The 2008 Champ Car World Series season would have been the 5th season of the Champ Car World Series and 30th season of the series dating back to the 1979 formation of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). It was scheduled to begin on April 20, 2008, and end on November 9. The season was canceled on February 21, 2008, because of the buyout of Champ Car by the rival IndyCar Series, resulting in the reunification of American open-wheel racing.[1]

2008 Champ Car season
Champ Car World Series
Season
Races14
Start dateApril 20
End dateNovember 9
Awards
← 2007
2009 (ICS) →

As the IndyCar Series was already scheduled for a race in Japan the same weekend, the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, which also could not be moved, was run as originally planned, with teams that had been part of Champ Car in 2007 participating in Long Beach using the same Champ Car rules and vehicles as the previous season but still receiving IndyCar rankings points. The race was treated as a farewell to the Champ Car World Series, and won by Will Power. The following year, the event fully became part of the IndyCar schedule.

The Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton and the Gold Coast Indy 300 in Australia were also retained and added to the IndyCar Series schedule.[1] The schedule originally included what would have been the first Monterey Grand Prix since 2004 and the planned debut of the Champ Car Grand Prix of Spain.

Later on, Toronto (2009), Houston (2013), Road America (2016), Portland (2018), and Laguna Seca (2019) would also be revived by the unified series.

Races

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The 2008 Champ Car schedule was announced in November 2007 before the unification announcement.

Rnd Date Race Name Circuit City/Location
1 April 20   Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California
2 April 27   Grand Prix of Houston JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park Houston, Texas
3 May 18   Champ Car Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California
4 June 1   Champ Car Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit Zolder Circuit Zolder Heusden-Zolder, Belgium
5 June 8   Champ Car Grand Prix of Spain at Circuito Permanente de Jerez Circuito de Jerez Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
6 June 22   Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, Ohio
7 June 29   Champ Car Mont-Tremblant Circuit Mont-Tremblant Mont-Tremblant, Quebec
8 July 6   Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario
9 July 20   Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton Edmonton City Centre Airport Edmonton, Alberta
10 July 27   Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
11 August 10   Road America Grand Prix Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
12 September 14   Champ Car Grand Prix of Holland at TT Circuit Assen TT Circuit Assen Assen, Netherlands
13 October 26   Gold Coast Indy 300 Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Surfers Paradise, Australia
14 November 9   Gran Premio Tecate Presentado por Banamex Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Mexico City, Mexico

Team and driver lineup

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The following teams and drivers were expected to compete for the 2008 Champ Car season. All teams would have used a Cosworth 2.65-litre turbocharged V8 engine, a Panoz DP01 chassis, and Bridgestone tires.

Team No. Driver(s) Primary Sponsors
  Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 1   Justin Wilson[2] McDonald's
2   Graham Rahal[2] Hole in the Wall Camps
  Forsythe/Pettit Racing 3   Paul Tracy Indeck
7   Franck Montagny
  Minardi Team USA 4   E. J. Viso PDVSA
14   Robert Doornbos OzJet
  Team Australia 5   Will Power Aussie Vineyards
15   Matt Halliday Walker Racing
  Rocketsports Racing 8   Enrique Bernoldi[3] Sangari
  Dale Coyne Racing 11   Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing
19   Mario Moraes Sonny's BBQ
  KV Racing Technology 21   Alex Tagliani PKV Racing
22   Oriol Servià[4]
  Pacific Coast Motorsports 29   Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports
96   Mario Domínguez Visit Mexico City
  Conquest Racing 24   Franck Perera[5] ARES
34   Nelson Philippe

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "2008 IRL IndyCar Series". Champ Car Stats. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
  2. ^ a b "Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal To Make Up Newman/Haas/Lanigan Lineup". champcarworldseries.com. January 29, 2008. Archived from the original on February 6, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
  3. ^ "Rocketsports Signs Former F1 Driver". champcarworldseries.com. January 28, 2008. Archived from the original on March 4, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2008.
  4. ^ "Oriol Servià Signs With PKV". champcarworldseries.com. January 5, 2008. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  5. ^ "Conquest Racing Confirms Atlantic's 'Fearless' Franck Perera For 2008 Champ Car World Series Season". champcarworldseries.com. February 6, 2008. Archived from the original on March 4, 2008. Retrieved February 6, 2008.