In Champ Car, the big question is who will replace
Sebastien Bourdais at Newman/Haas/Lanigan if Justin Wilson cannot be prised away from RuSPORT? There are no other obvious star drivers available and certainly nobody to spark the interest of sponsors, the public or the media. And if Paul Tracy and the Forsythe team continue to struggle into next year and the now aging Canadian is no longer a frontrunner, who will Champ Car’s star attractions be? It’s a little much to expect it all to fall on the shoulders of young Graham Rahal.
Another thing that’s occurred over the last two years is that Champ Car, as we all know, has lost the last of its oval races and now runs only on road and street circuits. While Champ Car has walked away from the ovals, the IRL has taken on enough road and temporary circuits that it’s much closer to the broad-based challenge of the old CART Indy Car World Series than today’s Champ Car series. As Mike Hull pointed out last week in this space, an IRL driver has to be able to win on short ovals, intermediate ovals, long ovals, road and street tracks.
This used to be CART’s great claim to fame. It was the specific challenge which separated Indycar racing from
Formula One, and made it even more of an adventure for drivers like
Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and
Nigel Mansell, each of whom won both
F1 and CART titles. But, today, the IRL has a much more legitimate claim to that mantle than Champ Car which has lost the plot entirely in so many regards, diversity of tracks included.
Of course, Champ Car now finds itself in the invidious position of turning to Europe for growth and income.
To read the rest of this Gordon Kirby column and other 'The Way It Is' columns go to www.gordonkirby.com
