Mar 19, 2007

Looking for Mr. Champ Car

If you have a hankering to follow the Champ Car World Series this year, you'd better keep a strong grip on your remote.  Champ Car will be up and down the dial more than Dr. Johnny Fever this season with various races being shown on NBC, CBS, ABC and ESPN.  After a quick burst of races on NBC, ESPN will be doing the heavy lifting for most of the season with 10 of the races being shown on ESPN networks that include, of course, not only ESPN, but also ESPN2 and ESPN Classic. 

The season will open with coverage of the Las Vegas (April 8) and Long Beach (April 15) events on NBC. The Portland, Elkhart Lake and Phoenix events will be on ABC, and the Grand Prix of Cleveland will be on CBS. The schedule marks the first time since 1990 that Champ Car races have appeared on all three networks during the same season. It might be preferable for viewer continuity to have all the races on one network, but Champ Car is trying to put the best face on the arrangement.

"We made a big push this season to increase our television presence and this package allows us to do that on a number of levels," said Champ Car President Steve Johnson. "This broadcast schedule increases our exposure, which will not only provide more value for our existing commercial partners, but will also attract new sponsors and partners for the series, our teams and our events."

We hope he's right because we love open-wheel racing.  Perhaps the best news for Champ Car is that this is the first year of a multi-year agreement will see 13 of the 2007 season races on the ABC/ESPN family of networks, including some of the key international events. Champ Car's races in Australia, China, Belgium and the Netherlands will be shown on a same-day basis on ESPN2 and ESPN Classic in light of the vast time differences involved.

The series will hit the ground (or road) running at the beginning of next month with a new street race run in downtown Las Vegas.  The jewel in the Champ Car crown, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, is not only Champ Car's longest running street race, but also a race with genuine Formula One history. The following week ESPN will cover the second running of the Grand Prix of Houston, following a one-month lull before the next race in Zhuhai, China.  Presumably the Champ Cars will be taking the slow boat there.