Champ Car World Series Preview
A look ahead at the 2007 Champ Car Series season
The 2007 Champ Car season will commence this weekend on the streets of Las Vegas for the Vegas Grand Prix.
Now that the two other major open-wheel series (Formula One, Indy Racing League) have already began their respective 2007 seasons, it is the Champ Car World Series turn to take center stage. The 2007 Champ Car season will commence this weekend on the streets of Las Vegas for the Vegas Grand Prix.
Several weeks ago, it seemed as if the Champ Car series was going to struggle to put together a full field of drivers, however, 17 drivers are expected to compete in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
2007 Champ Car World Series Champion- Sebastien Bourdais
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing’s driver Sebastien Bourdais has owned the Champ Car Series in recent years and has shown no signs of decelerating. In 2006, Bourdais won seven of the fourteen Champ Car events, and cruised to his third consecutive Champ Car World Series championship. The only driver that appeared to give Bourdais the most problems in 2006 was A.J. Allmendinger, however, he has crossed-over to the NASCAR Nextel Cup series. Allmendinger won five races before he left the series.
Despite Bourdais’ unshakable ascendancy in Champ Car, many cynics will avow that he does not compare to the superstars in Formula One such as Fernando Alonso, or even stars from the Indy Racing League such as Sam Hornish Jr or Dan Wheldon. These cynics claim that the Champ Car series lacks the competition that is present in the other two forms of open-wheel racing. But could it be that Bourdais is simply that good? We may find out soon as there are rumblings that Bourdais may make the transition to Formula One in 2008 or 2009.
Bourdais will spend a lot of the 2007 season as a mentor as Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing added the 18-year old Graham Rahal to the team roster. Rahal could not ask for a better driver to seek guidance from.
Forsythe Championship Racing’s driver Paul Tracy will likely be Bourdais’ strongest competition in 2007.
Paul Tracy did not have a banner season in 2006 as he failed to win a single Champ Car race. But his Forsythe Championship Racing team has added Mario Dominguez to the lineup for at least the season’s first three races.
Other possible contenders for the Champ Car World Series championship include R-Sport Racing’s Justin Wilson, who won the 2006 West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix, as well as Alex Tagliani, who is the driver for Rocketsports.
After both the RuSport and Rocketsports teams struggled throughout preseason testing, the two organizations decided to amalgamate as they hope that the allocation of information will be advantageous. The team is now known as R-Sport Racing.
Minardi Team U.S.A. will field cars for Dan Clarke and Robert Doornbos. Team Australia will field cars for Will Power and Simon Pagenaud.
