Its been rumored for awhile, but its now official. Chumpcar is rebranded to Champcar. I guess its a good thing I held off ordering new number panels after one of my driver's mangled them in Pittsburgh.
Its been rumored for awhile, but its now official. Chumpcar is rebranded to Champcar. I guess its a good thing I held off ordering new number panels after one of my driver's mangled them in Pittsburgh.
Well now it doesn’t sound GRM at all... what’s next? French drivers from F1? 
I just came here to post about this. As someone who remembers the CART/Indy fiasco this is really weird to me.
Ironic that they take the name of the defunct series that their original name was a spoof of in the first place?
I actually like it. Trying to explain to my non-racing friends what "Chumpcar World Series" was.....that was always interesting. I think they all came out of it thinking it was some kind of crash-up derby with a name like that.
WIth all the other series competition these days, maybe it was time to rebrand, IDK..
In reply to pointofdeparture :
That’s what I said.
Any chance of Sebastien Bourdais looking for another Champcar championship? Or of Haas fielding a team again?
The name change is the last IRL's F.U. toward CART. I find it hard to believe they didn't pay the fee to protect the tm.
I always wonder what would have happened if CART had played things a little different.
In the original split. CART teams were prohibited from entering IRL races; and IRL entrants were guaranteed to start at INDY. I could be wrong, but I believe all but 3 spots were guaranteed to IRL teams at INDY. If I am wrong feel free to correct me.
Since the IRL initially ran races in the off season for CART. What would have happened if. Every CART team entered the IRL races leading up to INDY, thus ensuring entry as per IRL regs. Then at the end of the pace lap, the CART teams pulled into the pits leaving only a few cars out to contest the race.
Would the IRL, have folded?
nderwater said:Any chance of Sebastien Bourdais looking for another Champcar championship? Or of Haas fielding a team again?
I know this is not a serious thread or post but I just want to point out that neither owner of what was once a great race team (Newman-Haas) are alive. No relation that I know of to the current F1/Nascar team owner.
RollinM said:nderwater said:Any chance of Sebastien Bourdais looking for another Champcar championship? Or of Haas fielding a team again?
I know this is not a serious thread or post but I just want to point out that neither owner of what was once a great race team (Newman-Haas) are alive. No relation that I know of to the current F1/Nascar team owner.
Carl Haas, Gene Haas. Apparently not even related. I found that odd when I got curious and looked it up a few years ago.
I haven't watch an Indy 500 since the split.
Look Ma! A real Haas aerodynamics engineer!
Soo, are series winners going to be called the Champ Chumps?
LeMons is silly and welcome to all skill levels. WRL is serious (relatively speaking) and for people that actually want to race and not run into each other. Where does that leave Champ?
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Somewhere between WRL and Lemons. For example: WRL requires drivers to have a certain amount of previous experience racing or track instruction. ChampCar doesn't.
drsmooth said:The name change is the last IRL's F.U. toward CART. I find it hard to believe they didn't pay the fee to protect the tm.
I always wonder what would have happened if CART had played things a little different.
In the original split. CART teams were prohibited from entering IRL races; and IRL entrants were guaranteed to start at INDY. I could be wrong, but I believe all but 3 spots were guaranteed to IRL teams at INDY. If I am wrong feel free to correct me.
Since the IRL initially ran races in the off season for CART. What would have happened if. Every CART team entered the IRL races leading up to INDY, thus ensuring entry as per IRL regs. Then at the end of the pace lap, the CART teams pulled into the pits leaving only a few cars out to contest the race.
Would the IRL, have folded?
That is kind of what happened with F1 at Indy only it was a tire issue.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Similar level of seriousness to WRL but trying to keep the money/power levels down relatively speaking. It's hard to legally make 300+ hp.
Still good enough for 150+ mph at Daytona last year. Your are looking at (at least locally) SC300s / E36 / mustang / Camaros being the quick cars. The winners usually come down to fast cars that can run 2 hours on fuel.
In reply to nderwater :
Both Paul Newman and Carl Haas are no longer with us so I doubt it.
In 2017
Chumpcar had 29 races in 2017, plus 4 Chumpcar Canada races.
Lemons had 21 races.
WRL had 14 races.
(all by my count)
drsmooth said:The name change is the last IRL's F.U. toward CART. I find it hard to believe they didn't pay the fee to protect the tm.
I always wonder what would have happened if CART had played things a little different.
In the original split. CART teams were prohibited from entering IRL races; and IRL entrants were guaranteed to start at INDY. I could be wrong, but I believe all but 3 spots were guaranteed to IRL teams at INDY. If I am wrong feel free to correct me.
Since the IRL initially ran races in the off season for CART. What would have happened if. Every CART team entered the IRL races leading up to INDY, thus ensuring entry as per IRL regs. Then at the end of the pace lap, the CART teams pulled into the pits leaving only a few cars out to contest the race.
Would the IRL, have folded?
CART teams weren't prohibited from entering the Indy 500. Galles and Walker both entered the 1996 Indy 500 while continuing to run in CART. Della Penna Motorsports also flipped between the two series in 1996 before going with CART in 1997.
25 Indy 500 starting spots were reserved for the top 25 in IRL owner points, however, one of the entries didn't even show up at Indy, one more ended up basically sacrificed by Foyt, and two more Tempero-Guiffre entries ended up in the wall in practice. So I reality, only 21 spots were claimed by IRL points leaders, leaving 12 "at large" entries available.
IRL races were not run in the off-season. Yes, the Disney race was in late January, but Phoenix was held on its normal late March date sandwiched in between the second CART race of the season in Rio and the third CART race of the season in Australia (making the logistics of running the Phoenix IRL race nearly impossible for CART teams - many argue this was intentional by both parties).
Also, CART teams at the time basically got a cut of the TV revenue. To get this they HAD to run the US 500. So again, it would require a split team operation (which is what Walker and Galles did).
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