Nearly 10 years after series merger, Coyne is last Champ Car team left

(by Tony DiZinno nbcsports.com 2-15-17)

Verizon IndyCar Series fans of a certain age might remember the term “transition teams,” which was used in 2008 when Champ Car and IndyCar announced a merger that brought an end to a divisive and nasty, 12-year split that hurt North American open-wheel racing.

Champ Car teams partnered with IndyCar teams for technical support to ease in the transition process, before striking out on their own as the 2008 season progressed.

Not all of the teams from Champ Car made it over. Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, KV Racing Technology, HVM Racing, Dale Coyne Racing and Conquest Racing all acquired the base Dallara chassis with Honda engines, with Pacific Coast Motorsports joining from Long Beach.

Rocketsports Racing, Walker Racing and Forsythe/Pettit Racing raced only at the Champ Car finale at Long Beach and were not seen under IndyCar team auspices again, although Derrick Walker had stints with Vision Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing and INDYCAR itself in the coming years.

Anyway, those five teams provided nine cars, with two cars each for all teams except HVM, which only ran one. Once Pacific Coast joined, that made it six teams and 10 cars.

But one-by-one, as part of a larger loss of teams over this 10-year period, the teams have faded.

PCM was the first to go. Mario Dominguez’s last-ditch shot to make the Indianapolis 500 ended in the Turn 1 wall, and killed the team’s financial hopes for the year. Although Tyler Tadevic’s team made it the rest of the year, PCM’s time as an IndyCar entrant was done at the end of 2008. Tadevic remains active in racing via his TruSpeed Autosport team, which has had success in sports car racing.

Mike Lanigan shifted his minor ownership stake to what was Rahal Letterman Racing at the end of 2010 and the team is now Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

The Newman/Haas name carried on for one more year into 2011 and Oriol Servia performed one of the best overachieving years in recent history when he finished fourth in the series, and James Hinchcliffe won rookie-of-the-year honors from a deep rookie class that also included JR Hildebrand, Charlie Kimball, Ana Beatriz, Sebastian Saavedra and James Jakes. With a lack of sponsorship and with new cars on the horizon for 2012, Newman/Haas folded over the winter, bringing to an end a near-30-year run of success.

Conquest, Eric Bachelart’s team, also failed to answer the 2012 bell despite a couple rumored drivers being linked to seats. Beatriz worked with Bachelart in an extra Andretti Autosport entry at selected 2012 races but the Conquest name was no more.

HVM, Keith Wiggins’ outfit, made it to 2012 but endured a nightmare season saddled with the uncompetitive Lotus engine. Simona de Silvestro did her best to press on and keep a brave face but it was for naught. She left for KV a year later and Wiggins’ time as a team owner ended, although like Bachelart, he was briefly involved with Andretti in one of its entries. Carlos Munoz’s car was entered under the Andretti-HVM banner a couple years ago.

This then brings us to KV, which went through various name changes over its history. Long story short, KV rose from PacWest’s ashes in 2003 and had numerous other co-owners beyond primary co-owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser. The team’s best success came in the 2013 Indianapolis 500 when Tony Kanaan scored his elusive first win there in the car co-owned by Kalkhoven, Vasser and James “Sulli” Sullivan.

But that win proved a false dawn longer-termand outside of a handful of wins the last few years, there’s not been a consistent championship challenge. KV’s equipment has moved elsewhere – expected to be utilized by Juncos Racing ahead of its possible step up to the Verizon IndyCar Series after plying its trade on the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires (more via RACER.com on that) – and KV has now joined the list of teams that have left the grid.

“(With) that team that we won the biggest race of our lives together, and that’s the team that we struggled together, and I remember how we struggled to get where we got. And honestly, we only made it this far because of that win,” Kanaan told assembled reporters during the Phoenix test this weekend.

So, this brings us to Dale Coyne Racing. We’ve written quite a bit about how much of a survivor Coyne is, with a tenure in the sport third only to A.J. Foyt and Roger Penske – that’s pretty illustrious company.

And with Coyne’s business savvy outside the track, but now a rare offseason of harmony where his program’s been set for months – not days – before the season opener at St. Petersburg, hopes are high the proverbial minnows will make inroads into the higher end of the top-10 on a more regular basis in 2017 with drivers Sebastien Bourdais and Ed Jones, the latter of whom had a busy test.

It’s not a surprise that Coyne’s still here, nearly 10 years on from that merger. But as other teams from both the transition and IndyCar have dropped out, and the lack of new blood has entered, it’s left IndyCar requiring more from its existing owners to fill in the car count gaps.

Lest it seem that it’s just the Champ Car teams that have dropped out, the teams from the Indy Racing League arena haven’t all endured either. Since the 2008 regular season finale at Chicagoland Speedway, teams that were active then that aren’t now, full-time, are these: Panther Racing, Vision Racing, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Roth Racing, Sarah Fisher Racing and Dragon Racing (then Luczo Dragon Racing).

Anyway, that 28-car field featured cars from 16 teams (Penske 2, Ganassi 2, Andretti 4, Foyt 2, Rahal 1, KV 2, Newman/Haas 2, Coyne 2, Conquest 2, HVM 1, Panther 1, Vision 2, DRR 2, Roth 1, Fisher 1, Dragon 1).

Nearly 10 years later, the expected season opener at St. Petersburg will feature 21 cars from eight teams, with three of those teams holding 12 of the 21 cars (Penske, Ganassi and Andretti all 4, Foyt 2, Coyne 2, Carpenter 2, SPM 2, Rahal 1).

So over 10 years, Penske and Ganassi have added cars, Foyt’s added a second full-time car, Carpenter was born from Vision’s ashes and absorbed what was Fisher’s team, Bryan Herta joined with his own team and then joined Andretti Autosport, and SPM came from FAZZT (Alex Tagliani’s team), which came from Roth. Rahal also spent three years part-time only in IndyCar after a sponsor loss and came back full-time in 2012. So the new teams have more or less been present in other guises first.

To be fair, the economic recession of 2008 was a big part of hurting car counts for 2009, and IndyCar opened the 2009 season with just 22 cars at St. Petersburg. In subsequent years, the season opener has featured 24, 25, 26, 25, 22, 24 and 22 cars.

Fortunately, IndyCar enters 2017 with a lack of serious concerns over management, scheduling or the lineup.

But it could do with its next transition – to finding a way to attract new full-time teams to bolster the existing eight teams that are left.
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http://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2017/02/15/nearly-10-years-after-series-merger-coyne-is-last-champ-car-team-left/

Selling The Drama

I wanted to save this song in case this YouTube video,

http://americangrandprix.blogspot.com/2011/01/jos-verstappen-tribute.html

ever gets deleted I will still have the music.

(That happened to me once already with a ChampCar video. Bastards.)

Bourdais too talented not to be racing

(by John Oreovicz espn.go.com 3-22-10)

With all due respect to Hideki Mutoh, in an ideal world, he would not be driving for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing in the Izod IndyCar Series this season.

Instead, the famous open-wheel team would field cars for its 2007 driver lineup of Sebastien Bourdais and Graham Rahal, both of whom have only limited racing programs lined up for the 2010 season.

Rahal tested Sarah Fisher Racing's Dallara-Honda Indy car at Barber Motorsports Park this week in preparation for the two race starts he expects to make for SFR. Meanwhile, Bourdais is racing a Peugeot prototype in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, one of his rare scheduled outings for the French manufacturer.

It's easy to conclude that if NHLR founder Paul Newman was still alive, the team would have Rahal and Bourdais as its drivers and would be beginning to challenge Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing for IndyCar Series race wins on a regular basis. But Newman's death also effectively killed off NHLR's sponsorship agreement with McDonald's and the team's ability to attract other major sponsors, leaving it with no choice but to cut back to one car funded by Mutoh's Japanese backers.

Bourdais raced in the CART/Champ Car World Series from 2003-2007, winning 31 of his 73 races starts and four consecutive series championships. That performance finally earned the now-31-year-old Frenchman his break into Formula One, but after one and a half mostly disappointing years in F1, he was dropped in mid-2009 by the Scuderia Toro Rosso team. Bourdais rounded out 2009 by scoring a couple of race wins in the Superleague series, a minor-league European open-wheel formula.

Bourdais' perceived failure in F1 just gave international critics of Indy car racing more ammunition for their argument that the American single-seat scene is nothing more than a joke. He joined Michael Andretti, Alex Zanardi and Cristiano da Matta as U.S. open-wheel champions who flopped in F1. CART champions Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Pablo Montoya were more successful in their transition to F1, but also arguably failed to achieve their potential on a long-term basis.

The common denominator between Zanardi, da Matta and Bourdais is that they were all extremely active in terms of working with their engineers to get the most out of the car. In F1, they were forced to adapt their driving to the car they were given, with little or no input into changing the car setup. In American racing, drivers and engineers work in partnership, rather than hierarchy.

"In Champ Cars we also had a lot more things to play with in terms of car setup than we do in Formula 1," Bourdais said in an interview with ITV in 2008. "F1 is very much optimized, and whether the car functions or not, by design -- by concept -- it's not adjustable. Everything on the suspension is the way it is; if you want to change the castor, for example, you need a new suspension. So that limits the influence and the impact of driver comments in some respects. It's very different, and obviously when you fight a problem, it's much harder to find solutions and it takes much longer as well."

It's fascinating to speculate how Bourdais would fare if he was able to return to America with a team like Newman/Haas/Lanigan. Now that more than half of IndyCar Series races are run on road or street courses, he would obviously be a force on those tracks. But it's easy to forget that Sebastien won four of his eight oval starts, seven of which came against an admittedly depleted CART/Champ Car field. He was headed to a top-5 finish in his only Indianapolis 500 start (2005) when he was taken out in a late crash.

Craig Hampson, who was Bourdais' engineer at NHLR from 2003-07, believes that Bourdais was rapidly improving as an oval driver.

"Sebastien did struggle at Milwaukee the first couple of years, but I think the Indy 500 effort [in 2005] helped him at Milwaukee greatly," Hampson told me a couple of years ago. "You could tell at Milwaukee that he got it. ... He understood what to do now and what the car's capabilities needed to be so he could do well in the race.

"For sure the best win for me [in 2006] was Milwaukee, because we sat on pole at a place where people really didn't expect us to and we far and away had the fastest car. We had some adversity in the race with the cut tire, but we came back from that. It was a pretty entertaining race with Nelson Philippe, and all in all that was our finest moment of the year."

Bourdais will compete for Peugeot in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June and probably at the ALMS Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in the fall. But other than that, he has nothing else lined up for the rest of 2010 -- a travesty for one of the most talented open-wheel drivers to come along in recent years.

Because they have forgotten, this is what a real race car looks like

or this

Green Prix USA: what might have been, what still might be

Car Lease Ending For Transition Teams

(by Robin Miller speedtv.com 9-9-09)

The surviving owners from Champ Car who joined the Indy Racing League got free cars and engines in 2008 as part of the unification agreement. They all had to pay Honda for leases this season but there was still no bill for their Dallara chassis.

Until now.

Eric Bachelart, Dale Coyne, Carl Haas, Kevin Kalkhoven, Mike Lanigan and Keith Wiggins received an email from IRL president of competition Brian Barnhart on Tuesday requesting a payment of $100,000 per car.

The teams were given the option of having that money taken out of their next TEAM check (all teams who run the full schedule are given $1.2 million per car by the league) or possibly working out a payment plan.

If IndyCar doesn't have its money by Jan. 14, the cars could be repossessed.

"We had a free car in '08 and we got an extension for this year so I've been expecting this for some time and I have no complaint with it, it's fair," said Bachelart, whose Conquest Racing team has competed in seven races this year and intends to contest the final two at Japan and Homestead.

"My understanding is that we will own the cars so that means we can run the next two years for $50,000 a car and that is more than reasonable."

Wiggins, whose HVM team has gone from one to two cars in the past couple races with Robert Doornbos joining E.J. Viso, had a few questions about his bill.

"I was the only team that didn't get a new car, I got a 2003 and 2004, so should I have to pay the same amount?," he said. "In the original agreement we were told we had the option to buy and I guess the only surprise is that we didn't have a number.

"Any number is scary right now but it seems reasonable."

Longtime owner Derrick Walker said the IRL didn't do anything sinister.

"It wasn't a deal that changed," said Walker, who originally had possession of an IRL car but lost his partner and was not able to compete. "The original agreement wasn't a forever free deal and, in fairness to the league, it gave the teams free cars for two years.

"It may be a bit naughty to ask for it at the end of the year instead of the beginning but, obviously, with the economy and new management, the IRL is saying 'Hey boys, we can't afford to carry this debt any longer.'"

Explain to me

how a world class race car driver can go from this,




to this.


Only in the IRL.

Champ Car revisited

(nationalsportingnews.com 6-24-09)

The Drivers

Mario Andretti: Three-time USAC champion in the 1960s, Andretti returned to Champ Cars after a successful Formula One career and gave CART credibility during the early 1980s. Won regularly through the 1980s and scored last triumph at Phoenix in 1993.

Michael Andretti: Emerged as a top contender in 1986 and remained the man to beat through 1992. Returned to CART after abortive attempt at F-1 and still won races, but lacked the edge that made his early career so exciting.

Danny Sullivan: His good looks (not to mention a spectacular spin and win ’85 Indy victory) propelled the CART series into the mainstream media. Also won the ’88 series championship.

Al Unser, Jr.: A true star before substance abuse problems derailed his career. Master of street courses, including five consecutive wins at Long Beach. Won championships for Galles Racing and Penske Racing, as well as a pair of Indy 500s.

Paul Tracy: Champ Car’s sole survivor of the CART era, PT arrived in the early 1990s and never really shook off the ‘wild child’ tag. Known as much for his colorful quotes and silly accidents as his 31 victories and 2003 CART championship.

Jimmy Vasser: Champ Car’s last American champion, way back in 1996. Enhanced his reputation as the ultimate teammate by coaching Zanardi and Montoya to CART titles, making four straight for Ganassi Racing.

Alex Zanardi: This exuberant Italian was relatively unknown until Chip Ganassi brought him to America and teamed him with Jimmy Vasser for a remarkable three-year run that brought two championships.

Emerson Fittipaldi: Two-time F-1 champ triggered a wave of foreign involvement when he came stateside in the mid-80s. Won the ’89 CART championship and a pair of Indy 500s.

Juan Pablo Montoya: Was a rough-hewn 23-year old when he replaced Zanardi at Ganassi Racing, but picked up where the two-time series champ left off. Remarkable rookie year produced seven wins and CART title.

Bobby Rahal: Won all three of his CART championships in tight battles with Michael Andretti and claimed the 1986 Indy 500 victory just days before the death of mentor/team owner Jim Trueman.

Gil de Ferran: Nicknamed ‘The Professor,’ this brainy Brazilian’s career took off when he joined Penske Racing for the 2001 season. Won the ’00 and ’01 CART crowns before Penske moved his operation to the IRL.

Rick Mears: A smooth, speedy racer who dominated CART from 1979 to 1984 before severely injuring his feet in an accident at Sanair Speedway. Unrivaled at Indy with six poles and four wins in half the starts it took A.J. Foyt and Al Unser.

Sebastien Bourdais: The undisputed class of the field during the post-CART era, winning all four championships sanctioned by Champ Car. A cool, analytical racer who didn’t always connect with the fans.

The Venues

Burke Lakefront Airport, Cleveland: A series stalwart from 1982-2007, this circuit (above) was unique because it was fast and utilized a wide-open airport circuit.

Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis.: The four-mile road course allowed the Champ Cars to really stretch their legs with a 140 mile per hour average speed.

The Milwaukee (Wis.) Mile: This mile oval’s racing history is even longer than Indy’s.

Twin Ring Motegi: The Japanese oval built by Honda sets the standard for race tracks of any kind.

Exhibition Place, Toronto, Ontario: This Canadian street circuit enjoyed a successful 20-year run.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway: The 500 remained under USAC sanction from 1979-95, but counted toward CART championship.

Surfers Paradise: Street race in exotic locale was worth the agonizing trip to Australia.

NOT SO GREAT VENUES

Denver Grand Prix: Original track had 80 mph pole speed, later iteration was called the bumpiest track of all time.

Bayside Park, Miami: Another ridiculous Mickey Mouse street course that produced zero excitement.

Chicago Motor Speedway, Cicero, Ill.: Designed to improve on Milwaukee, the ‘Paper
Clip’ was a victim of poor aero regulations.

San Jose (Calif.) Grand Prix: What other track in the world forced open-wheelers to cross railroad tracks?

Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway: The hometown track of the Andretti family never did attract a crowd and has now been razed.

Homestead-Miami Speedway: Three different track designs failed to create great open-wheel racing or an audience.

CHAMP CAR HIGHS

Doing Donuts: Alex Zanardi was so excited to win the 1998 Long Beach Grand Prix he spun a few donuts in his Chip Ganassi Racing machine. It became his trademark celebration.

Assen 2007: Champ Car’s final moment of glory on the world stage, appreciated by 60,000 knowledgeable and enthusiastic Dutch fans.

The Magic 240: Mauricio Gugelmin (1997) and Gil de Ferran (2000) each ran 240-mile-per-hour qualifying laps at California Speedway and ‘Big Mo’ topped 242 during practice.

Fantastic Finishes: The 1995 and 2000 Michigan 500s were spellbinding. The wheel-banging last lap between Michael Andretti and winner Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000 was particularly stunning.

CHAMP CAR LOWS

Moore’s Death: For many, Oct. 31, 1999, was the day that CART really died. Rising star Greg Moore was killed in a vicious accident at California Speedway.

Texas 2001: CART management failed to listen to widespread concerns and scheduled a race at Texas Motor Speedway. It was canceled two hours prior to the start after G-load related driver blackouts.

EuroSpeedway 2001: A CART race in Germany was one of the few American sporting events run in the wake of Sept. 11. Alex Zanardi lost his legs in a late-race accident.

Indecision: CART owners couldn’t settle on future engine regulations, driving Toyota and Honda to the rival Indy Racing League and hastening the demise of the series.

Stock Sale: CART raised more than $100 million in a 1998 Initial Public Offering, only to watch its top team owners cash out and defect to the IRL. By the end of 2003, CART was bankrupt.

Champ Car Records (1979-2007)

8 -- Most wins in a season (Al Unser, Jr., 1994)

42 -- Most race wins (Michael Andretti)

4 -- Most championships (Sebastien Bourdais, 2004-07)

309 -- Most race starts (Michael Andretti,1983-2002)

0 -- Smallest championship margin (1999, Juan Montoya/Dario Franchitti)

127 -- Biggest championship margin (Rick Mears, 1981)

505 -- Longest race (miles, 1995 Indianapolis 500)

0 -- Shortest race (miles, 2001 Texas 600k)

35 -- Biggest field (1979 Indianapolis 500)

17 -- Smallest field (2007 season)

3.8 -- Best Average finish (Alex Zanardi 1998)

CART/CHAMP CAR TIMELINE

1978 Dan Gurney’s “white paper” inspires a group of USAC Champ Car teams to form an owner’s group known as CART, or Championship Auto Racing Teams.

1979 CART stages a 12-race championship in competition with USAC, won by Penske Racing’s Rick Mears; USAC tries but fails to ban CART teams from the Indy 500.

1980 USAC and CART forge a brief truce known as the Championship Racing League (CRL), which falls apart post-Indy; John Frasco named CEO.

1981 CART establishes itself as the chief sanctioning body for Indy-style racing in America. Mears wins second title.

1982 Epic Indy 500 results in close victory for Gordon Johncock over Mears, who wins third and final championship crown; first Cleveland GP; Jim Hickman killed at Milwaukee.

1983 March chassis dominates series while rival Lola returns to Champ car fold to supply new team Newman/Haas Racing.

1984 NHR’s Mario Andretti wins fourth U.S. National Championship; Long Beach GP converts from F-1 to CART; Mears severely injures his feet.

1985 Danny Sullivan’s Indy “spin and win;” championship battle between Al Unser and namesake son goes down to final lap of final race.

1986 Bobby Rahal wins Indy and CART championship; Michael Andretti scores first of 42 Champ Car race wins; first race on Toronto street course.

1987 Second title for Rahal despite switch from March to Lola chassis; Ilmor/Chevrolet engine scores first race win.

1988 Return to form for Penske with PC17 chassis, including championship for Sullivan; last win for March chassis.

1989 Emerson Fittipaldi wins Indy and CART title for Patrick Racing; team is then sold to Chip Ganassi; Michael Andretti joins father Mario at Newman/Haas.

1990 Arie Luyendyk wins fastest-ever Indy; Al Unser, Jr. wins first series title for Galles Racing; Frasco replaced by Bill Stokkan.

1991 Michael Andretti dominates with record eight wins and series crown; Mears wins fourth and final Indy.

1992 Ford-Cosworth engine introduced that quickly rivals dominant Ilmor/Chevy; Third title for Rahal, first as an owner/driver.

1993 Andrew Craig is new CART leader; reigning F-1 champion Nigel joins series and wins championship as a 40-year old “rookie.”

1994 Penske Racing wins 12 of 16 races with Unser, Jr. taking eight wins including Indy and second title; Honda joins as engine supplier; Chevy ends badging of Ilmor engine.

1995 Reynard takes over as customer chassis of choice; Jacques Villeneuve is champ, then leaves for F-1; Honda scores first win; Mercedes badges Ilmor engine; Last year Indy is on CART schedule.

1996 First year of competition against IRL; Inaugural race in Brazil; U.S. 500 marred by embarrassing crash at the start; Jimmy Vasser is last American champion; Toyota joins as engine supplier; Jeff Krosnoff dies at Toronto.

1997 Alex Zanardi wins championship; Mauricio Gugelmin turns 240 mph laps at California Speedway; Swift chassis is first American winner since 1982 Wildcat.

1998 CART’s IPO stock sale raises nearly $100 million; Zanardi inaugurates tradition of victory donuts on way to second title; Japanese round added to championship.

1999 23-year-old Juan Montoya wins seven races and championship as rookie; Greg Moore killed in season finale, weeks after death of Gonzalo Rodriguez at Laguna Seca; 20-race slate is largest ever.

2000 Penske Racing ends four-year slump; Gil de Ferran wins teams’ 100th race and takes CART crown; Mercedes’ sudden pullout leaves several teams struggling; Andrew Craig dismissed, replaced on interim basis by Bobby Rahal.

2001 Joe Heitzler takes over as CART CEO; Rio and Texas events canceled, Texas on race morning; popoff valve scandal breaks at Detroit; Zanardi returns but loses legs in accident at EuroSpeedway in Germany; CART can’t decide on future engine formula.

2002 Heitzler fired and replaced by Chris Pook; Penske departs for IRL; Cristiano da Matta wins first championship for Newman/Haas in nine years; Honda and Toyota pull out in favor of IRL program.

2003 Michael Andretti buys Team Green and moves to IRL; Ford-Cosworth becomes spec powerplant; Paul Tracy wins championship; Last win for Reynard as Lola becomes de facto spec chassis.

2004 Newman/Haas drivers Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira dispute title; Rahal and Fernandez teams bolt for IRL two weeks before start of season.

2005 Tony Cotman named chief steward; Korea race cancelled for second- straight year; another title for Bourdais; successful new event added in Edmonton.

2006 Unsuccessful attempt to race in China; easiest title yet for Bourdais; Another unification effort with IRL fails in June; Milwaukee is series’s last oval race.

2007 New Panoz spec chassis introduced; Bourdais wins record fourth-consecutive championship; One-off Vegas GP opens season, Phoenix GP scheduled but not run.

2008 Long Beach Grand Prix is last Champ Car-sanctioned race; five teams join IRL IndyCar Series.

Champ Car Grand Prix of Long Beach 2008

Will Power on his way to a victory.


Mario Moraes goes hard into the barrier.

the last real Champ Car race - Mexico City 2007

the last real Champ Car race - Mexico City 2007

the lost Assen photos

Champ Car archive - Las Vegas 2007

Champ Car archive - Long Beach 2007

Champ Car archive - Houston 2007

Champ Car archive - Portland 2007