; it can also be seen via. the Internet courtesy of indycar.com.
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Press Conference Details............

Post by mlittle » Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:41 am

Highlights of this afternoon's press conference........................................

~~Quotes from the two sides..............
--Tony George, CEO and Founder, Indy Racing League:
Our whole racing community is excited and energized about unification and everybody is working hard toward the season opener at Homestead on March 29.
--Kevin Kalkhoven, ChampCar co-owner/co-owner, PKV Racing:
I'm thrilled that we now have a unified open wheel series that will feature great drivers, a diversity of world-class venues and numerous top-notch teams. I applaud Toiny George for his commitment to the sport and join him in now focusing solely on the future of open-wheel racing in North America. I'm eager for our team to race this season and certainly will do all that I can to advance our sport in the short- and long-term.
~~In attendance...................
--ChampCar team owners Derrick Walker, Eric Bachelart, Dale Coyne, Paul Stoddart and Keith Wiggins
--IndyCar team owners Michael Andretti, Kim Green, Kevin Savoree and Bobby Rahal
--ChampCar drivers Franck Perera, Simon Pagenaud, Oriol Servia, Alex Tagliani, Paul Tracy, Graham Rahal, Bruno Junquiera, Nelson Phillipe, Robert Doornbos and Will Power
--IndyCar drivers Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon
--representatives from Bridgestone/Firestone(Al Speyer, Joe Barbieri), Honda Performance Development(Erik Berkman) and ChampCar safety/medical chiefs Lon Bromley and Dr. Chris Pinderski

~~Schedule highlights.............
--All 16 IndyCar Series races will be on this year's calendar; Long Beach will run the weekend of the Motegi race and series officials are set to meet with organizers from Edmonton and Surfers Paradise to finalize their addition to the schedule

~~Elements of the agreement...........................
1--all ChampCar teams committing to the full IndyCar season will receive free Dallara chassis', free Honda Indy V-8 engines and $1.2 million from the series' TEAM payout system
2--teams racing in Long Beach will receive points from the race as if they were competing in Motegi(in other words, both races that weekend will count towards the ICS championship)
3--each incoming ChampCar team will be paired with an existing ICS team to speed up development work in 2008(i.e. Newman-Haas-Lanigan w/Rahal-Letterman Racing, etc.)
4--IRL officials will work with each ChampCar team to get them up to speed on series rules, technical specs and other things as they come up
5--in addition, the IRL will purchase all intellectual prpoerties from ChampCar and will integrate their safety and medical personnel into the IRL's existing safety and medical staffs
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Post by mlittle » Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:43 am

One of the expected areas of concern with the unification of the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series was the potential for several events on the ChampCar ledger to be cancelled..........to date, the following events have gotten the axe for 2008:
~~Houston
~~Toronto
~~Cleveland
~~Mt. Tremblant
~~Road America
~~Portland
~~Laguna Seca
~~Mexico City
~~all 3 European venues(Jerez, Zolder and Assen)

Of these events, IMO, look for probably 3 or 4 to make it onto the 2009 IndyCar Series schedule(most likely--Toronto, Cleveland, Road America &/or Portland)
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Walker Racing Closes Shop..........

Post by mlittle » Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:50 am

One of the stalward teams in AOWR will not be answering the bell in 2008; according to multiple sources(autoracing1.com, tracksideonline.com and speedtv.com) team principle/co-owner Derrick Walker, citing a lack of sponsorship, made the decision to close shop over the weekend......in addition, reports are that there may have been a falling-out of sorts between principles Walker and Craig Gore, as rumor has it Gore, along with driver Will Power and the Aussie Vineyards sponsorship, are headed over to KV Racing for 2008, which could potentially put another former ChampCar driver, Alex Tagliani, on the free agent market... :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

This now makes three incoming ChampCar teams that have essentially left the open-wheel building.......Forsythe Championship Racing, Rocketsports and now Walker Racing. :( :shock: :shock: :shock:
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Post by mlittle » Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:19 am

IRL officials have issued the following car numbers for the ChampCar teams making the transition from ChampCar to the IndyCar Series..........
~~Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing: #02 and #06
~~KV Racing Technology: #8 and #32
~~Dale Coyne Racing: #18 and #19
~~Conquest Racing: #34 and #tbd
~~CTE-HVM Racing: #tbd and #tbd
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Long Beach GP to remain through 2015.........

Post by mlittle » Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:37 am

In a unanimous vote Friday, Long Beach City Council members voted to extend the city's contract with the Grand prix Association of Long Beach through at least 2015, with an additional option stretching out 'til 2020. The Long Beach GP, having hosted F5000, Formula 1 and CART/ChampCar, will host one final ChampCar race in mid-April before the event joins the IndyCar Series in 2009.
The Sci-Fi Station Come by and visit when you get the chance. :)
The Wayward Tarheel I'm even in the blogosphere.... :shock:

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