"The Great Divorce"--(with apologies to C. S. Lewis)
The questions we asked on Friday were sort of answered today moments ago, as Anton H. "Tony" George, and Kevin Kalkhoven announced an amalgamation of the Champ Car World Series into the IRL's Indy Car Series during a break at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
1st--Long Beach will be the Champ Car World Series finale, with the swan song for the DP-01 Panoz Cosworth turbocharged cars. On that same weekend, the Indy Car series will race at Motegi, Japan. The Champ Car teams who run at Long Beach will get Indy Car points--just like they will at Homestead on March 29.
2nd--the two races which will be added from the 2008 Champ Car schedule will be Edmonton and Surfer's Paradise.
3rd--Indy Car competition boss Brian Barnhart says all of the existing teams will likely compete...making the fields much more interesting than 18. The teams coming over will pair up with existing teams...Rahal-Letterman will connect with Newman Haas; Kalkhoven Vasser Racing with Chip Ganassi, etc.
4th--Tony George acknowledges the difficulty for venues like a Cleveland and Houston, mentioning them by name when asked about their absence on the 2008 schedule. He says that 2009 will see a "clean sheet" schedule with a mix of about 10 ovals and 10 road style events...about the right mix IMO.
There are still details to work out...but we'll know more in a couple of weeks.
Hear George & Kalkhoven talk this week on Race-Talk:
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