2008 Champ Car season

Last updated

2008 Champ Car season
Champ Car World Series
Champ Car simplified logo (2003-2008).svg
Season
Races14
Start dateApril 20
End dateNovember 9
Awards
←  2007
2009 (ICS) →

The 2008 Champ Car World Series season would have been the 5th season of the Champ Car World Series and 30th season of the series dating back to the 1979 formation of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). It was scheduled to begin on April 20, 2008, and end on November 9. The season was canceled on February 21, 2008, because of the buyout of Champ Car by the rival IndyCar Series, resulting in the reunification of American open-wheel racing. [1]

Contents

As the IndyCar Series was already scheduled for a race in Japan the same weekend, the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, which also could not be moved, was run as originally planned, with teams that had been part of Champ Car in 2007 participating in Long Beach using the same Champ Car rules and vehicles as the previous season but still receiving IndyCar rankings points. The race was treated as a farewell to the Champ Car World Series, and won by Will Power. The following year, the event fully became part of the IndyCar schedule.

The Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton and the Gold Coast Indy 300 in Australia were also retained and added to the IndyCar Series schedule. [1] The schedule originally included what would have been the first Monterey Grand Prix since 2004 and the planned debut of the Champ Car Grand Prix of Spain.

Later on, Toronto (2009), Houston (2013), Road America (2016), Portland (2018), and Laguna Seca (2019) would also be revived by the unified series.

Races

The 2008 Champ Car schedule was announced in November 2007 before the unification announcement.

RndDateRace NameCircuitCity/Location
1April 20 Flag of the United States.svg Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California
2April 27 Flag of the United States.svg Grand Prix of Houston JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park Houston, Texas
3May 18 Flag of the United States.svg Champ Car Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California
4June 1 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Champ Car Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit Zolder Circuit Zolder Heusden-Zolder, Belgium
5June 8 Flag of Spain.svg Champ Car Grand Prix of Spain at Circuito Permanente de Jerez Circuito de Jerez Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
6June 22 Flag of the United States.svg Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, Ohio
7June 29 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Champ Car Mont-Tremblant Circuit Mont-Tremblant Mont-Tremblant, Quebec
8July 6 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario
9July 20 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton Edmonton City Centre Airport Edmonton, Alberta
10July 27 Flag of the United States.svg Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
11August 10 Flag of the United States.svg Road America Grand Prix Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
12September 14 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Champ Car Grand Prix of Holland at TT Circuit Assen TT Circuit Assen Assen, Netherlands
13October 26 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Gold Coast Indy 300 Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Surfers Paradise, Australia
14November 9 Flag of Mexico.svg Gran Premio Tecate Presentado por Banamex Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Mexico City, Mexico

Team and driver lineup

The following teams and drivers were expected to compete for the 2008 Champ Car season. All teams would have used a Cosworth 2.65-litre turbocharged V8 engine, a Panoz DP01 chassis, and Bridgestone tires.

TeamNo.Driver(s)Primary Sponsors
Flag of the United States.svg Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 1 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Justin Wilson [2] McDonald's
2 Flag of the United States.svg Graham Rahal [2] Hole in the Wall Camps
Flag of the United States.svg Forsythe/Pettit Racing 3 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Paul Tracy Indeck
7 Flag of France.svg Franck Montagny
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Minardi Team USA 4 Flag of Venezuela.svg E. J. Viso PDVSA
14 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Robert Doornbos OzJet
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Team Australia 5 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Will Power Aussie Vineyards
15 Flag of New Zealand.svg Matt Halliday Walker Racing
Flag of the United States.svg Rocketsports Racing 8 Flag of Brazil.svg Enrique Bernoldi [3] Sangari
Flag of the United States.svg Dale Coyne Racing 11 Flag of Brazil.svg Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing
19 Flag of Brazil.svg Mario Moraes Sonny's BBQ
Flag of the United States.svg KV Racing Technology 21 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Alex Tagliani PKV Racing
22 Flag of Spain.svg Oriol Servià [4]
Flag of the United States.svg Pacific Coast Motorsports 29 Flag of the United States.svg Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports
96 Flag of Mexico.svg Mario Domínguez Visit Mexico City
Flag of the United States.svg Conquest Racing 24 Flag of France.svg Franck Perera [5] ARES
34 Flag of France.svg Nelson Philippe

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "2008 IRL IndyCar Series". Champ Car Stats. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
  2. 1 2 "Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal To Make Up Newman/Haas/Lanigan Lineup". champcarworldseries.com. January 29, 2008. Archived from the original on February 6, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Rocketsports Signs Former F1 Driver". champcarworldseries.com. January 28, 2008. Archived from the original on March 4, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Oriol Servià Signs With PKV". champcarworldseries.com. January 5, 2008. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  5. ↑ "Conquest Racing Confirms Atlantic's 'Fearless' Franck Perera For 2008 Champ Car World Series Season". champcarworldseries.com. February 6, 2008. Archived from the original on March 4, 2008. Retrieved February 6, 2008.
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