Series loses another convert.

While I think unification is a good idea, it was perhaps to late in the day to do it for 2008, it's clearly hurting some Champcar teams financially having already spent funding for the 2008 season. I think it would have been better for all involved if it was left until 2009 that way even clashes could have bee resolved easily and given champcar teams plenty of time to prepare.

This is not the first time Craig Gore has pulled the pin on a racing series at the 11th hour. In v8 supercars he announced he was pulling out with 5 days to the first race leaving his drivers with nowhere to go.I think there maybe a financial crises behind it all

So far the 'merger' is not showing much signs of being the saviour of open wheel racing in the US. We've lost 2 of the fans favourite teams and 4 of the most talented drivers (who may or may not find seats somewhere else).

So, who's next?

This news does not bode well for the new IRL format, with such a big player in last years champ car season pulling out at such a late stage.
Could this be the beginning of the end for a top level open wheel racing series in the USA, apart from the single F1 event, as the reunification appears to have taken the teams by surprise, especially if they had been preparing cars for a new Champ Car season.
With the expansion of F1 around the world over th last couple of years, & seems to be continuing to expand at arapid pace, and the prospect of more teams joinning the series next season, has the US open wheel series missed a trick here?

Not surprising that he's pulled the plug if his own partner can't cough up his share. Walker was saying that none of the teams have received prize money from last year - ironic that only PKV and Forsythe are named in the Champter 11 paperwork as being owed cash!

Such a shame. As Badger says, the merged series has now lost two of Champ Car's most popular teams. Let us just hope that the likes of PT and Will Power can land half decent seats for this season.

With $$Bernie$$ and Mad Max continuing on with their apparent intent to destroy F1, what's left for open wheelers?

Maybe it's just a first-year glitch for the merged series. Fingers crossed it's no more than that...

While I am not happy that the attrition of Champ teams has been so high, I am not sure Champ could have finished the season. So the idea of waiting for 2009 probably would have been worse than what we have now. I for one will be a die-hard HVM fan because they are working so hard to be a part of open wheel racing in the US. The real crime would be if the States lose open wheel racing all together. George holds the cards, and the track (Indy) I guess that gave him the better hand. As fans of open wheeel racing we need to get behind it, and hope it once again becomes what it once was.