Will Champ Car plug holes in ’08 schedule?

A reader writes, Dear AutoRacing1.com, Will Champ Car plug the ridiculous holes it had in its 2007 race schedule in May and September next year? Don Davis

Dear Don, After three races in April to start the 2008 season (Las Vegas, Long Beach and Houston), it's expected that the recently announced Laguna Seca race will be the weekend of May 16-18. We then hear it could be off to Europe for two back-to-back races the first and 2nd weeks of June (Zolder and another race), so the 'May' gap will be much less in 2008.

We expect the two other European races to be in late August/Early Sept and the Surfers and Zhuhai races to be October 12th and 19th or thereabouts, so unless Champ Car fills that gap with another race, the 'September' gap will remain.

As we stated previously, the ideal Champ Car schedule would be:

1. Las Vegas: Late January
2. Mexico City: Early February
3. Australia: Late February (Could not be moved to this date for a couple of years)
4. China: Early March
5. Houston: Late March
6. Long Beach: Early April
7. Europe 1: Late April
8. Europe 2: Early May
9. Laguna Seca: Mid May
10. Cleveland: Early June
11. Mont-Tremblant: Late June
12. Toronto: Early July
13. Edmonton: Mid-July:
14. Road America: Early August
15. Europe 3: Late August
16. Europe 4: Early September
17. Orlando: Late September (Season finale – night race under lights)