Indy / champ car merge?

Question

Are they now together?

please tell me all you can on this subject! thanks a ton

(I will give u 10 points if i can figure out how!) lol

Answer 1

Yes they "merged" in Febuary. IndyCar will provide the in coming ChampCar teams cars and technical support from other teams to make the transition smooth as possible.

The key to the "merger" was Long Beach. IRL wanted to race there, but had a race scheduled in Japan the day before. IRL tried to move the Japan race to another day, but Honda said no. The deal almost fell apart when it was decided that ChampCar would race it's final race in Long Beach while the regular IRL drivers raced in Japan (Patrick's first win). Both races would be a points paying race and it was a great way for ChampCar to say thanks to their fans by racing in their most prestigious race on their schedule.

Since the deal was so close to the start of the season for both series, the conditions to the "merger" was that ChampCar would declare bankruptcy, and IRL would absorb a couple of races such as Long Beach, Surfers Paradise and Edmonton. The reason for the quotes, it really wasn't a "merger" but more of a truce. It was about time that they merge.

When IndyCar starts to work on the schedule for next year, some of the ChampCar races will be taken over by IndyCar, such as Toronto, Cleveland, and hopefully Road America, Monterry, and Portland.

There is talk that IndyCar would take ChampCars old chassis, the DP01 made by Panoz in 2010. For now, those are just rumors but it would be great that IndyCar adopted turbo engine with a nice looking chassis like the DP01.

I hope they change the name of the series to IndyCar World Series...the name used before the open wheel war started in 1995.

Answer 2

well after the irl lost two big stars (hornish and franchiti) and cart lost its biggest star ( bourdais) they said enough is enough but they had problems with the ammount of cars that would be built for the cart drivers. but they are trying to work through it. i think 09 will be the year everything is even after the cart drivers have a year of oval racing experiance.

Answer 3

It's not a merger, it's a decimation. Tony George and his merry league of crapwagons walked down the street to Champ Car and handed Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerry Forsythe a $10 Million cheque.

Hence real racing no longer exists, big time open wheel racing in america is dead.

all we have left are crapwagons.

RIP Champ Car.

for all the info you need

http://www.crapwagon.com

Answer 4

PLEASE:  "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" (the scuttlebutt you will hear from the "doom & gloom" set.)  There are disgruntled fans of Champ Cars, over-enthusiastic fans of IndyCar, misinformed fans from both sides of the fence, and one-sided arguments abounding out there.

If you're seriously interested, here's a link that will start you on the way to educating yourself about the end of "two open wheel racing leagues in North America".

http://www.indycar.com/news/index.php?st...

You can then continue there (on the indycar.com website) by clicking on the News Archives for more info.  (The majority of items related to the unification of the series' came after Feb. 2, 2008.)

By The Way:

When you want to award the points to whomever you choose, simply return to this page.  When the time is due, there will be blue buttons below each answer which you can click to make the award for your favorite answer.

Be aware that the timing is imperative, and you can see when the time will be up (for people to answer) within the question-box.  Make your choice by that date; or you can extend the end-date by hovering over the "edit" button (below your question) at any time while the question is still "open".

Feel free to email me if you require more help on using this site, or are confused by the unification issue.  I'd be happy to help you understand...

Answer 5

Rawberry is 100% correct.

Answer 6

I haven't been following it that closely but, basically the feeling I get is that there wasn't enough market in the US for 2 open wheel series in the US after the rise of NASCAR, so CART finally folded.  For better or for worse.  Some of the old drivers got new rides in INDY car.   And they are supposedly going to move away from the all oval tracks to include some road/street circuits.  Have they merged?  I guess so.  Both have been spec series for years - same chassis/engine/tires etc.  But in my opinion cart was the better series.  That puts it all down to the driver/pit strategy which I guess and makes it competitive.  But the idea of a race meaning the driver runs at WOT lap after lap just doesn't do it for me.  Monaco was so much much more exciting that the INDY500.  Too bad we have no F! race in the US this year.  That's what I watch in response to Tony George and his INDY car antics.