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A look back at the 2008 Long Beach GP

From nostalgia of years gone by to the revelation of first-time race winners, from a start with a flash of pure excitement to a finish that faded into anti-climatic non-drama, this year’s Long Beach Grand Prix has come and gone. And after 25 years of Champ Car racing on the streets of Southern California, an amazing era has ended. The weekend featured the final Champ Car race of all time, an American Le Man’s sprint race, and the first race of the season for an orphaned Atlantic championship that is hoping to find new relevance in American motor sports.

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Justin Wilson, Penske Porsche quick early at Long Beach

Taking up wwhere Sebastian Bourdais left off, Justin Wilson set fast time in provisional qualifying for Champ Car’s last race at Long Beach. Wilson showed that his Newman/Haas/Lanigan DP01 wasn’t hampered by “hangar rash”, and that the NHL engineers on the McDonald’s team have got the DP01 figured out.

Meanwhile in the American Le Mans Series, Timo Bernhart and Penske Porsche are the quickest among six LMP2 cars that will start ahead of the Audi RA’s in the LMP1. Read more

A Series Title Sponsor At Last

One benefit of the recent merger was to generate team sponsorships as well as a series title sponsor. Tick off the box marked “Title sponsor” as accomplished. Read more

Silly Season: The Unified Schedule

As the ink dries on the IRL/Champ Car unification “agreement in principle”, it is still uncertain what will happen to two Champ Car venues that may or may not be added to the 2008 IRL schedule. It is clear that the Toyota Grand Prix of Long beach is going to happen, no matter how odd or strange it turns out to be with the “oval guys and gals” going to Motegi, and the “Champ Car guys” (probably no gal, Legge is in sports cars now) run their mothballed DP01’s for one last time. It is not clear, however, if the Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton is going to take place or what a possible date will be. Likewise, the Indy 300 at Surfer’s Paradise is not a certainty either.

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Grand Prix of Houston cancelled for 2008

The unification of open-wheel racing is going to be effecting ALMS and Atlantics series this spring. The Grand Prix of Houston announced the cancellation of their event today.

The Houston Chronicle reports today:

“The unification of Champ Car and IRL caught us by surprise, and we were informed that due to the last-minute nature of this unification the Houston date could not be accommodated for 2008,” said Michael T. Lanigan, owner and chairman of the Grand Prix in a press release today. “We are saddened and disappointed to have to make this decision, but we remain optimistic that we will have the opportunity to bring the American Le Mans Series and the Indy Racing League to Houston in 2009.”

Sportscar fans can’t be happy about this turn of events. The unintended consequences of a dead Champ Car World Series are going to be significant. The casualties are mounting up.

Paul Tracy to appear on Wind Tunnel tonite

Tunnelhead alert: Paul Tracy will be making an appearance on Dave Despain’s show in the evening of March 3rd. I’m sure he’ll dish out a couple great quotes in regard to how he was notified about losing his ride at now-defunct Forsythe Championship Racing.

Tune in at 9:00 PM ET on Speed channel. Check your local listings.

Grand Prix of Long Beach to celebrate Champ Car, new era of open-wheel racing

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Feb. 27, 2008) – The 34th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will become a three-day celebration of Champ Car racing this April 18-20 and signal a new era in open-wheel racing coming in 2009.

It will be the fans’ last chance to see the up-to-800 horsepower, turbocharged Champ Cars run on the famed 1.97-mile, 11-turn Long Beach race circuit, or, for that matter, anywhere else. Champ Car and the Indy Racing League (IRL) signed a landmark agreement Feb. 22 to unify open-wheel racing.

Champ Car drivers competing at Long Beach, like their IRL counterparts racing the same weekend at Motegi, Japan, will earn points toward the 2008 IndyCar Series championship. Several Champ Car teams are expected to join the unified series and compete for the championship.

“For 25 years, we’ve hosted a series that has given our fans countless great racing thrills,” said Jim Michaelian, president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach. “We plan on using the weekend of April 18-20 to celebrate the many notable drivers, great cars and memorable moments that have been a hallmark of Champ Car racing here at Long Beach for a quarter-century.”

Michaelian said plans are underway for bringing back many of the cars and drivers who once scorched the streets of Long Beach to run ceremonial laps. Also planned are race car displays, autograph functions for fans and various other social gatherings.

“We’ll be honoring our past and, at the same time, setting the stage for the showcasing the unified IndyCar Series as it comes to the streets of Long Beach in 2009,” Michaelian added.

It sets up as an ambitious weekend in Long Beach. Also slated to run are the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, American Le Mans Series, SPEED GT, Atlantic and Formula Drift events.

“ Long Beach has served, since the start of Champ Car racing, as our marquee event,” said Kevin Kalkhoven, co-owner with Gerald Forsythe of the Champ Car World Series. “It always has been a fan-friendly event that also appeals to the owners, drivers and teams who love to compete there.

“I can think of no better circuit at which to celebrate Champ Car while at the same time signaling the beginning of a new era in open-wheel racing than the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.”

Ticket prices for the 34th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach range from $25 for a Friday general Admission ticket to $125 for a three-day ticket that includes Sat. and Sun. reserved seating in grandstand upper levels. Pre-paid parking packages are also available.

Tickets can be ordered by calling the toll-free ticket hotline – (888) 82-SPEED – or on-line at www.gplb.com. Handicapped seating, paddock passes, Super Photo tickets and a wide variety of Hospitality Club packages are also available.

The web site also includes continuous updates on 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach tickets, news and ongoing announcements of special race week activities.

A ticket brochure that includes a circuit map, ticket prices and order form can also be obtained from the hotline.

source: gplb.com

Will Tracy end up at Vision?

Paul Tracy, who once said, “I’m not going to drive one of those crapwagons”, is on a mission to find a ride in a “crapwagon”. After his team, Forsythe Racing, ceased operations earlier this week, Tracy is an odd man out in the aftermath of IRL-Champ Car merger buyout.

Tracy has been quoted recently as wanting $1 million to drive in the IRL, saying that he’s not going to drive for “hamburgers and hotdogs” (probably what some of the Champ Car back markers were getting paid in 2007).

What is ironic is that some of the rumors and people like Michael Andretti are pointing towards Tracy in a Vision car. If war makes for strange bedfellows, then surrender makes for even stranger bedfellows. Tracy’s “crapwagon” comments are one reason, and the turn of events at the 2002 Indy 500 are another. If you aren’t familiar with what happened, Paul Tracy passed Helio Castroneves nearing the end of the 2002 Indy 500 just before the caution was flown. Tracy was put back behind Helio, and given the victory. Now a mere five years later, will Tracy drive for Tony George?

At this late hour, he may have few other opportunities. What a bizarre year this is going to be.

Tracy is beating the streets for an ‘08 ride

With the much lamented tent-folding of Forsythe Championship Racing (RIP), one of the most controversial and entertaining drivers of the last decade, Paul Tracy, is the first driver-casualty of the IRL buyout of the Champ Car World Series.

The Indy Star has been all over the entire merger story, and Curt Cavin and Steve Ballard are reporting that Tracy wants a ride with either Chip or Roger. Yeah, who wouldn’t? The Ganassi rumor seems to have some feet to it, though.

The Indy star article says:

Roger Penske’s team seems an unlikely destination for Tracy, who drove there in the 1990s, but Chip Ganassi has flirted with fielding an extra car. Ganassi is already talking to George about Vision fielding a car for Indy Pro Series champ Alex Lloyd, who was signed by Ganassi.

Interesting.  If this comes to pass, one must wonder if Tracy will race at Motegi or at Long Beach?

Forsythe shuts down, will not enter the IRL

Forsythe Championship Racing rocked the open-wheel world yesterday when they abruptly announced that they are shutting down and will not be transitioning to the IRL or any other series. Their press release stated:

Forsythe Championship Racing is announcing today the cessation of its racing operations. After 13 years of competition in CART and the Champ Car World Series, the team has been unable to secure the necessary sponsorship to be able to compete in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series in 2008. Forsythe Racing Inc., the parent company of FCR, will participate in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Champ Car finale, with drivers to be announced.

Forsythe Racing’s development program will continue, with popular Canadian racer James Hinchcliffe and Mexican rising star David Garza competing in the 2008 Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda.

The two-car team will participate in the upcoming open test at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on March 10 and 11, as well as the full 12-race Atlantic season, which begins on April 18-20 at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Hinchcliffe, a 21-year-old native of Toronto, is returning to the same operation with which he competed in his rookie Atlantic season in 2006. That season produced Hinchcliffe’s lone Atlantic victory to date at Portland, a pole position at Montreal and a total of three podium results, placing him 10th in the championship as part of a four-car operation. Last season, Hinchcliffe competed with Sierra Sierra Enterprises, improving greatly from his rookie campaign with three pole positions and five podiums en route to fourth in the championship.

The 19-year-old Garza, from Monterrey, Mexico, competed in his rookie Atlantic season in 2007 with US RaceTronics. He earned career-best results in each of his first six starts, topped by best finishes of eighth at Cleveland and the first race of the doubleheader at Edmonton. He finished 10th in the Rookie of the Year standings and 17th in the overall championship. As was the case in 2007, Garza’s car will carry sponsorship from Monterrey, Mexico-based Axtel, a leading carrier of communications services in Mexico.

Forsythe Racing Inc. owns a total of 27 victories and 27 pole positions in Atlantic competition and claimed the 1998 title with driver Lee Bentham, making it the most successful operation currently competing in the Atlantic Championship.

From a certain point of view, the decision is not surprising. Gerry Forsythe has been funding his team, and and likely sustaining the Champ Car series out of his own pocket. The team hasn’t been able to obtain a main sponsor for several seasons, and Gerry would have run only one car in 2007 if he didn’t need to bolster the car count, which was threatening to be only 15 or 16 cars at the season opener last year.

But looking at this from a different perspective, it looks like Forsythe is just taking his ball and going home. I have been a fan of the Forsythe team for a number of years, mostly because Paul Tracy is always an dramatic driver/character to follow, and the decision to just shut down in utter defeat is disappointing. Of course, it’s Forsythe’s prerogative to do so, but I thought that Forsythe was in racing for the competition.

What was the reason for racing? It certainly wasn’t for the money (quite the opposite). If Forsythe wasn’t in it for the competition then what was the drive?

But life moves on. Now Paul Tracy is on a quest to land a ride in the IRL. It would be a shame for him to be caught out without a seat in 2008. What was Tracy’s response yesterday? He said:

“I got a call from Neil (Micklewright, president of Forsythe Racing) this morning and he said, ‘I’ve got some bad news for you,’” related Tracy from his home in Las Vegas.

“Neil said he’d been trying to get a hold of my manager but he was having a colonoscopy today. That’s ironic ‘cause that’s what I feel like I got.”