War is over.

Thank god for that........ lets go racing!!!

if they think this is the end of their troubles then i reckon they are wrong. We now have 1 series, with the worst cars, and plenty of alienated fans.
I'm also concerned by full grids of 'flying Dallaras' racing around places like Texas with un talented drivers like AJ Foyt the 4th driving around with their eyes closed.
This will be the first season since 1988 where i wont be watching a single race. A lot of the fans will be completely alienated by all the messing around of the last week.

The devil will be in the detail. Some Champ Car teams will join the IRL - others will miss the start of the series or wait and see. I'm confused about the Long Beach and Motegi crash. Why should an ex-Champ car team maintain a DP01 for 1 race along with its Dallara's for the other IRL races ?

What happens if Newman Haas for example decide to go to Motegi - might anyone turn up for Long Beach at all ?

And is a 1st place in a say 10 car Long Beach worth the same as 1st place in a Motegi 18 car race ?

Sorting this out in 2008 will be messy. It will have quietened down in 2009 hopefully !!

Don't expect there to be two races on one date. There is now one series - the IRL - and the question is how many of the Champ Car events are added to the existing IRL calendar and/or whether any existing IRL dates are cancelled. Those formerly Champ Car events that aren't on the schedule are cancelled as far as Champ-type cars (Panoz DP01) are concerned...since there is no more Champ Car.

I also wonder what happens to Formula Atlantic as a result? It's a pretty good feeder series with a healthy field...

and what happens if motegi gets rained off? who will get the points?

Great that there's one series, but the IRL cars are UGLY!!!!

What every, MotoGP is still the most exciting racing around.

~MUSTARD

Well at least there is now one series to die unless BORING oh i mean nascar self consumes itself by way of over exposure and complete crap racing, i have gone to over twenty Toronto Indy races and it is a or was a great event utter crap steell back grand prix what a bunch of prats or is that ***** the fact is it way too late to compete with the southern crowd goo moto gp and wsbk and ama real racing for real men

You use the word "healed" which may not quite yet be the case, but "stitched closed the wound" would surely apply.

This is good news. While the Dalleras are not the best looking cars ever I beleive they are more of a drivers car, requiring more work from the dirver and provide better racing. Either way two premier single seater series in the US was always silly, it split fans and the grid and both the IRL and CCWS were worse off after the split.

The only downisde is the CCWS teams will be at a disadvantage this year but they should be good for 09. Hopefully we can get a decent size grid too. Both the IRL and CCWS running 17 car grids was a little on the low side.

In the long run I believe this is for the good anyway.

i rather see they race in DP01 cars than those IRL racers for this unified series.

I couldnt agree more with ZerO. After going to F1, A1 and CCWS here in australia for the last couple of years, I can tell you, the most entertaining cars to watch were the CCWS - lots of power, they move around, A real push to pass (unlike A1) and a sweet turbo sound. If I have to listen to another ear piercing normally aspirated V8 and endure looking at that door stop of a dallara, I dont think I will be visiting the cold coast this year.

Please get off your nostalgia soapboxes - Dallara is the chosen chassis not DP01. Turbos are history. 4 weeks to the first race at Homestead I believe - fascinating to see what happens!!

I'm largely glad to see the merger - both series weren't doing well and CCWS was a corpse in name only. At least it's a competitor to F1

So can you block in this sport?

"So can you block in this sport?"

No, I think both series are pretty hard on blocking. One of the Champ Car drivers was saying he was looking forward to atleast being able to *defend* a corner...

Elsewhere, the Panoz was never designed to run on ovals. Get over it. The Superleague car is also designed by Panoz/Elan, but has a V12 installed. No doubt there'll be some common parts (madness if not) so Carl Haas can sell off some of his $2m worth of spares to those teams.

Look our Bernie! You've got some real competition now.

Track owners and sponsors can put on a world class event for a fraction of what F1 rips them off for. Look for F1 to implement more drastic cost control measures to compete with what will be the most exciting racing series in the world.

As Derick Walker said, "Back to the future." I can't wait for the season to start.

Calendar suggestion....
April 6 St. Petersburg
April 20 Long Beach
April 27 Houston
May 18 Laguna Seca
June 1 Zolder
June 8 Jerez
June 22 Cleveland
June 29 Mont-Tremblant
July 6 Watkins Glen
July 20 Mid-Ohio
July 27 Portland
Aug 10 Road America
Aug 24 Infineon
Aug 31 Belle Isle
Sept 14 Assen
Oct 26 Gold Coast
Nov 9 Mexico City

17 rounds sounds reasonable...

and no ovals

OK, I suppose they better do the Indy 500.....

al, i fully agree with your calendar. it looks very good. i'd put the indy 500 somewhere in may. this merger should allow the unified series to compete with f1 and nascar but sorting out the teams will be hard. which teams from champ car will get to race? i reckon these will:
TEAM AUSTRALIA
NEWMAN-HAAS-LANIGAN
PKV
RUSPORT/FORSYTHE
CONQUEST (they have raced in indycars before)

You need to add:

Indy500 - biggest and most famous motor race in the US
Motegi - Honda supply the engines and they expect a race in their country
Chicagoland - has a contract which states they are the last race in the IRL calendar

I think the series will be an IRL based one though TG will cherry pick the best Champ Car events - especially if they bring in the ***** eg Long Beach, Toronto, Surfers etc

I think the future is on road/street courses and less reliance on ovals. As to racing in europe - that is long term if at all.....

Hmmmm, a merger - the thing that worries me is that will the TV rights in the UK stay with Sky, as I enjoy the Eurosport coverage and really do not want to pay for all of Sky Sports just to watch races at week-ends. Keep it on Eurosport please.