Champ Car in 5-year deal for Holland

UPDATE #3 We hear that the Assen race may be moved from the September 16th date because nearby that weekend is the F1 race at Spa, Belgium. That would hurt attendance at Assen and piss off Bernie Ecclestone who would see Champ Car in direct competition with him. So instead of Assen September 16th followed by Athens on September 23rd, there is a good chance the two would be switched because Athens is a far distance from Spa and the two events (Spa and Athens) would not impact each other whatsoever.

08/27/06 AutoRacing1.com has learned that a legally binding Memorandum of Understanding has now been signed by both parties and they have one month to iron out the contract details for a race in Assen. Until that happens you won't see an announcement by Champ Car for this event, nor the 2nd event in Europe (rumored to be Athens) until the ink is dried on a final contract. Mark C.

08/26/06 Champ Car told AutoRacing1.com that they are in advanced negotiations but that a final contract is not yet signed for Assen, contrary to what the Dutch media is reporting.

08/26/06 AMSTERDAM – The Champ Car World Series, the American counterpart of F1, have signed a 5-year deal starting in 2007 to race at the TT-Circuit of Assen, in Holland according to the largest newspaper in the Netherlands, De Telegraaf. The first race will be on September 16th of next year. The Champ Cars will also race in either Athens, Greece, Germany or at Estoril in Portugal. "Champ Car has guaranteed that a minimum of 22 cars will start the race," according to Bart Rietbergen the race promoter and owner of Champ Car Europe B.V. He came to an agreement with Champ Car Series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven yesterday.

Jaap Timmer, the circuit director said, "We have already motor sport events on our circuit but not of this caliber. During the conversations with the Bart Rietbergen we became more and more interested in Champ Car and we finally decided to hold a race on the third weekend of September with them. There is still a number of details clear that we must finalize.

This season there are two Dutch drivers in the Champ Car – Charles Zwolsman and Nicky Pastorelli. Pastorelli will carry Assen 2007 on his car in the near future for advanced publicity. "We will do a demo of a Champ Car during the MotoGP race at the end of June next year."

Moreover the Dutch influence in Champ Car may increase if plans come to fruition between formula 1-sponsor Harry Muermans former Minardi F1 owner Paul Stoddart to start a Champ Car team. We are looking into that.. It depends however on Paul. If he does not want to do it, it will not happen. What does Muermans think of Champ Car coming to Assen? "That is fantastic!"