Champ Car World Series

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Champ Car World Series
Open-wheel
CountryInternational (mostly in United States)
Inaugural season2004
Folded2008
Chassis suppliersLola (2004-2006) later Panoz (2007)
Engine suppliersFord (2004-2006) later Cosworth (2007)
Last Drivers' championFrance Sébastien Bourdais (2007)

Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), which sanctioned open-wheel racing from 1979 until dissolving after the 2003 season.

Vehicles

Long Beach Grand Prix
in 2005

Champ Cars were single-seat,

ground effect and prominent wings to create downforce
. The cars would use a different aerodynamic kit on the occasions they raced on an oval.

With funds low, development was effectively frozen with a focus on developing a universal chassis, and the series generally ran on CART-spec 2002 Lola chassis from 2003 to 2006. The new chassis was developed by Panoz and debuted in 2007 as the Panoz DP01. The chassis was well received by drivers and fans.

The series leased 750hp 2.65 L V-8 turbocharged Cosworth XFE engines to teams, which had been purchased by CART for the 2003 season.

History

CART, following the departure of a number of top teams and engine manufacturers to the rival

Long Beach Grand Prix
, effectively to make the series untenable and allow a takeover on their terms. OWRS was successful, as its bid allowed the highest probability CART vendors would get paid.

Once CART's assets were secured, the series began a major push to be able to field enough cars and drivers for the April Long Beach Grand Prix, with the final drivers announced just before practice began. The series featured three longtime CART teams,

Atlantic Championship
. Champ Car was able to maintain a full field and most of CART's street circuit sanctioning agreements for 2004.

Champ Car eventually moved into a 'de facto' all road-course format. The series would experiment with dramatic rule changes, including special compound tires that were to be used for a fixed portion of the race, standing starts, and timed races.

Both Champ Car and the IRL continued to suffer from reduced fields, sponsorship, and television ratings. Merger talks in 2006 were halted after disagreements regarding Champ Car's upcoming Panoz chassis and leaked details of a shared new series upset IMS.[1] The 2007 season saw the withdrawal of Bridgestone and Ford as presenting sponsors[1] and some race cancellations.

By January 2008, both the IRL and Champ Car feared they did not have enough participating cars to maintain their TV and sanctioning contract minimums.

non-compete agreement in exchange for $2 million each.[4]

While the first "merged" event of the rechristened "

Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 29, 2008, due to a scheduling conflict with the 2008 Indy Japan 300, the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
was held on April 20, 2008, as a Champ Car sanctioned event using CCWS-spec Panoz-Cosworth cars and the winners getting IRL points, with the event described as a final celebration of CART/CCWS.

Television

Spike TV aired all races in 2004, with select races aired on high definition channel HDNet.

In 2005 and 2006, coverage was split among NBC, CBS, and Speed Channel. In 2007, coverage was split among NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Classic.

Champions

Season Driver Team Chassis/Engine Cup Jim Trueman
Rookie of the Year
Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford
2004 France Sébastien Bourdais Newman/Haas Racing Lola/CosworthFord United States A. J. Allmendinger
2005 France Sébastien Bourdais Newman/Haas Racing Lola/CosworthFord Germany Timo Glock
2006 France Sébastien Bourdais Newman/Haas Racing Lola/CosworthFord Australia Will Power
Champ Car World Series
2007 France Sébastien Bourdais Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing Panoz/Ford Netherlands Robert Doornbos

References

  • Whitaker, Sigur E. (2015). The Indy Car Wars: The 30 Year Fight for Control of American Open-Wheel Racing. North Carolina: McFarland and Company. .
  1. ^ a b Whitaker, p. 123.
  2. ^ Whitaker, p. 126.
  3. ^ "Done deal :: IndyCar® Series". March 13, 2008. Archived from the original on March 13, 2008. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  4. ^ Whitaker, p. 132.