Series Charts a Familiar Course

After one of the most contentious off-seasons in motorsports history, the Champ Car World Series will get its first season underway this weekend with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

It will be the 30th time for the Grand Prix to run through the streets of Long Beach, this time on a testing 1.97-mile course with 11 turns, but it will be the first for the newly organized open-wheel racing sanctioning body. After qualifying and practice today and Saturday, the Grand Prix will start at 1 p.m. Sunday.

After Championship Auto Racing Teams, which conducted the last 20 Long Beach races, neared bankruptcy, a battle ensued between the newly formed Open Wheel Racing Series, a holding company, and Tony George’s Indy Racing League. An Indiana judge ruled that what was left of CART’s assets belonged to OWRS, which then named its acquisition the Champ Car World Series.

One of those assets was a contract for the 2004 Long Beach race.

At that time, it appeared there might be fewer than 14 cars ready to race, raising doubts about the future of America’s premier street race, but gradually the new owners, Paul Gentilozzi, Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven, found new teams and announced that 18 cars would be ready for today’s start.

“The other guys [IRL] did their darnedest to get rid of us, but we survived and we have a strong group of drivers ready for the full season,” said Paul Tracy, the last CART champion and the winner of last year’s Long Beach race. “We lost some guys, but if they want to be somewhere else, let ‘em go. We will be just fine.”

Tracy was referring to Adrian Fernandez, Bobby Rahal and Pat Patrick, who this season have taken their teams to the IRL.

The season will open with a mix of veterans and highly touted rookies.

Among the old-timers is Jimmy Vasser, at 38 the elder statesman of open-wheel racers and a former CART and Long Beach champion. Vasser will be in a slightly different role this year, having joined Dan Petit and Kalkhoven to form PKV Racing and making his debut as an owner-driver.

“I love this place, and it’s been good to me over the years,” Vasser said of the Long Beach course. “It’s a great street course with a lot of history and an awesome atmosphere.”

Michel Jourdain Jr., 27 but in his ninth season, is looking for redemption after last year’s race, in which he appeared to have it won until a broken gearbox halted his bid. The popular Mexican driver lost his ride when Rahal defected but is back with the new RuSport team.

Jourdain’s RuSport teammate is A.J. Allmendinger, one of the highly touted American rookies. Allmendinger, 22, won seven races in Toyota Atlantic last year for RuSport and team owner Carl Russo decided to move team and driver to the next level.

The weekend will also include a pro/celebrity race Saturday and races for historic cars, Toyota Atlantics and Trans-Am sports cars on Sunday with the 81-lap Grand Prix.