Status of Champ Car drivers/teams

A reader writes, Dear AutoRacing1.com, OK in 2007 I know who is driving for which team in all the major racing series around the world, but what about Champ Car? Is this another year of teams waiting for Daddy's check to clear. We are two weeks away from the first big test in Sebring and no announcements. The silence is deafening. Alice Connor, Minneapolis

Dear Alice, The status of who is driving for whom in Champ Car in 2007 is best depicted by our Silly Season page. As can be seen, there is a lot of uncertainty as to who will drive for whom and whether or not they have a sponsor. The Gelles team appears to be DOA despite the teams announcement and press conference that they would have a Champ Car team in 2007. We will likely get a better idea of who the likely drivers will be for each team by who shows up at the Sebring test. We probably won't know the full slate until the third test at Laguna Seca in March, including sponsorship. It will be a better year for Champ Car, but clearly things are not yet where they need to be regarding sponsorship.

Years of lowly TV ratings on SPEED, and no signature event like the Indy 500, make the sponsorship hunt quite difficult. Now that talks of a merger with the IRL appear over for good, it's time Champ Car announce a signature event for Memorial Day weekend, the biggest race weekend of the year. They should have never stopped the USA 500 after one year. After drawing over 100,000 fans that year on the same day as the Indy 500 who knows how big that race would be by now. While it would not exceed the Indy 500 in stature, it certainly would be a big event, Champ Car's signature event, run on Memorial Day Saturday so as to avoid a TV conflict with the Indy 500. Mark C.