Its Name Is Familiar, and So Is Its First Event

CART is kaput and now we have ...

Well, what exactly do we have?

When Championship Auto Racing Teams sped to its own demise last season and filed for bankruptcy, hemorrhaging money after a vain attempt to subsidize teams running in its Champ Car World Series, up stepped a new group, calling itself Open Wheel Racing Series, to pick up the pieces.

Tony George, of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indy Racing League fame, jumped in at the last minute with a much higher bid than Open Wheel’s, but in late January, a bankruptcy judge in Indianapolis awarded CART’s assets, liabilities and contracts to Open Wheel, for $3.265 million.

That made Paul Gentilozzi, Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe very happy, because those three, competitors as team owners, were -- and are -- partners in Open Wheel.

Two-thirds of that partnership -- Forsythe was absent -- was on hand early this week in Long Beach for a “Champ Car Spring Premiere,” a gathering designed to explain who’s who and what’s what with the new group running open-wheel Indy-style cars in opposition to George’s IRL. Oh, and to assure everybody that there really will be race cars on the grid for the 30th-anniversary Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 18.

“We’ll be at Long Beach with a full field of race cars,” said designated spokesman Gentilozzi, adding later that a “full field” would be 18 cars.

And what else did this “spring premiere” yield? Some quick answers:

* Now that you know about Open Wheel Racing Series, forget about it.

“We are officially the Champ Car World Series,” Gentilozzi said. “Open Wheel Racing Series is the holding company that Kevin, Jerry and I are invested in, but it is not the business name of what we’re going to present to our fans.

“Champ Car has a huge tradition, and it’s essential for us to continue that branding, so it will be, Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series, Powered by Ford.”

That, by no small coincidence, is precisely what the series was called last season by CART, and it tells us that Champ Car’s two main sponsors, Bridgestone tires and Ford-Cosworth engines, are still on board.

* Starting with the Long Beach Grand Prix, the schedule calls for 16 races with the possibility of two more. All but one of them, a night race June 5 on the Milwaukee mile, will be run on street or road courses, and none of them will be run at California Speedway in Fontana, the traditional site of CART’S season finale.

CART and California Speedway had a major blowup last fall over cancellation of a racing weekend because of wildfires near the racetrack, and the speedway and Champ Car have gone separate ways.

“We want to do more ovals,” Gentilozzi said. “We think there is a large part -- not only a competitive base but a fan base -- that needs that kind of interaction between the two disciplines, and I think it makes a better championship.”

As was the case under CART, the series will be an international one, with three races in Canada, two in Mexico, one in Australia and, new this year, one in Seoul. American races, besides those at Long Beach and Milwaukee, are scheduled at Portland, Ore.; Cleveland; Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wis.; Denver; and Laguna Seca, which switches back to its traditional fall date.

* Champ Car races will be shown on cable TV at the same time on racing weekends, Sundays, 4 to 6 p.m. in all time zones. Spike TV, formerly TNN, will originate the coverage in high definition.

* Businessman Dick Eidswick, Champ Car’s interim chief executive during the transition period, has been appointed president and will run the day-to-day workings of the series.

“We’re not trying to fool anyone and say that Dick has years of motorsports experience,” Gentilozzi said. “What he does is run successful businesses, and that’s what Champ Car is, a business. We have to be a successful business.... We need a guy who can guide the ship through the fog that we’ve had over the last couple of years -- and make good fiscal policy.”

* Team subsidies, according to Gentilozzi, are things of the past.

“We’re not going to do it like CART did it last year,” he said. “We have developed an entry-support program [but] it’s an exchange, it’s not a gift. There won’t be any $2-million supports for individual teams.”

* On the track, teams will be given more leeway on aerodynamics, and there will be two or three mandated green-flag pit stops in each race, depending on the length of the race, the track and the average speed. Drivers must change all four tires during each of the mandated stops.

“The idea is to create drama for the fans,” Gentilozzi said. “We’re going to try to make things happen on the racetrack so that when we get to the last laps of the race, that’s when the winner will be determined.”

Kalkhoven said that although the emphasis was on this season, Champ Car had a five-year plan, adding that the company expected to make money.

Gentilozzi preferred concentrating on the nearer future.

“We’ve got to prove we can put on a good event,” he said. “Rule No. 1: Don’t screw up the race.”

How will it all work? We should know by mid-November.

Patrick Carpentier, the Canadian driver who finished fifth in the CART standings last year for the Forsythe team, may be running some races for that team this season but may also wind up with another team, if Forsythe can find one for him. Forsythe hired Mexican driver Rodolfo Lavin as his second driver; defending champion Paul Tracy is No. 1. Lavin brings a Corona beer sponsorship with him.

A team spokesman was vague on Carpentier’s future, saying at one point that there would be three cars and three drivers, then later saying there would be two cars and three drivers. Carpentier said he had an ironclad contract but was uncertain for whom he would be driving.

Jim McGee, veteran chief mechanic and team manager, has returned to Champ Car’s Newman-Haas team as director of special operations. He was team manager when Nigel Mansell won the CART championship in 1993.

Drag Racing

The NHRA Summit sport compact series will open its 10-event season this weekend at California Speedway.

Sport compact cars -- foreign and domestic -- will be running in five classes Saturday and Sunday. George Ioannou in a Toyota will open defense of his title in Pro RWD, as will Nelson Hoyos in a Chevrolet in Pro FWD. Qualifying begins at 9 a.m. each day. Heads-up qualifying is scheduled Saturday at 1, 3 and 5 p.m., and Sunday’s final eliminations will start at 1 p.m.

The K&N; Filters/Goodguys 45th March Meet for vintage cars will be run this weekend at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield. Vintage drag cars will qualify today and Saturday, with eliminations Sunday in top fuel, junior fuel, AA/gas and other classes.

Hot Laps

Nextel Cup driver Robby Gordon, for the fourth consecutive year, will try “the double” May 30, driving in the 88th Indianapolis 500, then hustling to Charlotte, N.C., for the Coca-Cola 600. Gordon will drive a Chevy-powered Dallara for Robby Gordon Motorsports at Indy, then will jump into his customary Monte Carlo for Richard Childress in the NASCAR race.

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Irwindale Speedway will preview its 2004 season with open practice for competitors in the NASCAR Dodge weekly stock car series Saturday afternoon and kart racing all day Sunday. The regular season will begin March 20.

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Four-time Trans Am champion Tommy Kendall will come out of five-year retirement to drive Gentilozzi’s Jaguar in this year’s sedan series.

Shav Glick is on vacation.

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NASCAR NEXTEL CUP

Golden Corral 500

* When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, noon); Sunday, race (Channel 11, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway (oval, 1.54 miles, 24 degrees banking in turns).

* Race distance: 500.5 miles, 325 laps.

* 2003 winner: Bobby Labonte.

* Next race: Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, March 21, Darlington, S.C.

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CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS

EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200

* When: Today, qualifying, 10:30 a.m.; Saturday, race (Speed Channel, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway.

* Race distance: 200.2 miles, 130 laps.

* 2003 winner: Inaugural race.

* Next race: Kroger 250, April 17, Martinsville, Va.