2004 Champ Car season

2004 Champ Car season
Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford
Season
Races	14
Start date	April 18
End date	November 7
Awards
Drivers' champion	Sébastien Bourdais
Constructors' Cup	Lola
Nations' Cup	Canada
Rookie of the Year	A. J. Allmendinger
←  2003 (CART) 2005  →

The 2004 Champ Car World Series season was the 26th overall season in the CART/Champ Car genealogy, and the first under the ownership of Open-Wheel Racing Series (OWRS) as the Champ Car World Series. It began on April 18, 2004, and ended on November 7 after 14 races. For sponsorship purposes, it was branded as Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. The Drivers' Champion was Sébastien Bourdais. The Rookie of the Year was A. J. Allmendinger.

The open-wheel racing organization Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. had operated until 2003. After that year's season, CART declared bankruptcy and was liquidated in an Indianapolis courtroom in January 2004. Three team owners who had participated in the CART series, Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven, and Paul Gentilozzi, purchased CART's liquidated assets and resurrected it as Open-Wheel Racing Series for the 2004 season.

Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais would win his first of four consecutive drivers' title driving for Newman-Haas Racing

Champ Car races were broadcast on Spike TV. ^[1] Also, high-definition live broadcasts were on HDNet.

Drivers and teams

The Ford-Cosworth XFE, a 2.65 liter turbo V8 engine remained the exclusive power plant for the reorganized Champ Car series. Bridgestone remained the exclusive tire supplier as well. They also continued the marketing agreement that branded the series Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. The following teams and drivers competed in the 2004 Champ Car season.

Team	Chassis	No	Drivers	Races	Primary Sponsors
Forsythe Championship Racing	Lola B02/00	1	Paul Tracy	All	Indeck
		3	Rodolfo Lavín	All	Corona
		7	Patrick Carpentier	All	Indeck
Newman/Haas Racing	Lola B02/00	2	Sébastien Bourdais	All	McDonald's
		6	Bruno Junqueira	All	PacifiCare
Herdez Competition	Lola B02/00	4	Ryan Hunter-Reay	All	Herdez
		55	Mario Domínguez	All
Walker Racing	Reynard 02I	5	Mário Haberfeld	All	Cummins
		15	David Besnard	13	Wright-Patton-Shakespeare
			Michael Valiante	14	Wildlife Conservation Network
Rocketsports Racing	Lola B02/00	8	Alex Tagliani	All	Johnson Controls
		17	Nelson Philippe	1–5	LeasePlan 6 U.S. Air Force Reserve 1 Rocketsports Racing 4 Microchip 2 Swift Leisure 1
			Memo Gidley	6–7
			Guy Smith	8–14
RuSPORT	Lola B02/00	9	Michel Jourdain Jr.	All	Gigante
		10	A. J. Allmendinger	All	BG Products 5 Western Union 8 Lance Armstrong Foundation 1
PKV Racing	Lola B02/00	12	Jimmy Vasser	All	Gulfstream
		21	Roberto González	All	NII Holdings
Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	Reynard 02I	14	Alex Sperafico	1–8	Mi-Jack 12 TSI 1 Scotiabank Inverlat 1
			Nelson Philippe	9
	Lola B02/00			10–14
		34	Justin Wilson	1–2, 4–14	Mi-Jack
	Reynard 02I			3
Dale Coyne Racing	Lola B02/00	11	Oriol Servià	All	YokeTV.com
		19	Tarso Marques	1–2, 14	American Medical Response
			Gastón Mazzacane	3–12
			Jarek Janiš	13

From CART to Champ Car

On January 28, 2004, the assets of the bankrupt Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. (CART) were awarded to Open-Wheel Racing Series, LLC, over a bid from Indy Racing League owner Tony George as the judge decided that OWRS's bid would allow CART's debt holders a better chance at recouping their money. ^[2] Despite this victory, the OWRS partners Kevin Kalkhoven, Gerald Forsythe, and Paul Gentilozzi, would still have to work hard to ensure the 18 racecars they promised would be on track for the scheduled Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 18. Two CART teams founded in 2003, American Spirit Team Johansson and Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing, would not race in 2004, while U. E. Patrick, one of the original founders of CART, sold off his CART team assets before starting a short-lived IRL effort. ^[3]

Long Beach Season Premiere and its aftermath

On March 9 a "Season Premiere" promotional event was held in Long Beach, California, announcing 12 confirmed drivers and a 16 race schedule. ^[4] However, just two days later on March 11, Adrián Fernández threw the plans for the season into serious doubt by announcing the one car team he had presented at Long Beach would not compete in the Champ Car series. He instead expanded his Indy Racing League team to two cars (even though the IRL season had already seen its first race). ^[5] Another blow came a week later on March 18 when Bobby Rahal, onetime CEO of CART and 3 time series champion and who also presented a one car team in Long Beach, announced he would not compete in CART and would also run a two car IRL team like Fernández. ^[6]

Champ Car makes it to Long Beach

Momentum for Champ Car began to turn in the aftermath of Rahal's exit when his driver, Michel Jourdain Jr., announced that he and his sponsor, the Mexican supermarket Gigante would not follow Rahal to the IRL. ^[7] Jourdain ended up driving for the new RuSPORT team, partnering with rookie A. J. Allmendinger. ^[8] On March 20, Herdez Competition announced that Ryan Hunter-Reay would race a 2nd car for them. ^[9] On March 24 Gerald Forsythe expanded his team from two cars to three, providing a seat for Patrick Carpentier. ^[10] Conquest Racing announced a two car team featuring ex-Formula One driver Justin Wilson on March 25, ^[11] with Alex Sperafico filling the second seat two days later. ^[12] Walker Racing's one car team announced on April 8 proved to be the final piece of the puzzle to get to the 18 car field promised by the Champ Car partners in January. ^[13] Although his participation with two cars was already known, Dale Coyne waited until just before practice began for the Grand Prix of Long Beach to announce that his drivers would be Champ Car veterans Oriol Servià and Tarso Marques. ^[14]

Mid-season changes

• Ex F1 Driver Gastón Mazzacane replaced Tarso Marques at Dale Coyne Racing beginning with the race in Milwaukee.
• Rocketsports Racing swapped out rookie driver Nelson Philippe for Champ Car veteran Memo Gidley after "contractual issues" at Toronto. ^[15]
• Rocketsports changed drivers again for the Road America round, bringing in Indy Lights and sports car veteran Guy Smith to replace Memo Gidley. ^[16]
• Mi-Jack Conquest Racing brought in Nelson Philippe to take the place of Alex Sperafico beginning with the Denver round.
• Mi-Jack Conquest's #14 team began racing a Lola chassis beginning in Montreal.
• Walker Racing brought out a second car for the final two rounds of the season. Australian David Besnard drove the car at Surfer's Paradise. Toyota Atlantic veteran Michael Valiante took over the drive at Mexico City. ^[17]
• Dale Coyne Racing replaced Gastón Mazzacane with Jarek Janiš for the race at Surfer's Paradise. ^[18]
• Tarso Marques returned to Dale Coyne Racing for the final race of the season at Mexico City. ^[19]

Rule changes

• The mandatory pit window rule from the previous two seasons was eliminated. At early races, teams were given a mandatory number of green flag pit stops but this was also dropped after the first two races of the season. However, the rule was re-instituted for the Las Vegas round to eliminate a possible fuel economy race with no push to pass.
• For non-oval track races, Bridgestone introduced two types of tires, both of which had to be used unless wet weather tires were used: A primary black-walled tire and a secondary red-walled option tire. The option tire was a softer, faster tire but less durable than the primary tire.
• For non-oval track races, Ford-Cosworth introduced the "push to pass" button, giving each driver an additional 50 horsepower for 60 seconds per race. The driver activated the function with a green button on the steering wheel, the boost would continue until the driver took his foot off the throttle for 1 second or time ran out.

Season summary

Schedule

Rnd	Race Name	Circuit	City/Location	Date
1	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach	R  Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California	April 18
2	Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix of Monterrey	R  Fundidora Park	Monterrey, Mexico	May 23
3	The Time Warner Cable Roadrunner 250	O  Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin	June 5
4	Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland	R  Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon	June 20
5	U.S. Bank Presents the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland	R  Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport	Cleveland, Ohio	July 3
6	Molson Indy Toronto	R  Exhibition Place	Toronto, Canada	July 11
7	Molson Indy Vancouver	R  Concord Pacific Place	Vancouver, Canada	July 25
8	Grand Prix of Road America Presented by the Chicago Tribune	R  Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	August 8
9	Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver	R  Denver Civic Center	Denver, Colorado	August 15
10	Molson Indy Montreal	R  Circuit Gilles Villeneuve	Montreal, Canada	August 29
11	Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey	R  Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	September 12
12	Bridgestone 400 Presented by Corona	O  Las Vegas Motor Speedway	Las Vegas, Nevada	September 25
13	Lexmark Indy 300	R  Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Australia	October 24
14	Gran Premio Telmex-Tecate Presented by Banamex	R  Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	Mexico City, Mexico	November 7

 O  Oval/Speedway
 R  Road/Street course

The initial schedule announced by Champ Car at the Long Beach Season Premiere event included 16 races. ^[20] One event that didn't make the final schedule was a race on a street circuit in Seoul, South Korea on October 17, a week before the Surfers Paradise race, but the race was cancelled on September 24 because of "environmental issues", ^[21] two months after reports that government approval for a race near Seoul World Cup Stadium could not be arranged in time. ^[22] The second was a "TBA" event that was scheduled to take place somewhere in the United States after the Gran Premio Telmex/Tecate in Mexico City and never materialized. A second TBA event on the initial schedule became the Bridgestone 400 on September 25 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which was announced on July 7. ^[23]

Race results

Rnd	Race Name	Pole position	Fastest lap	Led most laps	Winning driver	Winning team	Report
1	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach	Bruno Junqueira	Sébastien Bourdais	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Forsythe Championship Racing	Report
2	Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix of Monterrey	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
3	The Time Warner Cable Roadrunner 250	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Herdez Competition	Report
4	Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland	Sébastien Bourdais	Bruno Junqueira	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
5	U.S. Bank Presents the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland	Paul Tracy	Bruno Junqueira	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
6	Molson Indy Toronto	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
7	Molson Indy Vancouver	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Forsythe Championship Racing	Report
8	Grand Prix of Road America Presented by the Chicago Tribune	Sébastien Bourdais	Bruno Junqueira	Paul Tracy Alex Tagliani	Alex Tagliani	Rocketsports Racing	Report
9	Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Paul Tracy	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
10	Molson Indy Montreal	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Bruno Junqueira	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
11	Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey	Sébastien Bourdais	Mario Domínguez	Patrick Carpentier	Patrick Carpentier	Forsythe Championship Racing	Report
12	Bridgestone 400 Presented by Corona	Patrick Carpentier	Bruno Junqueira	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
13	Lexmark Indy 300	Paul Tracy	Bruno Junqueira	Paul Tracy	Bruno Junqueira	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
14	Gran Premio Telmex-Tecate Presented by Banamex	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report

Final driver standings

Further information: List of American Championship car racing point scoring systems

Pos Driver LBH MTY MIL POR CLE TOR VAN ROA DEN MTL LAG LAS SUR MEX Pts 1 Sébastien Bourdais 3 1* 18 1* 1* 1* 5 3 1 15* 8 1* 2 1* 369 2 Bruno Junqueira 2 2 6 2 2 18 4 15 3 1 2 2 1 2 341 3 Patrick Carpentier 4 4 2 4 16 3 16 14 9 2 1* 3 16 6 266 4 Paul Tracy 1* 7 17 3 17 5 1* 12 2* 4 10 18 4* 10 254 5 Mario Domínguez 5 3 8 17 8 17 6 5 4 3 11 7 3 8 244 6 A. J. Allmendinger  RY  12 17 5 6 6 11 3 13 5 5 15 6 6 3 229 7 Alex Tagliani 8 5 13 7 3 7 7 1* 10 7 6 16 19 11 218 8 Jimmy Vasser 16 12 4 8 5 2 10 8 17 8 17 5 12 5 201 9 Ryan Hunter-Reay 7 8 1* 12 11 8 8 4 16 18 5 13 5 19 199 10 Oriol Servià 15 14 7 11 4 9 12 6 6 9 3 12 13 7 199 11 Justin Wilson  R  6 6 11 5 18 12 14 7 7 14 18 8 8 4 188 12 Michel Jourdain Jr. 11 11 3 14 15 15 2 9 14 6 4 11 17 9 185 13 Mário Haberfeld 9 15 10 9 14 4 9 11 8 13 7 14 14 15 157 14 Rodolfo Lavín 10 13 9 18 9 14 15 2 11 11 12 4 15 13 156 15 Roberto González  R  14 9 12 10 7 13 13 16 12 10 14 10 11 12 136 16 Nelson Philippe  R  13 10 14 15 10 13 17 16 9 10 16 89 17 Gastón Mazzacane  R  16 13 12 6 18 18 15 12 13 15 73 18 Guy Smith  R  10 18 16 9 17 9 17 53 19 Alex Sperafico  R  17 16 15 16 13 10 17 17 47 20 David Besnard  R  7 18 21 Memo Gidley 16 11 15 22 Tarso Marques 18 18 18 9 23 Michael Valiante  R  14 7 24 Jarek Janiš  R  18 3 Pos Driver LBH MTY MIL POR CLE TOR VAN ROA DEN MTL LAG LAS SUR MEX Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th-10th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10) Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Not competing In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

Nations' Cup

• Top result per race counts towards the Nations' Cup

Pos	Country	LBH	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	VAN	ROA	DEN	MTL	LAG	LAS	SUR	MEX	Pts
1	Canada	1	4	2	3	3	3	1	1	2	2	1	3	4	6	380
2	France	3	1	14	1	1	1	5	3	1	15	8	1	2	1	358
3	Brazil	2	2	6	2	2	4	4	11	3	1	2	2	1	2	352
4	United States	7	8	1	6	5	2	3	4	5	5	5	5	5	3	310
5	Mexico	5	3	3	10	7	13	2	2	4	3	4	4	3	8	295
6	Spain	15	14	7	11	4	9	12	6	6	9	3	12	13	7	195
7	England	6	6	11	5	18	12	14	7	7	14	9	8	8	4	195
8	Argentina			16	13	12	6	18	18	15	12	13	15			73
9	Australia													7		17
10	Czech Republic													18		3
Pos	Country	LBH	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	VAN	ROA	DEN	MTL	LAG	LAS	SUR	MEX	Pts

Chassis Constructors' Cup

Pos	Chassis	Pts
1	Lola	462
2	Reynard	168
Pos	Chassis	Pts

Driver breakdown

Pos	Driver	Team	Entries	Wins	Podiums	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led	Pts
1	Bourdais	Newman-Haas Racing	14	7	10	11	12	8	506	369
2	Junqueira	Newman-Haas Racing	14	2	10	11	12	1	123	341
3	Carpentier	Forsythe Championship Racing	14	1	5	8	10	1	66	266
4	Tracy	Forsythe Championship Racing	14	2	4	7	10	3	286	254
5	Domínguez	Herdez Competition	14	--	3	6	11	--	10	244
6	Allmendinger	RuSPORT	14	--	2	5	9	--	16	229
7	Tagliani	Rocketsports Racing	14	1	2	3	10	--	29	218
8	Vasser	PKV Racing	14	--	1	5	9	--	5	201
9	Hunter-Reay	Herdez Competition	14	1	1	4	8	1	250	199
10	Servià	Dale Coyne Racing	14	--	1	2	8	--	6	199
11	Wilson	Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	14	--	--	2	8	--	1	188
12	Jourdain Jr.	RuSPORT	14	--	2	3	6	--	13	185
13	Haberfeld	Walker Racing	14	--	--	1	7	--	--	157
14	Lavín	Forsythe Championship Racing	14	--	1	2	5	--	3	156
15	Roberto González	PKV Racing	14	--	--	--	5	--	--	136
16	Philippe	Rocketsports Racing Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	11	--	--	--	4	--	--	89
17	Mazzacane  R	Dale Coyne Racing	10	--	--	--	1	--	--	73
18	Smith	Rocketsports Racing	7	--	--	--	3	--	--	53
19	Sperafico  R	Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	8	--	--	--	1	--	--	47
20	Besnard	Walker Racing	1	--	--	--	1	--	--	18
21	Gidley	Rocketsports Racing	2	--	--	--	--	--	--	15
22	Marques	Dale Coyne Racing	3	--	--	--	--	--	--	9
23	Valiante  R	Walker Racing	1	--	--	--	--	--	--	7
24	Janiš  R	Dale Coyne Racing	1	--	--	--	--	--	--	3

Notes

1. The First Network For OWRS: Champ Car On Spike TV - Sports Business Daily, 11 March 2004
2. "OWRS awarded CART assets". motorsport.com. 2004-01-28. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
3. "Patrick Racing, Unser Jr to debut at Indy500". motorsport.com. 2004-03-21. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
4. "Out of the woodwork in Long Beach". motorsport.com. 2004-03-09. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
5. "Fernandez moves to the IndyCar Series". motorsport.com. 2004-03-11. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
6. "Two Rahal cars for IndyCar Series". motorsport.com. 2004-03-18. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
7. "Jourdain leaves Team Rahal". motorsport.com. 2004-03-18. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
8. "Jourdain joins RuSPORT for 2004". motorsport.com. 2004-03-31. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
9. "Herdez adds Hunter-Reay to second car". motorsport.com. 2004-03-20. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
10. "Forsythe commits to three cars". motorsport.com. 2004-03-20. Retrieved 2010-06-20.^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}
11. "Justin Wilson to pilot Conquest Racing Lola". motorsport.com. 2004-03-25. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
12. "Sperafico joins Wilson at Conquest". crash.net. 2004-03-27. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
13. "Walker Racing will compete in 2004". motorsport.com. 2004-04-08. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
14. "Marques, Servia secure rides with Coyne Racing". motorsport.com. 2004-04-16. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
15. "Memo Gidley To Drive For Rocketsports Racing In Toronto". motorsport.com. 2004-07-09. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
16. "Rocketsports signs Guy Smith". motorsport.com. 2004-08-03. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
17. "Walker Racing enters second car in Australia". motorsport.com. 2004-10-18. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
18. "Jaroslav Janis gets ride with Coyne". motorsport.com. 2004-10-21. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
19. "Marques returns with Coyne for Mexico City". motorsport.com. 2004-11-04. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
20. "The 2004 schedule is more complete". motorsport.com. 2004-03-08. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-07-05.
21. "Three events remaining in season". ESPN. 2004-09-24. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
22. "No Seoul for Champ Cars". AutoWeek. 2004-07-25. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
23. "Champ Car to run at Las Vegas". motorsport.com. 2004-07-07. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-07-05.

References

• Åberg, Andreas. "Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford 2004". Driver Database. Archived from the original on 2008-10-05. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
• "2004 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford". Champ Car Stats. Archived from the original on 2008-11-22. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
• "Standings after Mexico City". Champ Car World Series. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2009-05-19.

See also

• 2004 Toyota Atlantic Championship season
• 2004 Indianapolis 500
• 2004 IndyCar Series
• 2004 Infiniti Pro Series season