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2004 CHAMP CARS - CART

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BOURDAIS WINS CHAMPIONSHIP

  • In his 2nd year of championship, the former F3000 champion won 7 races, 8 poles and 10 podiums to win his first Champcar title. He won the Vanderbilt Cup as well as the champion prize of $750,000. He finished the season with the best average in terms of race wins, poles, laps led and qualifying.
    BOURDAIS: "... I just cannot be thankful enough, you know, for Carl (Haas) and Paul (Newman) to give me the opportunity to drive in such a fantastic team. And, Craig (Hampson), thank you for all your work. My engineer, he's a pretty tough guy, but he's definitely the best this year, and we've been the best team overall. "
  • This is Newman Haas Racing's 5th Championship title. The team is owned by Carl Haas and Paul Newman.
  • 2004 CHAMPCAR SEASON: NEW SERIES + NEW OWNERS + POINTS SYSTEM
    CART series was declared bankrupt after 2003 season. New owners of the Champ Car series is Open Wheel Racing (Paul Gentilozzi (co-owner RocketSport Racing), Kevin Kalkhoven (co-owner PK Racing), Gerald Forsythe (co-owner of Team Players). They won the court battle with rival series IRL. Despite the turmoil 18 drivers have been confirmed.
2004 CHAMPION:
S BOURDAIS

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2004 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:
A J Allmendinger

2004 ROOKIE DRIVERS
Justin Wilson
A J Allmendinger
Nelson Philippe
Gonzalez

 

2004 CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES

2004 RACE RESULTS

2004 DRIVER CHANGES

  • Mario Haberfeld joins Walker Racing
    27 year old Brazilian made his Champcar debut last year with Conquest Racing. His best finish was 4th. Haberfeld is a former British F3 champion (1998).

  • 3 full time drivers for Forsythe Racing
    For the first time in 10 years, Champcar will feature a team with 3 full time drivers. Forsythe Racing will have the reigning champion Paul Tracy, 8 year CART veteran Patrick Carpentier and Rodolfo Lavin.
    CARPENTIER: "... Now that the final details of running three cars has been worked out by the team I’m really looking forward to testing next week and the first race ...We have a lot of veteran leadership in this team and we expect to be challenging for the championship"

  • Alex Sperafico joins Mi-Jack Conquest
    Brazilian Alex Sperafico will drive alonside Justin Wilson in Mi-Jack Conquest team. Sperafico made his Champcar debut last year with Dale Coyne Racing and drove in 2 races. He also raced in International Formula 3000 series and Barber Dodge Pro Series.
    TEAM OWNER (Eric Bachelart): "... Alex is a talented driver and has a good personality, and we will work with him throughout the year to develop his skills in Champ Car ... I think he will work very well with Justin, and I expect both drivers to be in contention for Rookie of the Year"

  • Justin Wilson's debut:
    Former F3000 champion and ex-Formula 1 driver Justin Wilson will try Champcar racing this year. Wilson made his F1 debut with Minardi last year then moved to Jaguar mid season. He lost his drive this year to Christian Kein and drove in Sebring 12 Hours last weekend. He will now drive for the Mi-Jack Conquest Champcar team.
    WILSON: ".. it's something I've always admired and wanted to be a part of at the right time and this is the right time"

  • Ryan Hunter-Reay joins Herdez Competition; Mario Dominguez is the other driver
    HUNTER-REAY: "... I am extremely thrilled and relieved to finally announce that I will be driving for Herdez Competition in Champ Car. It is an honor to drive for a team where I know I can challenge for race wins each weekend and fight for the championship. Being the first graduate from every level of Champ Car's Driver Development System, it is very important to me to remain in the most challenging driver's championship in the United States"

  • 17 year old Nelson Philippe joins Rocketsports Racing. The French driver will become the youngest ever in Champcar series. He raced in Barber Dodge Pro Series last year and finished 9th overall. Alex Tagliani is the other driver in Rocketsports team.
    GENTILOZZI (ROCKETSPORTS) : ".... We have followed Nelson's career development and monitored his testing sessions. When we got in touch with him we were impressed by his personality, which fits with our team philosophy, and we were glad to be able to sign him."

  • Michel Jourdain, Jr. joins RuSPORTafter the departure of Team Rahal to IRL. A.J. Allmendinger is the other driver in RuSPORT team.
    JOURDAIN: "... I am sad to see them leave (Team Rahal) but I am excited about the future of the Champ Car World Series. It is extremely important to me to be able to continue to race in my homeland of Mexico in front of the passionate Mexican race fans"

2004 CONFIRMED DRIVERS:

  • Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira, Sebastien Bourdais, Jimmy Vasser, Michel Jourdain, Ryan Hunter-Reay, A J Allmendinger, Patrick Carpentier, Justin Wilson, Alex Sperafico, Alex Tagliani, Nelson Phillipe, Mario Dominguez, Roberto Gonzalez, Lavin

REVISED POINTS SYSTEM IN 2004

  • Points will be awarded down to 20th place under the new points system to be used this season. Race winner will receive 31 points while 20th finisher will get 1. A point will also be given to drivers who qualify fastest on Friday or Saturday (road courses); or who leads one or more laps during a race; or for the fastest lap of the race; or who improves the most from their grid position.
  • New Points System:
    1st = 31, 2nd = 27, 3rd = 25, 4th = 23, 5th = 22, 6th = 20, 7=18, 8=16, 9=14, 10=12
    11=11, 12=10, ... 20=1

CHAMP CAR SERIES TO CONTINUE

  • New owners of the Champ Car series is Open Wheel Racing. They won the court battle with IRL over the bankrupt CART assets. The court ruling on January 28th, 2004 favoured Open Wheel Racing's $3.2 M bid to continue the Champcar series over the rival Indycar Racing's bid of $13.5 M. If IRL had won, Champcar series schedule would have been either cancelled or substantially reduced and race promoters would have filed multi-million dollar damages claim.
  • Judge Otte: " .. I realise there's a difference between $13.5M and $3.2M but this bid must account for the assumption of these contracts ....We do know for certain there would be litigation and there would be damages.."
  • Kevin Kalkhoven (OWR): ".. I'm delighted ....Let's go race, and let's get out of the courtroom."
  • Tony George (IRL): "... We would have been willing to offer more but it was clear we couldn't offer enough given the parameters that made sense .."
  • Original CART organization has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
  • CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) was founded in 1978 by R Penske and P Patrick.
  • Rival series IRL (Indy Racing League; now called IndyCar Racing) started in 1996.
  • CART was floated on stock exchange to become a publicly-traded company in 1998.
  • RIVAL BID FOR "CART" BY INDYCAR RACING (IRL) - made before the final court ruling (January 28th, 2004)
  • BID BY INDYCAR RACING (F Nation): ".. The bid is a substantial bid for selected assets of the bankrupt CART ... Even though our interest is late, it is within the established dates of the proceeding and it will cause no delay ... If we're not successful, we will still be adding road and street courses in the future .."
  • Open Wheel Racing's response to Indycar bid
    Gentilozzi: "... We will do whatever it takes to save the Champ Car series and ensure its success into the future. Last-minute posturing and provocation by George and his organization only serve strengthen our commitment and dedication to do what’s right for motorsports ...     We have teams representing more than 18 cars, a creative television package, and a great race schedule all ready to go ... Our plan calls for a win-win situation for the teams, creditors, sponsors, promoters, and the fans .."

NEW OWNERS

  • Open Wheel Racing owned by team owners:
    Paul Gentilozzi (co-owner RocketSport Racing), Kevin Kalkhoven (co-owner PK Racing), Gerald Forsythe (co-owner of Team Players)
  • New interim CEO of CART (Richard Eidswick): "... I'm confident that the Champ Car World Series will emerge from the bankruptcy process stronger than ever ... I look forward to working with all parties involved to build on our strengths and explore new opportunities as we position Champ Car for 2004 and beyond .." DEC 15, 2003

CALENDAR CHANGES (2004 CALENDAR)

  • Season opener in Florida cancelled - first race will be at Long Beach - April 18
  • Miami GP cancelled due to large financial loss
  • New race in Las Vegas - September 25 - Las Vegas Motor Speedway

SUPPORT RACES

  • 2004 season is likely to have 4 support class races:
  • Toyota Atlantics, Barber Dodge, Formula BMW USA as well as Trans-Am
  • The new owners of Champcar series Open Wheel Racing has also bought assets of Trans-Am Racing:
    Gentilozzi:".... Trans-Am Series is the oldest road racing series to be run on a continuous basis anywhere in the world, and I'm proud to have had an involvement with that. As we look forward, we knew we needed production-based cars, so that we had a significant amount of brand in there for people to be attracted to. There are days when people want to come and cheer for Mustang, Corvette, Jaguar, BMW or Audi. They're fans of that and we see that in all forms of motorsports. So having products that were without that branding, we thought, was deficient .."

LAST SEASON (2003)

  • Paul Tracy won his first Champcar championship title. He led Junqueira by 29 points before the penultimate race in Australia (Oct 26). Junquiera failed to finish so Tracy clinched the title.
  • 2003 FINAL STANDING:
  • 1 Tracy, 226
    2 Junqueira, 199
    3 Jourdain, 195
    4 Bourdais 159
    5 Carpentier, 146
    6 Dominguez 118
    7 Servia 108
    8 Fernandez, 105
    9 Manning 103
    10 Tagliani 11 Vasser 12 Haberfeld 13 Moreno 14 Hunter-Reay

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2004 FINAL STANDING

1 Bourdais 369
2 Junqueira 341
3 Carpentier 266
4 Tracy 254
5 Dominguez 244
6 Allmendinger 229
7 Tagliani 218
8 Jimmy Vasser 201
9 Hunter-Reay 199
9 Oriol Servia 199

CART CHAMPIONS:

2004 Sebastien Bourdais
2003 Paul Tracy
2002 C Da Matta
2001 Gil De Ferran
2000 Gil De Ferran
1999 Juan Montoya
1998 Alex Zanardi
1997 Alex Zanardi
1996 Jimmy Vasser
1995 Jacque Villeneuve
1994 Al Unser Jr.
1993 Nigel Mansell
1992 Bobby Rahal
1991 Michael Andretti
1990 Al Unser Jr.

TOYOTA ATLANTIC CHAMPIONS:

2004 Jon Fogarty
2003 Allmendinger
2002 Jon Fogarty
2001 Hoover Orsi

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