Champ Car / IRL merger

[Greyhead]

Anyone read anything about this? Looks like the two series are as close to a merger as they've ever got. Hope they pull it off this time. I don't know how many of you are interested in US racing, personally I loved Champ Cars before the split in 1996 and the two series were much the poorer for separating. With any luck a unified, strong series will happen and give NASCAR something to think about.

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I think it would be great if they could make that happen, but from what I'm reading at the moment, it's still very fragile and they're very much in the middle of things. I would enjoy it though, because I really found the old Indycar series very interesting, when they had this mixture of the road courses and the oval tracks which was basically separated by the Champcar/IRL split (even if they did mix up the calendars a bit again in recent years).

I'm definitely following this, and I'd be looking forward to a new series if they brought both together.

[V12-Power]

I also think it would be the best to merge both series to have a big one which can battle with the NASCAR series. Then all the open-wheel stars would probably stay in the IndyCART-series (and not leave to the NASCARS).

I think it would make more sense to merge in 2009 with a bit more prearrangement time. I seriously doubt that it would be fair to merge the series now. The Indycar boss Tony George wants to give the CART teams free Dallara chassis plus 1,3 million dollars, but still the CART teams would need a lot of practice with the new chassis to be well prepared. I don't think that's possible right now.

I'd like to see a new chassis in 2009, so that both parties would have same conditions. I also doubt the Dallara chassis would match for street circuits. And anyway, it looks shit. The Panoz chassis used in the CART series looks much better.

[Greyhead]

Well I know the IRL are looking at a new chassis for 2009 as part of the three-year cycle they have so it would be an ideal time to merge. Honda seem to want to make it happen; their US racing arm is pretty influential in US motorsport, plus they are effectively bankrolling the IRL at the moment, along with Tony George. Combining the best of both series would give economies of scale: the two series wouldn't be competing for sponsors, fans etc, and should be more self-sufficient, which would save Honda a fortune, very important as at the moment they don't actually have anyone to beat, which is the very reason manufacturers get into motorsport! So basically they're spending millions just to beat themselves.

[Greyhead]

Apparerently there's a rumour going around that Champ Car is about to file for bankruptcy. One team (Walker Racing aka Team Australia) is already looking at switching to the IRL.

[Antonio Pessoa]

And the merger is a reality now.

Good lucky to the new Indycar, only one, that come back after 12 years.

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It's good that they're going back to one series, IMO, even though I kinda have to agree with people like Bourdais who're saying that the timing for this really problematic. The ex-ChampCar teams have to adjust very quickly now to the new cars and the new schedule, and some of the drivers who've been in ChampCar in recent years might not have the oval experience you could expect a lot of the IRL drivers have. So this is definitely going to be interesting and complex at the same time, but on the whole, I think there should never have been two monoposto series like that pit against each other, so what's happening now should be good.

[Greyhead]

It would have been better to do it in 2009 but since Champ Car has pretty much bitten the dust already the teams would have had nowhere to race this season if the IRL hadn't taken over. Sad to see Forsythe closing down, I've always liked them (mainly cos I like their colours) and it means Paul Tracy will have to find another drive after the Long Beach farewell race. It'd be nice to see him in a third Penske entry like in the early-to-mid-nineties... Glad to see that most other teams are pushing on with the switch though, even if some of them are only "possibles" (Minardi USA, Rocketsports etc) rather than definite entries.

Just a thought - what will Panoz do with all the Champ Car chassis that they spent ages developing, testing, building etc just to see it race in one solitary season? Especially as they don't supply any of the IRL teams with chassis any more (except for some of the Indy-only entries). Could this be the basis of the next generation of IRL cars perhaps? Or will they just gather dust somewhere?

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I think those will pretty much remain where they are at best... or were they ever conceptualised for oval races? AFAIR, ChampCar didn't have any of these races, or am I mistaken? I know the IRL cars did both, which is probably why they're continuing with them after the merger.

[Greyhead]

Correct, Champ Car did away with ovals in 2005 I think. The Panoz still has ground effect and stuff though. Just to clear up, I wasn't suggesting that the Panoz should be used this season. It's not built to the same regulations as IRL cars for one thing. It seems that most old Champ Car designs seem to end up in another series (The Grand Prix Masters cars were based on a stillborn Reynard Champ car, the Premier1 cars were also Champ Car based) so perhaps another fly-by-night organisation will take them on till they go bust...

[DJS]

Maybe they'll use the DP01s for the Superleague Formula, who knows.

[Thomperson]

The new Indy returns without 2 traditional teams: Forsythe and Walker, that won races in the past. Forsythe with Teo Fabi and Greg Moore, Walker with Scott Goodyear, Robby Gordon and Gil de Ferran. Both teams are without enough money to racing this season.

The tendence is a rising of this new Indy, for the next years. It will recover the same importance that had in the 80's and 90's.

For this season, I think Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves as favourites, for the experience and because they're the "driver 1" of their respective teams (Chip Ganassi, Andretti-Green and Penske). Ryan Briscoe will be a surprise, mainly in the road courses, winning races there.

By the ex-ChampCar teams, the best, obviously, will be the Newman-Haas, and Justin Wilson. Mainly in the road courses.

Marco Andretti, if control his nerves against the pression, will improve his performance and Danica Patrick will be the same... more marketing, more photos for the magazines, more clicks, more microphones between herself after the races, but in the races the same 5th, 8th, 6th, 13th, 11th of always

[Greyhead]

I agree with you Thomperson. Briscoe's been very quick in testing and I think he'll do well, particularly on the road courses, but I wonder if Penske and Andretti-Green will be rocked by the loss of two superstars (Hornish and Franchitti) to NASCAR. Although I like Castroneves, I'm not sure how he'll cope as team leader having been a little in the shadow of Hornish and de Ferran in the past. And as for Danica Patrick, I definitely agree: what exactly has she proved? She's not exactly the next Lewis Hamilton is she?

[Thomperson]

At now 25 confirmed drivers. Rest 4 cars to define drivers for this season. Really we'll have a great season this year. Maybe for 2009 a new engine manufacturer (Cosworth?), chassis (Panoz?), and more out-USA races (Toronto, Europe?) and road course races (Cleveland, Road America, Portland?). The old Indy come back.