Champ Car kicks-off its new era with its Panoz DP01 'spec' car in Las Vegas this weekend..
The teams have pulled together a field of 18 cars, led by three-time champion
Sebastien Bourdais, who will be partnered this year at the renamed Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing by exciting, 18-year old rookie Graham Rahal. Other top contenders include 2003 champion Paul Tracy and Mario Dominguez with Forsythe Racing, rapid Brit Justin Wilson and veteran Alex Tagliani with the merged and renamed RSPORT team, last year's rookie of the year Will Power and Atlantic champion Simon Pagenaud with Derrick Walker's Team Australia, and talented Swiss rookie Neel Jani with PKV Racing.
Half of this year's Champ Car field are rookies, but none of them are slouches. In fact, the overall level of driving talent looks pretty strong, while the new Panoz is quick and, by all accounts, a pleasure to drive. All the teams and drivers expect the field to be very close and believe the new car has achieved, to some degree at least, a levelling of the playing field.
But everyone also knows Champ Car faces a tough road to success. The series has lost so much traction and market credibility and enjoys precious little national media recognition or coverage that it's very difficult for the teams to sell sponsors. Champ Car's big hope is its latest, long-term TV deal with ABC/ESPN, which the series bosses hope will bring much better ratings and recognition than in recent years when the series was telecast first on Spike TV, then primarily on Speed with an agglomeration of some races on CBS and NBC. But it's going to be an uphill push for Champ Car to pull ratings when it's so unknown and unrecognised in America and has fewer name drivers and less identifiability than even Tony George's rival IRL series on the same network.
