Past Drivers
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Alex Tagliani (2007) -
Justin Wilson (2007)
RSPORTS was an auto racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series. It was founded officially in 2007 as a technological partnership, but started out originally as two different teams owned by former race car drivers Carl Russo, who owned RuSPORT, and Paul Gentilozzi who founded Rocketsports.
Carl Russo drove for the team then known as Performance Development and Racing, or PDR which was owned by Steve Wulff before Russo drove in the Toyota Atlantic Series before he gave up his seat to young driver Aaron Justus. Justus and A. J. Allmendinger were drivers in the team's 2003 Atlantic season, and Allmendinger cruised to the championship with seven victories from 11 starts.
Both RuSPORT and Allmendinger moved up to Champ Car in 2004, and added a second car at the 11th hour for Michel Jourdain Jr. to keep car count at the minimum of 18. Most of the team's resources were stretched and Jourdain and the team parted ways following the season. Justin Wilson was signed as a replacement for 2005.
The 2005 season was the team's breakout year with Wilson scoring two victories and finishing third in the championship. Allmendinger came close to victory, with four runner-up finishes during the season. For 2006 they were expected to be the top challengers to Newman/Haas Racing. Midway through the season, the team replaced Allmendinger with 2002 CART champion Cristiano da Matta who moved over to the team from Dale Coyne Racing.
Cristiano da Matta was injured in a collision with a deer during testing at Road America on August 3, 2006.
On September 17, 2006, the team announced that it would hold a "shootout" at Sebring Raceway to determine who would drive the #10 car in the final two races of the season. On October 9, it was revealed that the winner of the shootout was Australian Ryan Briscoe, who would make his first appearance for the team at his home race, the Lexmark Indy 300.
Rocketsports Racing is a motor racing team from the United States based in East Lansing, Michigan. It competes in the Champ Car World Series and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Series in the Daytona Prototype class.
Rocketsports was founded in 1985 by racing driver Paul Gentilozzi to compete in the Trans-Am series. It competed in Trans-Am until 2004, when the championship was cancelled, and achieved 57 outright wins in 20 years. It has also raced in the IMSA sports car racing championship.
Rocketsports joined Champ Car in 2003 and has often fielded cars for pay drivers and frequently changes drivers.
Towards the end of the 2006 season, Russo announced that he would be bringing his company public, a move that required that he divest himself of his sometimes unprofitable motorsports interests. It was unclear what would happen to the team until it was announced on November 28 that PKV Racing co-owner Dan Pettit had purchased the team from Russo.
On January 22, 2007, RuSPORT confirmed the return of Justin Wilson and title sponsor, CDW. They reportedly signed Wilson to a multi year contract. Along with Wilson's return, RuSport announced that they would form a technological partnership with Rocketsports, to be known as RSPORTS. This would involve the signing of Alex Tagliani to the team's #8 machine. However, success came in the form of the team's only 2007 victory with Wilson in Assen. Nearing the end of the 2007 season, Petit and Gentilozzi announced that they would be splitting their operations for 2008, but Petit would partner with Gerry Forsythe to form Forsythe/Pettit Racing.
Alex Tagliani (2007)
Justin Wilson (2007)(key)
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Drivers | No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | LSV | LBH | HOU | POR | CLE | MTT | TOR | EDM | SJO | ROA | ZOL | ASN | SFR | MXC | ||||
| Panoz DP01 | Cosworth XFE V8 t | Alex Tagliani | 8 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 15 | 5 | |||||
| Justin Wilson | 9 | 14 | 4 | 10 | 2* | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 8 | |||||||
| 2008 Champ Car season | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NHL | Forsythe/Pettit | Minardi | Australia | Rocketsports | Coyne | PKV | PCM | Conquest | |
| 1 Wilson 2 Rahal | 3 Tracy 7 TBA | 4 TBA 14 Doornbos | 5 Power 15 TBA | 8 Bernoldi | 11 TBA 19 TBA | 21 TBA 22 Servià | 28 TBA 29 Figge | 24 Perera 34 TBA | |
| Long Beach - Houston - Laguna Seca - Zolder - Jerez - Cleveland - Mont-Tremblant - Toronto - Edmonton - Portland - Road America - Assen - Surfers Paradise - Mexico City | |||||||||
Paul Anthony Tracy is a Canadian-American former professional auto racing driver who competed in CART, the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series. He is known by the nicknames "PT" and "the Thrill from West Hill". He was a color commentator on NBC's IndyCar coverage from 2014 to 2021. Since 2021, he competes full time in the Superstar Racing Experience.
Cristiano Monteiro da Matta is a Brazilian former professional racing driver. He won the CART Championship in 2002, and drove in Formula One with the Toyota team from 2003 to 2004.
Anthony James Allmendinger, nicknamed "The Dinger", is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Kaulig Racing and part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing.
Oriol Servià i Imbers is a Spanish racing driver who competes part-time in the IndyCar Series. He raced for Dragon Racing in the 2014–15 Formula E season, and left the series prior to the 2015 Miami ePrix to become managing director for the technical and commercial partnerships of Dragon Racing. Servià holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Since 2018 he also serves as pace car driver at IndyCar races outside the Indianapolis 500.
Alexandre Tagliani, nicknamed "Tag", is a Canadian professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Camaro for 22 Racing.
Paul Gentilozzi is a race car driver and businessman. His non-racing business interests are real estate development, principally developing office buildings for institutions and Government Agencies.
The 2006 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season was the 28th overall and the third and penultimate season of the Champ Car World Series era of American open wheel racing. It began on April 9, 2006 in Long Beach, California and ended on November 12 in Mexico City, Mexico after 14 races. The Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford Drivers' Champion was Sébastien Bourdais, his third consecutive championship. He was the first driver to win three American open wheel National Championships in a row since Ted Horn in 1948. The Rookie of the Year was Will Power.
RuSPORT was an auto racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series. It was founded in September 2002 by Carl Russo.
Conquest Racing is an auto racing team that competed in the IndyCar Series and the Atlantic Championship. Formerly it competed in the Champ Car World Series.
Forsythe/Pettit Racing was an American racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series owned by Gerald Forsythe and Dan Pettit. The Champ Car effort ceased operations after the 2008 unification of North American open wheel racing.
Gerald (Jerry) R. Forsythe is an American businessman and auto racing magnate, best known for being one of the three men that owned the Champ Car World Series. Forsythe also owned a racing team, Forsythe Championship Racing, that competed in the Champ Car series. In the area of numismatics, Jerry Forsythe is known for owning the finest 1913 Liberty Head nickel and the number one ranked sets for mint state and proof Liberty Nickels as ranked in the PCGS Set Registry.
The 2005 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season was the 27th overall and the second season of the Champ Car World Series era of American open-wheel racing. It began on April 10, 2005 in Long Beach, California and ended on November 6 in Mexico City, Mexico after 13 races. The Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford Drivers' Champion was Sébastien Bourdais, his second consecutive championship. The Rookie of the Year was Timo Glock.
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 2003 Champ Car World Series, the twenty-fifth and final in the CART-era of American open-wheel car racing, consisted of 18 races, beginning in St. Petersburg, Florida on February 23 and concluding in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia on October 26. For sponsorship purposes, it was branded as Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.
Jeremy Dale is a Canadian racing driver. His career in motorsports has spanned more than 30 years as a racer, television commentator, race series director, race team president, and race team owner.
The 2001 Honda Grand Prix of Monterey was a CART motor race held on October 14, 2001 at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California, United States. It was the 19th round of the 2001 CART season.
Rocketsports Racing was a motor racing team based in East Lansing, Michigan in the United States.
The 2001 Marlboro 500 was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on November 4, 2001 at the California Speedway, in Fontana, California. It was the 21st and final round of the 2001 CART season and the fifth annual edition of the Marlboro 500 at California Speedway. The 220-lap race was won by Newman/Haas Racing driver Cristiano da Matta who started from second position. Max Papis finished second for Team Rahal and Forsythe Racing driver Alex Tagliani came in third.
RSR Racing was an American sports car racing team formed from the defunct Rocketsports Racing. In the spring of 2009, Paul Gentilozzi and his sons, Tony and John, founded RSR in partnership with Jaguar Cars Ltd. to build and race the Jaguar XKR in the American Le Mans Series GT2 class and to develop aftermarket performance parts for Jaguar cars in North America.
The 2001 Molson Indy Vancouver was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on September 2, 2001 at Concord Pacific Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was the 15th round of the 2001 CART season. Roberto Moreno won the shortened race by five seconds over Gil de Ferran and Michael Andretti.