Jan 8, 2007

Champ Car Meets IROC

Remember the International Race of Champions series that pitted top drivers against one another in identical racecars? Now Champ Car has taken yet another step in that direction with the pre-Christmas delivery of the first batch of 2007 model racecars to the 10 teams that are expected to compete for the Champ Car World Series title next season. As befitting the time of year, Santa Claus was on hand to introduce each team to what Champ Car officials referred to modestly as the "Future of Racing."

Champ Car teams from Michigan to California descended upon Indianapolis to take delivery of the new Panoz DP01 Champ Cars, which will serve as the exclusive car of the series in 2007. The newly-constructed cars arrived in Indianapolis from the Elan Motorsports facility in Braselton, Georgia, and each team took delivery of a carbon-fiber machine distinguishable from the others only by a car number and a team logo affixed to the nose.

"We look at today as the actual start of the 2007 season," said Champ Car President Steve Johnson. "This has been an exciting process, watching the new Champ Car take shape. From the first design sketches to wind tunnel testing and now to see the cars going to our teams, it has been a very rewarding experience for all of us and I couldn't be happier about the way our team, as well as the team from Elan Motorsports Technologies, has performed throughout the process."

The delivery of new racers completed a year-long process that carried the new Champ Car from design to construction. It included a rigorous testing schedule that saw former driver Roberto Moreno put 2,500 miles on a single car during three weeks at Sebring International Raceway. After that the car went on the road, running exhibition laps in Australia and Mexico City before becoming the first Champ Car ever to turn laps in China, completing successful show laps at Zhuhai in advance of 2007's inaugural Champ Car event there.

"In all my years of experience in motorsport, I have never known a situation where a manufacturer was able to deliver as many as 10 'all-new' race cars of this complexity before Christmas," said EMT CEO David Bowes, and, amazingly the process was completed without the help of a single elf. "In just over one year we have designed, developed and built a prototype car, undertaken over 2,000 miles of successful testing and then built 10 production cars."

EMT and Champ Car will continue production of the new DP01 chassis, constructing batches of five cars at a time until the 2007 goal of 35 is reached.  As Champ Car transitions from an "open" series to essentially a "spec racer" series, it will be interesting to see if there are takers for all 35 cars.  The new tack has removed much of the "hardware" from the overall racing equation, concentrating more emphasis on driver skill, strategy and tactics and pit work as critical factors.  The jury is out on how American race fans will respond to the latest Champ Car gambit.