Indy merger not a pipe dream

I am Indy
From day one, Tony George was painted as the bad guy. And why not, he was unwilling, as other track owners were, to divide the proceeds from the Indy 500, the yearly iconic auto racing event. Tony didn't have the negotiating position to get the owner group to commit to returning to the IRL. It was 1994.

So the two sides split with some of the same personalities in play in this merger some 14 years later.

Three years ago, Champ Car went bust and George bid on the lot of equipment the defunct CART governing body put up as property. A court had to rule in favor of a coalition of owners to become the new controlling interest-holders: Kevin Kalkoven, Gerald Forsythe and others. For three years after, Champ Car World Series changed chassis manufacturers and continued in business, seemingly oblivious to the Tony George machine. But in the end, it was a fairly lucrative offer by George to any team, Champ Car or other, to join the IRL.

As controlling interests, the CCWS owners group visited with George and a deal was inked: any CCWS team that wanted to could join the IRL and George, who owns a majority of the Indy Racing League, would provide a Honda engine lease (not sure for what length of time), a Dallara chassis and 1.5 million pocket change. Of course it'll take much more than that to field an IRL team with only one car, but it was a deal maker. Appearently witht the blessing of the minority owner members of CCWS, Kalkoven, Forsythe, Rahal, Haas and others committed to compete in this year's IRL season and abandon their established CCWS race dates with the only notable exeption of Long Beach. The organizers of the Long Beach race have been assured there will be a full field racing on April 20. Beyond that, there will be no more Champ Car.

I thought it'd be appropriate to recognize the champions of the Championship Auto Racing Teams, or CART and it's progeny Champ Car World Series.

1995 Jaques Villeneuve CAN Green (Reynard-Ford)

1996 Jimmy Vasser USA Ganassi (Reynard-Honda)

1997 Alex Zanardi ITA Ganassi (Reynard-Honda)

1998 Alex Zanardi ITA Ganassi (Reynard-Honda)

1999 Juan Montoya COL Ganassi (Reynard-Honda)

2000 Gil de Ferran BRA Penske (Reynard/Penske-Honda)

2001 Gil de Ferran BRA Penske (Reynard/Penske-Honda)

2002 Cristiano da Matta BRA Newman/Haas (Lola-Toyota)

2003 Paul Tracy CAN Forsythe (Lola-Ford)

2004 Sebastien Bourdais FRA Newman/Haas (Lola-Ford)

2005 Sebastien Bourdais FRA Newman/Haas (Lola-Ford)

2006 Sebastien Bourdais FRA Newman/Haas (Lola-Ford)

2007 Sebastien Bourdais FRA Newman/Haas (DP-Ford)


Bourdais bid farewell to CCWS at the end of last year, after his fourth consecutive title to go to Formula One. He'll drive a Ferrari powered Red Bull car for their European team, Torro Rosso. In pre-season testing he and his teammate, young Sebastian Vettel have been the class of the field.
Hard to imagine the Torro Rosso team vying for the lead against Ferrari, McLaren, and Renault.