Sébastien Bourdais (left) won the Champ Car World Series driver's title for the fourth time; Justin Wilson (right) finished second in points.
The 2007 Champ Car World Series season was the fourth and final season of the Champ Car World Series, and the 29th season of the series dating back to the 1979 formation of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). It began on April 8, 2007 and ended on November 11 after 14 races. Unbeknownst at the time, this would end up being the final contested season of Champ Car, as the following February, the series unified with the Indy Racing League (IRL), marking the end of the Champ Car World Series for good.
French driver Sébastien Bourdais entered the season as the defending champion, and went on to score his fourth consecutive title, becoming the first driver in Champ Car and/or American open-wheel racing history to do so. It was his final year in the series before moving on to Formula 1, regardless of the subsequent unification of the sport. It also marked the last time that a driver of an American open-wheel championship clinched the title before the final race of the season till 2023, when Alex Palou won the IndyCar title.[1]
Background and series news
Champ Car underwent some major changes for 2007. The opening race of the season was switched from the Grand Prix of Long Beach to Las Vegas for the first running of the Vegas Grand Prix, and the series was slated to race in Europe for the first time since 2003. Also, the entire schedule was held on road and street courses for the first time in history.
The name of the series reverted to Champ Car World Series, after both Bridgestone and Ford Motor Company concluded their sponsorship deals. Bridgestone extended its deal as tire supplier in November 2006, but Ford withdrew entirely from the series in January 2007.[2][3]Mazda took over as the new pace car and courtesy vehicle supplier, but elected not to badge the engines, with Cosworth having been sold to Kevin Kalkhoven by Ford.
ESPN announced a new, multiyear agreement that marked the return of the Champ Car World Series to the network in 2007.[4] On January 23, 2007, Champ Car unveiled its new logo for the Champ Car World Series and the Atlantic Series, with a design that included the new Panoz DP01 chassis on the right with an emphasis on a chicane-style layout, representing the street track racing that dominated Champ Car.
Rule changes
Champ Car officials confirmed that Panoz would be the sole chassis supplier for Champ Car for the three years beginning in 2007. The Panoz DP01 was built by sister company Élan Motorsport Technologies and was powered by a turbo-charged Cosworth engine. The new formula was reported to significantly lower the costs of competing in the series, which was in turn expected to increase car counts for the 2007 Champ Car season. However, 2007 entries did not exceeded those of 2006.
The new rules of the 2007 season included the implementation of standing starts at venues where they could be safely implemented, being introduced in the fourth round of the season at Portland. Additionally, all events were timed events instead of running a set number of laps. As the time limit approached, the drivers were notified that they were beginning the last lap. The leader would not be shown the white flag, which was instead employed in a similar manner to its use by the FIA. Teams were also allowed unlimited access to their tires during all qualifying sessions. The requirement for each team to use at least one set of the alternate Bridgestone Potenzas during the race would remain in place.
Starting this season drivers no longer received a bonus point for leading a lap of the race.
On January 22, 2007, RuSPORT announced it would retain Justin Wilson, who signed a multi-year deal after two seasons with the team.[21] Wilson had previously been linked with vacancies at Newman/Haas and Forsythe.[34]
On January 22, 2007, PKV Racing announced Neel Jani as its first driver for the 2007 season, making his debut in the series. Jani switched from the A1 Grand Prix series, where he was a runner-up with Team Switzerland in 2005.[23]
On March 8, 2007, Rocketsports Racing announced the return of Alex Tagliani, who previously drove for the team in 2003 and 2004, and had done both Open Tests in that seat. As the team later joined forces with RuSPORT, Tagliani drove for RSPORTS during the first ten races before the alliance was reverted.[19]
On March 29, 2007, Forsythe Championship Racing announced the surprise return of Mario Domínguez for a three-race deal, less than a year after being fired from the team before the fifth race of 2006. Domínguez had tested in the off-season for RuSPORT, who eventually did not field a second car.[10] Forsythe had previously negotiated with Jos Verstappen, although the team was keen on downsizing to a one-car operation, and would only run Paul Tracy during winter testing.[35]
On April 14, Forsythe Championship Racing confirmed that Paul Tracy would miss the Grand Prix of Long Beach due to a compression fracture in his back sustained in a practice crash on Saturday morning, which was initially slated to keep him out for as long as three months. Oriol Servià was announced as the replacement driver for the rest of the weekend.[8] On April 18, Servia was confirmed to drive at Houston.[9]
On May 17, second-year driver Jan Heylen announced it would race at the Belgian Champ Car Grand Prix with Conquest Racing, pending sponsorship agreements, with the possibility of competing in further events.[36][37] On June 1, Conquest announced Heylen was signed for the rest of the season with immediate effect, after the end of Matt Halliday's three-race deal.[32]
Over the summer, Mario Domínguez served as a replacement driver for three different teams, being readily available because of his role as the driver of the Champ Car 2-seater programme:
On July 22, Domínguez replaced Tristan Gommendy for PKV Racing at Edmonton, after Gommendy suffered a couple of microscopic fractures in a Friday practice accident on Friday.[25]
On July 30, 2006, Champ Car Atlantic team Gelles Racing announced a new two-car Champ Car programme for 2007, with the blessing of series officials.[39] However, no further developments or announcements were made in the following months, and the team eventually cancelled their Panoz DP01 orders.
On December 18, 2006, former F1 team principal Paul Stoddart announced it had acquired a controlling interest in CTE-HVM Racing. The team was renamed as Minardi Team USA in the style of former Formula 1 team Minardi, which had been owned by Stoddart between 2001 and 2005.[13]
On February 3, 2007, team owner Éric Bachelart announced that Conquest Racing would downsize its operations to one car, after Mi-Jack decided to not self-fund the team in its co-ownership role. One day earlier, a self-imposed deadline to find sponsorship and keep the team running was met with a last-minute sponsorship deal, shortly after employees had been told Conquest would be closed.[40]
On March 6, 2007, Mi-Jack announced it had sold back its ownership share in Conquest Racing.[41] On March 9, Mi-Jack owner Mike Lanigan was announced as a new partner of Newman/Haas Racing, with the team being renamed as Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.[42]
On March 29, 2007, RuSPORT and Rocketsports Racing announced an strategic and economic alliance that would see both teams merge as RSPORTS under the joint ownership of Dan Pettit and Paul Gentilozzi.[18] Before the eleventh race of the season at Zolder, it was announced that the two teams would revert to compete separately under their original names.[20]
Schedule
The 15-race schedule was first released on September 27, 2006.[43] It was expanded to 17 races on January 16, 2007.[44]
On September 27, 2006, Champ Car released the 2007 schedule. Notably, the race at the Milwaukee Mile was dropped, which meant that no oval races would be held during the season, for the first time in the history of major American open-wheel racing. The Grand Prix of Monterrey was also discontinued after six seasons. Both events were replaced with street races at Las Vegas and Phoenix, organized by the same promoter and intended to bookend the season, a role held by Long Beach and Mexico over the previous years. Amid interest from NASCAR, the Montreal race was switched for a return to Mont-Tremblant, which had hosted USAC Indy car races in the 1960's, and the fourth attempt on an Asian event was scheduled at Zhuhai, China, after three years of race cancellations in Korean venues.[43]
On January 16, 2007, the calendar was expanded to 17 races with the addition of a two-legged European trip at Circuit Zolder and TT Circuit Assen, marking the return of the series to the Old Continent after four years.[44]
On February 1, the Grand Prix of Denver was cancelled for both the 2007 and 2008 seasons, due to scheduling conflicts on the surrounding venues. Although the contract was still in place for a 2009 edition, it would not be fulfilled after the 2008 unification of American open-wheel racing.[54]
On April 7, 2007, Champ Car announced a change of date of the Zolder event from September 9 to August 26, due to its proximity with the Belgian Grand Prix.[55] The series also confirmed the postponement of the Zhuhai race, which had been reported as early as February.[56] A change of date from May 20 to October 28 was officially requested to and rejected by the FIA, which was the ultimate authority over the allocation of IndyCar's international dates. Its president, Max Mosley, confirmed on June 2 that Champ Car had been aware of the situation since early April, while still including the race in its schedules since.[57]
On August 28, 2007, the Grand Prix Arizona was cancelled by its promoters due to a lack of corporate support. This eventually led to Champ Car terminating its deal for both this race and Las Vegas for 2008. Champ Car also confirmed that the Zhuhai race wouldn't take place in 2007. While originally "postponed" to 2008, it would not feature on next season's prospective calendar.[58]
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Sébastien Bourdais 
Robert Doornbos 
