2007 Champ Car schedule shaping up
07/20/06 The Grand Prix of Houston will take place April 20-22 next year, three weeks earlier than this year's inaugural event at Reliant Park. .)
Michael Lanigan, the Grand Prix promoter, confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the American Le Mans Series will be Saturday night (April 21) and the Champ Car World Series will be Sunday afternoon (April 22.)
The Grand Prix of Houston was May 11-13 this year, with the ALMS race on Friday night and the Champ Car on Saturday night. Because of cooler temperatures in April, the Champ Car race can be shifted to daytime in 2007.
"If we could have wished for a date, this is the one we would have wanted," said Lanigan. "When you're dealing with two series and a venue that has as much going on as Reliant does, sometimes you can't get exactly what you want. This time, we did."
Lanigan said that the Champ Car schedule, which has not been released, will have not have events after the first weekend in May next year. Theoretically, that will allow Champ Car drivers to have the opportunity to practice and qualify for the Indianapolis 500 throughout the rest of May.
The Champ Car drivers did not have that opportunity this year because of races on the two weekends prior to the Indy 500.
Champ Car and Indy Racing League executives have held talks concerning unification of the series, but Lanigan said the chances for that happening in 2007 seem to be growing slim.
"I think everyone on both sides wants it to happen owners, promoters, sponsors," said Lanigan. "But I believe that some people have been a little too optimistic about how quickly something like this can come together.
"It has to be set up properly so that both sides are comfortable. Because it's such a big unification, it's taking longer than many people expected. I think everyone is still optimistic, though."
Chuck Kosich, the general manager of the Grand Prix of Houston, said the Houston event in 2007 would be the third Champ Car race of the season. According to Kosich, the series will begin Las Vegas the first weekend in April and travel to Long Beach the next weekend before coming to Houston.
"Champ Car used to do an awful job of scheduling early in the season," said Kosich. "There would be the opener, and then you'd wait a month before the next race. There was no national attention.
"With this schedule, you have races on consecutive weeks so you really have some momentum build up coming into our race." Houston Chronicle [Note: See updated schedule below]
07/10/06 Easter Sunday is April 8th in 2007, and as stated below, the Champ Car season opener is tentatively slated to be on Easter Sunday in Las Vegas if the race gets approved. One would have thought the race should be April 1st with a 2-week break to Long Beach on April 15th. However, the IRL St. Petersburg opener is on April 1st, so perhaps Champ Car is trying to leave that date open. Easter will be on March 23rd in 2008, so it should not present a problem.
07/09/06 Other new races being considered are San Antonio where Chris Pook is trying to put together a deal (rumored previously), Assen as previously rumored (but track is too narrow), another country in Eastern Europe, a country in Northern Africa, South Africa, and Japan. Which ones actually fall into place remains to be seen. As they say, money talks, and if the money is in Champ Car's bank account by the time their 2007 schedule is announced in late August, then that city will have themselves a race.
Our guess at the 2007 schedule:
April
April 8 Las Vegas (Confirmed – Easter Sunday)
April 15 Long Beach (Confirmed)
April 22 Houston (Confirmed)
May
May 6 Zhuhai, China (Tentative)
May 27 Champ Car to leave rest of May open for Indy 500
June
Jun 3 Cleveland (Tentative)
June 17 Portland (Tentative)
July
July 8 Toronto (Tentative)
July 22 Edmonton (Tentative)
July 29 San Jose (Confirmed)
August
Aug. 12 Denver (Tentative)
Aug. 26 Road America (Tentative)
September
Sep. 9 or 16 Assen, Holland (Tentative)
Sep. 16 or 23 2nd Europe Race – LeMans, France is one option (Tentative)
October
Oct. 7 San Antonio (Maybe)
Oct. 21 Australia (Tentative)
November
Nov. 4 Mexico City (Tentative)
Nov. 18 Phoenix (Tentative)
07/08/06 Word is that Champ Car has plugged the hole in the early part of the schedule that has existed for several years starting in 2007. Look for the season opener to be in Las Vegas on Easter Sunday (2007 only – might be better on Easter Saturday) the first week in April, followed by Long Beach and Houston. Then in early May we hear the series will likely move to Zhuhai, China. Champ Car will leave the Memorial Day weekend, and the preceding weeks open in case some teams want to race at Indy.
After that look for two races a month from June through November with the season closer being in Phoenix. Mark C.
07/08/06 AutoRacing1.com has learned that Champ Car is getting close to finalizing their 2007 schedule, probably by the end of August. We hear that Monterrey, Mexico, Milwaukee and Montreal will be dropped for 2007 as previously rumored and added will be Phoenix, Las Vegas, China (Zhuhai we hear) and possibly a race in Europe. We hear that two new 'exotic' international venues have recently come into play and could possibly happen for 2007. As we understand it, 14 races are set for 2007 and the series is looking to fill the gap that remains in September.
Some feel that the IRL will finally get their foot in the door in Canada by teaming with NASCAR's Busch Series in 2007 as they continue to try and erode Champ Car's business model.