Rocketsports Racing was a motor racing team based in East Lansing, Michigan in the United States.
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 with driver Alex Tagliani, who scored the team's only victory at Road America in 2004. In 2005 and 2006 the team fielded cars for pay drivers and frequently changed drivers. In 2007, Tagliani returned full-time and the team shared technical information with RuSPORT. This alliance was dubbed RSPORTS, and took a race win with RuSPORT's Justin Wilson. However, the alliance ended at the end of the season. In 2008, following the unification of Champ Car and the IRL, Rocketsports announced that it would not transition to the IndyCar Series. They did compete in the Champ Car finale at Long Beach Grand Prix, with drivers Antônio Pizzonia, who competed for Rocketsports at Long Beach in 2006, and Juho Annala. [1]
Since the demise of Champ Car, Rocketsports has competed in the revived Trans-Am Series with driver Tomy Drissi, winning the 2009 championship. [2]
Gentilozzi went on to form RSR Racing in 2009.
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position) (results in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Chassis | Engine | Drivers | No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Pts Pos | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | STP | MTY | LBH | BRH | LAU | MIL | LAG | POR | CLE | TOR | VAN | ROA | MDO | MTL | DEN | MIA | MXC | SFR | ||||||
Lola B02/00 | Ford XFE V8 t | Alex Tagliani | 33 | 19 | 3 | 10 | 8 | 18 | 5 | 14 | 3 | 8 | 17 | 14 | 3 | 6 | 4* | 9 | 13 | 16 | 7 | 10th | 97 | |
2004 | LBH | MTY | MIL | POR | CLE | TOR | VAN | ROA | DEN | MTL | LAG | LSV | SFR | MXC | ||||||||||
Lola B02/00 | Ford XFE V8 t | Alex Tagliani | 8 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 1* | 10 | 7 | 6 | 16 | 19 | 11 | 7th | 218 | |||||
Nelson Philippe | 17 | 13 | 10 | 14 | 15 | 10 | 16th | 89 | ||||||||||||||||
Memo Gidley | 16 | 11 | 21st | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Guy Smith | 10 | 18 | 16 | 9 | 17 | 9 | 17 | 18th | 53 | |||||||||||||||
2005 | LBH | MTY | MIL | POR | CLE | TOR | EDM | SJO | DEN | MTL | LSV | SRF | MXC | |||||||||||
Lola B02/00 | Ford XFE V8 t | Timo Glock | 8 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 6 | 13 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 8th | 202 | ||||||
Ryan Hunter-Reay | 31 | 13 | 7 | 17 | 15 | 18 | 6 | 16 | 14 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 15th | 110 | ||||||||||
Michael McDowell | 12 | 11 | 21st | 19 | ||||||||||||||||||||
2006 | LBH | HOU | MTY | MIL | POR | CLE | TOR | EDM | SJO | DEN | MTL | ROA | SRF | MXC | ||||||||||
Lola B02/00 | Ford XFE V8 t | Nicky Pastorelli | 8 | 17 | 15 | 10 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 17th | 73 | ||||||||||
Mario Domínguez | 12 | 2 | 17 | 9th | 202 | |||||||||||||||||||
Antônio Pizzonia | 10 | 18th | 43 | |||||||||||||||||||||
18 | 11 | 10 | 12 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Tõnis Kasemets | 16 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 17 | 19th | 34 | |||||||||||||||||
2007 | LSV | LBH | HOU | POR | CLE | MTT | TOR | EDM | SJO | ROA | ZOL | ASN | SFR | MXC | ||||||||||
Panoz DP01 | Cosworth XFE V8 t | Alex Tagliani 1 | 8 | 9 | 15 | 7 | 13 | 10th | 205 |
(key)
Year | Chassis | Engine | Drivers | No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | HMS | STP | MOT | LBH 1 | KAN | INDY | MIL | TXS | IOW | RIR | WGL | NSH | MDO | EDM | KTY | SNM | DET | CHI | SRF 2 | ||||
Panoz DP01 | Cosworth XFE V8 t | Antônio Pizzonia | 9 | 16 | |||||||||||||||||||
Juho Annala | 10 | 18 |
Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior is a Brazilian professional racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series. Born in Manaus, he started his car racing career in the Formula Vauxhall Junior series in 1997 and then progressed through various junior formulae, winning the Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Festival in 1997, the Formula Vauxhall Junior and Formula Renault Winter Festival in 1998, the Formula Renault 2.0 UK in 1999, and the British Formula 3 Championship in 2000.
Enrique Antônio Langue e Silvério de Bernoldi is a Brazilian professional racing driver who raced for the Arrows Formula One team in 2001 and 2002, and was the test driver for British American Racing between 2004 and 2006. He entered IndyCar racing in 2008, and competed in the FIA GT World Championship between 2009 and 2011, in addition to entering multiple other competitions.
Nicky Pastorelli is a Dutch professional racing driver.
Nelson Philippe is a French race car driver.
Alexandre Tagliani, nicknamed "Tag", is a Canadian professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Canada 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.
Team Australia was an auto racing team competing in the V8 Supercars and Champ Car World Series. It was created in early 2005 when two Australian businessmen Craig Gore and John Fish bought into Derrick Walker's Walker Racing operation. After the 2007 the operation was scaled back to just Will Power who joined KV Racing, before ending entirely a year later.
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.
Tõnis Kasemets is an Estonian racing driver and a former competitor in the CART Champ Car World Series. He won the 2022 IMSA Prototype Challenge championship.
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 Championship Racing was an American racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series owned by Gerald Forsythe. The Champ Car effort ceased operations after the 2008 unification of North American open wheel racing. The team won the 2003 championship with driver Paul Tracy.
3GT Racing is an American racing team formed by Paul, Tony and John Gentilozzi.
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 Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) era of American open-wheel car racing, consisted of 18 races, beginning in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States 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.
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.
Juho Annala, is a Finnish racing driver.
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.
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 |