de la BASTIDE: Final chapter of Champ Car story coming up

By KEN de la Bastide
Tribune auto racing columnist

April 16, 2008 12:24 am

— For the final time in history, the Champ Car World Series will be in competition this weekend on the street course in Long Beach.
Earlier this year the Champ Series announced a unification with the rival Indy Racing League and already two events have taken place.
Because of a contractual obligation, the IndyCar series will be racing this weekend in Japan while the Champ car drivers will be in California. Drivers competing in Long Beach will earn IRL season points.
As of Tuesday there were 20 cars entered for the Long Beach race and 18 entries for the Japan event.
Once the checkered flag waves at Long Beach, it will mark the end of another era in motorsports, but the unification of the two open wheel series has to be considered as a plus for the sport.
Of course, the teams that have invested millions of dollars for equipment in the Champ Car series have to be wondering what will happen now with those cars. That is probably an easy question to answer — they will be obsolete. It would be hard to imagine that another group will attempt to sanction racing using that equipment.
There is plenty of auto racing history to indicate that the cars will soon be collecting dust.
When the original American Speed Association national tour went out of business following the 2004 season, that left investors holding the bag for the equipment purchased.
The ASA car was specific to that series, using a fuel injected crate motor and Fiberglas bodies. An effort was made to start a new series, the American Stock Car League, in 2005 using the former ASA equipment but it didn’t last one season.
Last year the United States Auto Club unveiled a new Silver Crown car which was designed specifically for super speedways. An Anderson group attempted to start a new series using the former Silver Crown car, but it struggled financially and has since folded.
Because of the lack of success with the new version of the Silver Crown cars, USAC this year returned to competition in the former car. Those owners who bought or built the new speedway car are probably looking at a loss of money, although the engine and maybe the chassis can be salvaged.
When NASCAR went to the Car of Tomorrow, now in use for the entire 2008 Sprint Cup series, there was a market for the older model. Many of those cars were purchased by ARCA teams for pennies on the dollar.
IRL founder Tony George said last week during the annual Indianapolis 500 media tour that he expects the IndyCar series will allow different engine and chassis combinations in competition. Currently the only engine that can be used is a Honda and the chassis is constructed by Dallara.
A realist, George said he doubted in the future that there would be 35- to 40-car fields in the IRL.
“I don’t know if we can ever see, you know, 35- [or] 40-car fields,” he said. “We’re somewhat limited to how large fields can be by the number of pit stalls on the pit road.”
When asked if the unification will prevent drivers from switching to stock cars or bring drivers back to open wheel racing, George said he didn’t know.
George said he hoped IndyCar would be viewed as a destination for those drivers wanting to compete on a variety of tracks that is challenging and high profile.
“I would hope that is enough to attract some and maybe even draw some people who had been part of it in the past,” he said of open wheel racing.
Only time will tell.
In other racing news
• There is a full weekend of USAC sprint events scheduled in central Indiana. The sprints will race at Gas City Speedway on Friday and Saturday and at Winchester Speedway on Sunday. The Championship Racing Association late models and street stocks will be on the Winchester racing card.
• During the media tour, Tribune staff member Tim Rivers was taken for a ride around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a Corvette driven by Max Papis. Rivers said while touring the track at 165 miles per hour, Papis took a picture on his cellular telephone and e-mailed it to defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
Ken de la Bastide may be reached at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com or (765) 454 -8580.

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