Champ Car returns with an image overhaul

The Champ Car World Series returns to Long Beach for its annual April race Sunday, but the series otherwise is heading in unfamiliar directions.

With hopes all but dashed that Champ Car might reunite with the Indy Racing League in a single U.S. open-wheel racing series, Champ Car is pursuing an independent course with six new U.S. and foreign venues, several rookie drivers and a new race car.

Champ Car hopes its unique identity, combined with a new television contract, will broaden the series’ less-than-widespread following. It is banking on 16 races, all on road courses or temporary street circuits like Long Beach.

“We are not a mainstream sport in the United States, but we are worldwide,” said Champ Car President Steve Johnson. “We’re in a position now where we’re able to control our own destiny. We’re going to prove we have some of the best racing, and most competitive racing, we’ve ever had.”

The open-wheel series once known as CART split 11 years ago when the IRL split off, leaving what is now Champ Car as the other series.

The series’ owners talked last year about merging, a move many observers believe is the only way to restore the popularity of open-wheel racing. But “there are no discussions going on right now,” Johnson said.

Champ Car lifted the curtain on its new look Sunday at one of its new venues, a temporary street course in downtown Las Vegas.

The outcome was novel too. Three-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais and veteran Paul Tracy were among the favorites, but Will Power, an Australian in only his second year in Champ Car, easily won his first series race for Team Australia, and rookie Robert Doornbos of Holland was second.

The field also drove the series’ new DP01 cars, which Champ Car says will produce more competitive racing and lower operating costs for teams. Power, though, won by nearly 17 seconds at Las Vegas.

Up next is the 33rd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, another street-course race that features cars screaming down Shoreline Drive. Bourdais has won the race the last two years.

Champ Car also has scheduled new races in Holland, Belgium, Canada and China, and will finish its season with a new street race in Phoenix on Dec. 2.

But the schedule includes hurdles to maintaining fan interest. There are only five races in the final four months of the season. And, after a race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., on Aug. 12, Champ Car doesn’t return to the U.S. until December for the finale in Phoenix.

Johnson acknowledged that, in the U.S. market at least, the schedule means, “We’re going to have to do an extra-great job from a PR side those last few months. It’s a challenge that I’m facing.”

But because the series often races on temporary street courses, it has to accept dates offered by municipalities, he said.

Johnson faces another problem in promoting his sport in the U.S.: Building a wider fan base for his drivers, only one of whom -- rookie Graham Rahal -- is American.

“To say we have made stars out of all of our drivers is not a correct statement,” Johnson said. “It’s up to us to build these guys into stars.”

But some teams completed their driver rosters only in the last few weeks. For instance, it wasn’t confirmed until recently that the series’ lone female driver, Katherine Legge, would be back.

Champ Car should get a boost from the arrival of Rahal, the 18-year-old son of IRL team owner and former Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal.

But no matter who drives, Champ Car maintains that its popularity isn’t built merely on single races. Venues such as Long Beach promote multi-day festivals leading up to their Champ Car event, with support races, concerts and other entertainment.

Champ Car also believes its new TV contract will add fans. The pact brought in ABC/ESPN, which will show several races this year and then become the series’ exclusive broadcaster in 2008.

Said Johnson, “Hands down, the most significant thing we’ve done is secure the best television package we’ve ever had.” That was crucial, he added, for the series “to become mainstream like we all want.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com