Champ Car delays Standing Starts

Citing the need for further testing of its standing-start procedures, the Champ Car World Series today announced that it would not use standing starts for the first three races of the 2007 season.

“Safety is our concern and we feel we need to fine-tune our standing-start process before we implement it," said Champ Car Vice-President of Operations Tony Cotman. “We will continue to work with the teams and the manufacturers to find the safest and most reliable option for the standing-start process with an eye toward using them at Portland if possible."

The Cooper Tires Presents The Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda adopted standing starts last season, introducing them in Cleveland only after extensive testing to ensure safety for all of the participants. This season, Champ Car has practiced standing starts at the Houston and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca test sessions, the latter of which took place this past weekend.

The series will open its 2007 season with the Vegas Grand Prix, April 6-8, to be followed by the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach April 13-15 and the Grand Prix of Houston April 20-22.