2007 Champ Car season

2007 Champ Car season
2007 Champ Car season
Champ Car World Series
Season
Races	17 14
Start date	April 8
End date	November 11
Awards
Drivers' champion	Sébastien Bourdais
Rookie of the Year	Robert Doornbos
	← 2006 2008 (CCWS); 2008 (ICS) →

The 2007 Champ Car World Series season was the fourth and final season of the Champ Car World Series. It began on April 8, 2007 and ended on November 11 after 14 races. Unbeknownst at the time, this would end up being the final contested season of Champ Car, as the following February, the series unified with the Indy Racing League (IRL), marking the end of the Champ Car World Series for good.

For 2007 Champ Car underwent some major changes. The opening race of the season was switched from the Grand Prix of Long Beach to Las Vegas for the first running of the Vegas Grand Prix. The Long Beach Grand Prix was the second race of the season, followed by the Grand Prix of Houston. Also, the entire schedule was held on road and street courses, and the events were timed races instead of races for a set number of laps. The full 2007 schedule was announced on Wednesday, September 27, 2006.

Champ Car officials confirmed that Panoz would be the sole chassis supplier for Champ Car for the three years beginning in 2007. The Panoz DP01 was built by sister company Élan Motorsport Technologies and was powered by a turbo-charged Cosworth engine. The new formula was reported to significantly lower the costs of competing in the series, which was in turn expected to increase car counts for the 2007 Champ Car season. However, 2007 entries did not exceeded those of 2006. Ford announced it would no longer badge the Cosworth engines as Ford sold Cosworth to Kevin Kalkhoven. Mazda was confirmed as the new pace car and courtesy vehicle supplier.

ESPN announced a new, multiyear agreement that marked the return of the Champ Car World Series to the network in 2007.^[1]

On January 16, 2007, Champ Car announced their return to Europe, for the first time since 2003, with races scheduled for August 26, 2007 at the historic Zolder circuit in Belgium, and September 2, 2007 at the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands.^[2]

On January 23, 2007, Champ Car unveiled its new logo for the Champ Car World Series and the Atlantic Series. According to its website, it is a sleeker design with the new Panoz DP01 chassis on the right with an emphasis on a chicane-style layout, representing the street track racing that dominates Champ Car. There were no oval tracks on the calendar, with Milwaukee removed after the 2006 race.

Drivers and teams[]

The following teams and drivers competed in the 2007 Champ Car World Series season. All teams used a Cosworth 2.65-litre turbocharged V8 engine, a Panoz DP01 chassis, and Bridgestone tires.

Team	No.	Driver(s)	Rounds	Primary Sponsor(s)
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	1	Sébastien Bourdais	All	McDonald's
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	2	Graham Rahal R	All	MediZone
Forsythe Racing	3	Paul Tracy	1, 4–14	Indeck
	3	Oriol Servià	2–3	Indeck
	7	Mario Domínguez	1–3	Telmex
		Oriol Servià	4–12	Indeck
		David Martinez R	13–14	Indeck
Minardi Team USA	4	Dan Clarke	1–10, 12–14	Ticketmaster
	4	Mario Domínguez	11	Ticketmaster
	14	Robert Doornbos R	All	Muermans
Team Australia	5	Will Power	All	Aussie Vineyards
Team Australia	15	Simon Pagenaud R	All	Aussie Vineyards
RSPORTS	8	Alex Tagliani	All	LXN2 4 Steelback Beer 1 Wal-Mart 5 Holmatro Rescue Tools 2 PBS Equities 2
RSPORTS	9	Justin Wilson	All	CDW
Dale Coyne Racing	11	Katherine Legge	All	Dale Coyne Racing
Dale Coyne Racing	19	Bruno Junqueira	All	Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q
PKV Racing	21	Neel Jani R	All	Red Bull
	22	Tristan Gommendy R	1–7, 9–12	Pay By Touch
		Mario Domínguez	8
		Oriol Servià	13–14
Pacific Coast Motorsports	28	Ryan Dalziel R	1–8, 10–12	Ironclad 3 Pacific Coast Motorsports 3 Toronto Sun 1 Edmonton Sun 1 Generac Power Systems 1 Plain Jane Couture 2
	28	Mario Domínguez	9, 13–14	Joseph J. Albanese Concrete Construction 1 Tecate Beer 2
	29	Alex Figge R	1–2, 4–14	Imperial Capital Bank 4 Molecule Labs 1 Pacific Coast Motorsports 2 Toronto Sun 1 Edmonton Sun 1 Redback Networks 1 Generac Power Systems 1 Plain Jane Couture 2 Conrad Jupiters 1
	29	Roberto Moreno	3
Conquest Racing	34	Matt Halliday R	1–3	42 Below
		Jan Heylen	4–12	Champ Car Grand Prix of Belgium 6 Grafprint 3
		Nelson Philippe	13–14	Juniper Soul

Zsolt Baumgartner & Mario Domínguez were test drivers for Minardi Team USA.

Mid-season changes[]

Oriol Servià replaced Paul Tracy at Forsythe Racing for Long Beach & Houston, after Tracy injured his back in a practice accident on Saturday morning of the race weekend at Long Beach. Servià was then signed as a permanent replacement for Mario Domínguez prior to the fourth round of the series.^[3]
Alex Figge was unable to take part in Houston, citing back pain suffered in a crash at Long Beach. He was replaced by Champ Car veteran Roberto Moreno.
Jan Heylen was signed initially to drive for Conquest Racing at the European rounds of the series; however, on June 1, the team confirmed that the Belgian was signed for the remainder of the season replacing Matt Halliday.^[4]
Tristan Gommendy was unable to take part in Edmonton, suffering a couple of microscopic fractures in a practice accident on Friday of the race weekend. He was replaced by Mario Domínguez, who was on hand to drive the Minardi two-seater Formula One cars.
Ryan Dalziel was unable to take part in San Jose after suffering a broken collarbone while training on his bicycle. He was replaced by Mario Domínguez.
Dan Clarke was banned from the rest of the inaugural Belgian Champ Car Grand Prix weekend after causing a four car pile up in the first practice session at Zolder, which involved himself, Paul Tracy, Justin Wilson and hometown hero Jan Heylen. Clarke was replaced for the rest of the weekend at Minardi Team USA by Mario Domínguez.
Champ Car Atlantic driver David Martínez replaced veteran Oriol Servià in the No. 7 Forsythe/Indeck car for the Surfers Paradise and Mexico City races.
Mario Domínguez replaced Ryan Dalziel in the No. 28 Pacific Coast Motorsports car for the Surfers Paradise and Mexico City races.^[5]
Nelson Philippe replaced Jan Heylen in the No. 34 Conquest Racing car for the Surfers Paradise and Mexico City races. Philippe will be able to defend his 2006 race win at Surfers.^[6]
Oriol Servià found a ride with PKV Racing for the Surfers Paradise race after "an unresolved business situation" prevented Tristan Gommendy from taking part.^[7]

Season summary[]

Schedule[]

The 2007 Champ Car season ended up having 14 races, down from the proposed 17 races.

Rnd	Date	Race Name	Circuit	Location
1	April 8	Vegas Grand Prix	S Streets of Las Vegas	Las Vegas, Nevada
2	April 15	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach^[8]	S Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California
3	April 22	Grand Prix of Houston^[8]	S JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park^[9]	Houston, Texas
4	June 10	Mazda Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland Presented by Joe's Sports and Outdoor^[10]	R Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon
5	June 24	Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by LaSalle Bank^[11]	S Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport	Cleveland, Ohio
6	July 1	Champ Car Mont-Tremblant^[12]	R Circuit Mont-Tremblant	Mont-Tremblant, Quebec
7	July 8	Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto^[9]^[12]	S Exhibition Place	Toronto, Ontario
8	July 22	Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton^[12]	S Edmonton City Centre Airport	Edmonton, Alberta
9	July 29	San Jose Grand Prix at Redback Raceway^[13]	S Streets of San Jose	San Jose, California
10	August 12	Generac Grand Prix	R Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
11	August 26	Belgian Champ Car Grand Prix^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16]	R Circuit Zolder	Heusden-Zolder, Belgium
12	September 2	Bavaria Champ Car Grand Prix Powered by Audi, Gant, Hertz, Jumbo & Pioneer^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16]	R TT Circuit Assen	Assen, Netherlands
13	October 21	Lexmark Indy 300	S Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Australia
14	November 11	Gran Premio Tecate Presented by Banamex	R Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	Mexico City, Mexico

R Dedicated road course S Temporary street circuit

The Grand Prix of Denver was cancelled by Champ Car on February 1.
The Chinese Champ Car Grand Prix, after having its original May 20 date postponed, was cancelled on April 2 after the FIA rejected Champ Car's replacement date.
The Grand Prix Arizona was cancelled on August 29.

Race results[]

Rnd	Race Name	Pole position	Fastest lap	Lead most laps	Winning driver	Winning team	Report
1	Vegas Grand Prix	Will Power	Will Power	Will Power	Will Power	Team Australia	Report
2	Grand Prix of Long Beach	Sébastien Bourdais	Simon Pagenaud R	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
3	Grand Prix of Houston	Will Power	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
4	Grand Prix of Portland	Justin Wilson	Sébastien Bourdais	Justin Wilson	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
5	Grand Prix of Cleveland	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Will Power	Paul Tracy	Forsythe Racing	Report
6	Mont-Tremblant Grand Prix	Tristan Gommendy R	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Robert Doornbos R	Minardi Team USA	Report
7	Grand Prix of Toronto	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Oriol Servià	Will Power	Team Australia	Report
8	Grand Prix of Edmonton	Will Power	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
9	San Jose Grand Prix	Justin Wilson	Justin Wilson	Oriol Servià	Robert Doornbos R	Minardi Team USA	Report
10	Grand Prix of Road America	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
11	Belgian Grand Prix	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
12	Bavarian Grand Prix	Sébastien Bourdais	Dan Clarke	Justin Wilson	Justin Wilson	RSPORTS	Report
13	Lexmark Indy 300	Will Power	Graham Rahal R	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
14	Gran Premio Tecate	Will Power	Robert Doornbos R	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report

Final driver standings[]

Pos	Driver	LAS	LBH	HOU	POR	CLE	MTT	TOR	EDM	SAN	ROA	ZOL	ASS	SUR	MEX	Pts
1	Sébastien Bourdais	13	1*	1*	1	12	2*	9	1*	5	1*	1*	7	1*	1*	364
2	Justin Wilson	14	4	10	2*	4	5	3	2	13	8	5	1*	2	10	281
3	Robert Doornbos RY	2	13	3	3	2	1	6	11	1	14	7	13	4	16	268
4	Will Power	1*	3	11	4	10*	3	1	15	4	16	4	14	16	2	262
5	Graham Rahal R	17	8	2	9	8	7	11	3	6	3	3	9	11	4	243
6	Oriol Servià		2	4	11	7	9	10*	6	3*	4	6	8	14	3	237
7	Bruno Junqueira	7	6	7	13	16	17	5	7	7	9	2	3	3	7	233
8	Simon Pagenaud R	12	14	5	8	5	4	4	4	10	11	12	6	5	6	232
9	Neel Jani R	10	7	15	12	3	6	2	9	2	10	8	5	8	9	231
10	Alex Tagliani	4	5	9	5	6	8	8	14	15	5	9	15	7	13	205
11	Paul Tracy	3	Wth		10	1	15	14	5	11	12	10	17	9	5	171
12	Tristan Gommendy R	5	11	13	7	13	12	15	Wth	8	7	16	4			140
13	Dan Clarke	15	12	17	6	11	14	12	8	17	2	Wth	11	17	17	129
14	Ryan Dalziel R	11	9	8	14	9	10	7	12		17	15	10			116
15	Katherine Legge	6	10	16	17	15	11	16	16	16	15	11	12	15	15	108
16	Jan Heylen				15	14	16	13	10	9	6	13	2			104
17	Alex Figge R	8	16	Wth	16	17	13	17	13	14	13	14	16	13	11	95
18	Mario Domínguez	9	17	6					17	12		17		12	8	78
19	Nelson Philippe													6	12	28
20	David Martínez R													10	14	18
21	Matt Halliday R	16	15	14												18
22	Roberto Moreno			12												9
Pos	Driver	LAS	LBH	HOU	POR	CLE	MTT	TOR	EDM	SAN	ROA	ZOL	ASS	SUR	MEX	Pts

Color	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	2nd place
Bronze	3rd place
Green	4th & 5th place
Light Blue	6th–10th place
Dark Blue	Finished (Outside Top 10)
Purple	Did not finish
Red	Did not qualify (DNQ)
Brown	Withdrawn (Wth)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did Not Start (DNS)
White	Race abandoned (C)
Blank	Did not participate

In-line notation
Bold	Pole position
Italics	Ran fastest race lap
*	Led most race laps
RY	Rookie of the Year
R	Rookie

Driver breakdown[]

Pos	Driver	Team	Races	Wins	Top 3	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led
1	Bourdais	N/H/L Racing	14	8	9	10	11	6	463
2	Wilson	RSPORTS	14	1	5	9	12	2	113
3	Doornbos R	Minardi Team USA	14	2	6	7	9	–	61
4	Power	Team Australia	14	2	5	8	9	5	153
5	Rahal R	N/H/L Racing	14	–	4	5	11	–	18
6	Servià	Forsythe Racing PKV Racing	13	–	3	5	10	–	85
7	Junqueira	DC Racing	14	–	3	4	11	–	33
8	Pagenaud R	Team Australia	14	–	–	6	10	–	19
9	Jani R	PKV Racing	14	–	3	4	12	–	30
10	Tagliani	RSPORTS	14	–	–	4	10	–	14
11	Tracy	Forsythe Racing	12	1	2	4	7	–	49
12	Gommendy R	PKV Racing	11	–	–	2	5	1	31
13	Clarke	Minardi Team USA	13	–	1	1	3	–	2
14	Dalziel R	PC Motorsports	11	–	–	–	6	–	16
15	Legge	DC Racing	14	–	–	–	2	–	–
16	Heylen	Conquest Racing	9	–	1	1	4	–	–
17	Figge R	PC Motorsports	13	–	–	–	1	–	–
18	Domínguez	Forsythe Racing PKV Racing PC Motorsports Minardi Team USA	8	–	–	–	3	–	–
19	Philippe	Conquest Racing	2	–	–	–	1	–	–
20	Martínez R	Forsythe Racing	2	–	–	–	1	–	–
21	Halliday R	Conquest Racing	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
22	Moreno	PC Motorsports	1	–	–	–	–	–	–

Rule changes[]

The new rules of the 2007 season included the implementation of standing starts at venues where they can be safely implemented. Additionally, all events were timed events instead of running a set number of laps. As the time limit approaches, the drivers will be notified that they are beginning the last lap. The leader will NOT be shown the white flag, which will now be employed in a similar manner to its use by the FIA. Teams will also be allowed unlimited access to their tires during all qualifying sessions. The requirement for each team to use at least one set of the alternate Bridgestone Potenzas during the race would remain in place.

From this season onwards drivers no longer receive a bonus point for leading a lap of the race.

Notes[]

^ Champ Car coming to ESPN beginning in 2007 – Racing – ESPN
^ "Champ Car > News Tuesday, January 16, 2007". Archived from the original on March 7, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
^ "Servià keeps Forsythe drive". autosport.com. May 22, 2007. Archived from the original on May 25, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2007.
^ "Heylen at Conquest for rest of year". autosport.com. June 1, 2007. Archived from the original on June 3, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2007.
^ "Pacific Coast Motorsports signs Mexican Superstar Mario Domínguez". champcarworldseries.com. September 20, 2007. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
^ "He's back!Nelson Philippe returns to Conquest Racing team". champcarworldseries.com. October 3, 2007. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
^ "Oriol Servià To Compete For PKV Racing At Lexmark Indy 300". champcarworldseries.com. October 16, 2007. Retrieved October 16, 2007.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ ^a ^b "Vegas Grand Prix opens 2007 Champ Car season". reviewjournal.com. August 1, 2006. Retrieved September 2, 2006.
^ ^a ^b "Sponsor boost for Toronto, Houston". crash.net. March 13, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
^ "Mazda New Title Sponsor for Portland Champ Car Grand Prix". whowon.com. May 10, 2007. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
^ "Cleveland 2007 date announced". motorsport.com. August 24, 2006. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved September 5, 2006.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Champ Car set to add Quebec pit stop". globeandmail.com. September 25, 2006. Retrieved September 26, 2006.
^ ^a ^b ^c "2007 Champ Car Schedule Coming – China, Europe to be Added?". paddocktalk.com. September 17, 2006. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved September 17, 2006.
^ ^a ^b "Champ Car in 2007 naar Assen?". telesport.nl. August 26, 2006. Archived from the original on August 6, 2011. Retrieved September 1, 2006.
^ ^a ^b "Champ Car coming back to Europe". grandprix.com. September 25, 2006. Archived from the original on July 7, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2006.
^ ^a ^b "Champ Car adds 2 European races". indystar.com. January 15, 2007. Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved January 16, 2007.

References[]

Åberg, Andreas. "Champ Car World Series 2007". Driver Database. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
"2007 Champ Car World Series". Champ Car Stats. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
"Standings after Mexico City". Champ Car World Series. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2009.

v t American Championship car racing (Indy car) seasons
AAA	1905 1906–1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942–1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
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CART	1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
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