INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (Nov. 5, 2007) — Champ Car today released its 2008 schedule, opening the season in Long Beach to celebrate the premier Champ Car race's Silver Anniversary; introducing a new Champ Car World Series event in Jerez, Spain, to expand its profile in Europe; and featuring an enhanced Atlantic Championship schedule that includes two stand-alone races in Utah and Canada.

"We have succeeded in improving our schedules for next season, offering Champ Car fans, sponsors, teams, drivers, TV broadcasters and other stakeholders a cohesive, strong calendar of events," said Champ Car CEO and President Steve Johnson. "We will stabilize our base in North America, begin a steady growth plan for Europe, and provide a balance of temporary and permanent circuits."

## Pending City Council Approval

[Champ Car via PaddockTalk]

Formula 1
What: Brazilian Grand Prix
Where: Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos, Brazil
When: Qualifying Saturday, race Sunday

The final race of the season promises to be a nail-biter as rookie Lewis Hamilton, two-time defending world champion Fernando Alonso, and nose-picking party boy Kimi Räikkönen all duke it out for the 2007 driver's championship. Ferrari was pretty much handed the constructor's championship on a silver platter earlier this season when McLaren Mercedes was disqualified after the espionage scandal with Ferrari, so there won't be any surprises there. This grand prix also marks the racing debut of Kazuki Nakajima for Williams; the test driver was put into the seat vacated by Alexander Wurz, who announced his retirement last week.

Champ Car World Series
What: Lexmark Indy 300
Where: Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia
When: Qualifying Saturday, race Sunday

The Champ Car kids go to the land down under for their second-to-last race of the season. And since it's a day ahead in Australia, the starting grid is already set. Will Power (yes, we still snicker every time we write his name) sits on the pole (double snicker), perennial road-rager Paul Tracy will round out the front row, and season leader — and perhaps soon-to-be F1 driver — Sebastien Bourdais starts third.

American LeMans Series (ALMS)
What: Monterey Sports Car Championships
Where: Laguna Seca, Monterey Peninsula, CA
When: Qualifying Friday, race Saturday

The ALMS season finale is bound to be a fast one; thirteen cars across all four classes broke the track qualifying records on Friday. Sascha Maassen snagged pole in the P2 class in his Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder with a time of 1:10.528, a whopping 3.203 seconds quicker than the former track record set by Stefan Johansson last year in a factory Zytek. Allan McNish took pole in the P1 class in his Audi R10 TDI with a lap time of 1:11.175. Jan Magnussen drove his Corvette to pole in the GT1 class, and Risi Competizione's Jaime Melo will start first in the Ferrari F403 in the GT2 class. Despite the rumors to the contrary, we will be at this race with some great behind-the-scenes action, so stay tuned.

NASCAR Nextel Cup Series
What: Subway 500
Where: Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, VA
When: Qualifying Friday, race Saturday

Chevrolet claimed the top four spots during a rainy qualifying session Friday on NASCAR's shortest circuit. Jeff Gordon took pole with a top speed of 94.974 miles per hour. This marks Gordon's 63rd career pole, six of which have been at the Martinsville track. Martin Truex Jr. qualified second at 94.737 miles per hour, with Kevin Harvick behind him at 94.685 miles per hour. Points leader Jimmie Johnson qualified fourth at 94.618 miles per hour.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
What: Kroger 200
Where: Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, VA
When: Qualifying Saturday morning, race Saturday afternoon

Toyota could clinch the manufacturer's championship this season if the team finishes ahead of Chevrolet and Ford on the 2.66-mile oval. The stats are in their favor, as Toyotas have won the last three truck races at Martinsville. Ron Hornaday Jr. currently leads the series with 3207 points, with Mike Skinner just 14 points behind.

Jalopnik's Las Vegas local, Curtis Walker reports on race day at the Las Vegas Grand Prix this past weekend. He spent Friday braving the rainy season and making faces at TV's Frankie Muniz, who debuted in Champ Car Atlantic. On Sunday he braved the desert sun to catch the KO of Champ Car favorite Sebastien Bourdais and more than six cars in the Champ Car Atlantic field. Check out some of the entries we copied from Curtis's notebook, which arrived at Jalopnik Central covered in dust, oil and dried margarita mix. At least we hope it was dried margarita mix.

Warmup
As the threat of rain literally dried up, the Champ Car warmup on Sunday morning went off with no major events to report. Cars weren't catching big air, like they were on Friday. Race officials had the crown ground off the roadway, which helped out immensely, but didn't completely guarantee cars would stay four wheels to the pavement.

Atlantic warmup went pretty much the same as the Champ cars did earlier. Nobody tore anything up or pushed the limits too hard. It's a big pack, so watching these 27 cars compete for position later this afternoon should be pretty exciting.

And on to the opening act ...

Historic Grand Prix
The first actual race on Sunday was the Historic Grand Prix. There were lots of yellow flags and only a few crashes. It's really gotta be bad news when a 20+-year-old, six-of-a-kind race car gets trashed. We're just guessing, but Pep Boys probably doesn't stock front spoilers for the Williams FW08C. The best sounding car on the track was the McLaren M19C/02 with its Ford V8. Its throaty roar sounded beautiful echoing off the high-rises, right up until it was knocked out of the race. It was so exciting to see these cars in action that we totally forgot to pay attention to who won the damn thing.

Champ Car Atlantic
Champ Car Atlantic racers only get an hour for their race, and it seemed like about half that time was under the caution flag. In one spectacularly fun wreck, six cars were knocked out in one shot. Apparently, Malcolm was in the middle of it, as Frankie Muniz's car #13 was never to be seen again. What irks us the most is that it happened at turn three. We'd spent far too much time sweating in the sun at turn three earlier in the day, until we staked out more comfortable digs at turn 1. Because this was a standing-start race, the race officials were kind enough to hire hot girls with umbrellas and booty shorts to keep the boys cool — it is Vegas after all. In the end, occupying the podium were Brazilian racer Raphael Matos, Robert Wickens and Jonathan Bomarito.

Champ Car World Series
After parading the drivers and VIPs around the track in monster trucks, the race was officially started with the arrival of The Flying Elvises (Elvii?). Despite being a two-hour race, the drivers didn't waste any time pulling out the yellow flags. After the initial kinks were worked out (and Graham Rahal's car was scraped off the track) the race continued unimpeded. For the most part. Favored racer Bourdais made a strong push to #3 from his dismal 16th place starting position only to kiss the wall with his car and snap off a front wheel. Even though he claims to have stayed with the car for the remainder of the race, we didn't pick him up in any of the photos. Team Australia's Will Power went on to win, followed by Champ rookie Robert Doornbos and local boy, Paul Tracey. See the full results and stats here.

– Cutris Walker

Related:
Jalopnik Goes to the Las Vegas Grand Prix: Pre Show [internal]

We sent Jalopnik's resident desert dweller and Las Vegas go-to guy, Curtis Walker, to crash the Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend. He spent Friday braving the rainy season and dodging TV's Frankie Muniz, who's making his debut in Champ Car Atlantic on Sunday. He also watched as Champ Car's Sebastien Bourdais missed pole position, and was reminded of the video game Pole Position by some historic open-wheel race cars. Check out some scratches copied directly from Curtis's notebook, along with some trackside stills. Fear not, he's ok.

Champ Car
Today marks the official start of the Champ Car Season with a first ever race on the streets of Las Vegas. Despite being a huge pain in the ass for those who work downtown, as well as for the homeless who sleep there, it should be a pretty good weekend for the rest of us. (See final Champ Car qualifying times here.)

The first Champ car on the track for practice on Friday was #1 Sebastien Bourdais. No major events to report since it was the first time on the track for everyone and they weren't pushing the limits too hard.

More...

Some kind of technical gremlin knocked Sebastien Bourdais out of Friday's qualifying for about 20 minutes on Friday, so that probably means he's not gonna get pole position on Sunday. As the favored racer, this isn't a huge upset, but it makes things a little bit more interesting. We still think the deciding factor is gonna be the potentially disastrously slippery pavement if it does, in fact, rain this weekend.

Champ Car Atlantic
First on the track on Friday were the Atlantic class cars for practice. Somehow, we missed Frankie Muniz, but hopefully we'll catch up with him at the qualifying race later today. (See final Champ Car Atlantic qualifying times here.)

During Friday's qualifying for Champ Car Atlantic everyone was catching air, including Frankie Muniz in his purple #13 Jensen MotorSport car. With the weather report indicating rain and Las Vegas's notoriously slick-when-wet streets, this could get pretty messy on race day. Try as we might, we only caught a single car with all four wheels off the ground.

Historic Grand Prix
The first race on Sunday will be the Historic Grand Prix, featuring vintage racers driving vintage race cars. The oldest (of the cars) is a 1971 McLaren M19 A/C, which has some interesting features including radiators mounted on the front spoiler and external hard cooling lines, a la lakes pipes. The most recent dates to 1983 and recalls the cars of "Pole Position."

For the Historic practice, we staked out grandstand 11, which sits on the top of the entrance to the tunnel for the home stretch. Because of the narrowness, chicanes were installed at the intersection of Main and Ogden. Due in part to the inevitability of catching a little bit of the chicane and the slight hump in the existing road surface, this turned out to be a great place to see cars catch air and nearly eat the barricade. As fun as watching the Historics from this location, it'll be even more fun to see the even faster Champ cars go airborne.

There was plenty going on off the track at the Vegas Grand Prix on Friday as well: Technical demonstrations, a lonely booth babe, rescue crews vintage automobilia and even some 125cc go-carts for sale.

Friday was largely free from any major carnage, except from this little pit tug that mysteriously burst into flames. One the fire was out, the crew sort of scratched their heads for a minute and put it back to work. This is probably the only fire we'll see all weekend, even if things get crazy on the track: methanol burns clear.

– Curtis Walker

Honestly, if you were 21 and had millions of dollars and nothing better to do you'd propose to your 27 year-old hairdresser girlfriend and start racing cars, too. Frankie Muniz, star of Malcolm in the Middle, has graduated from the Formula BMW USA series to the Champ Car Atlantic Series and will be racing for Jensen MotorSport at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Apparently, he's sporting a mohawk in order to "be taken seriously as a member of the Jensen MotorSport team." Which is completely logical... as everyone knows, Fangio, Moss and Gurney all wore mohawks as young drivers. – Matt Hardigree

Muniz to Compete As a Professional Driver [WEN via Hollywood.com]

Related:
Frankie Muniz Goes Racing [Internal]

Being men of a certain age who never quite got around to giving up being boys, Los Jalopniks are big fans of slot car racing. So excuse us for being a little geeked that we just found out that in July of this year, Tomy-owned AFX will launch a line of HO-scale slot cars resembling the current crop of Champ Cars. The cars will drop this summer, which gives us some time to get to work building our scale model of Downtown Long Beach. – Davey G. Johnson

Champ Car Slot Cars to be Produced [Paddock Talk]

Related:
Jalopnik Holiday Gift Guidge: Vintage HO Slot Cars [Internal]

The Champ Car race in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec hasn't been doing so well, with attendance at the previous Montreal race dropping to around 110,000, nearly a third of a similar F1 weekend. So what are those nutty Canadians doing to make the series more interesting? Adding Cirque Du Soleil (and moving it to the resort town of Mont-Tremblant outside of Montreal). For three days the Cirque performers will be making racing fans uncomfortable with their brightly painted bodies and strange body contortions. The only plus side to this is the possibility of someone getting video of Paul Tracy in a bright yellow unitard juggling in some guy's lap. – Matt Hardigree

Cirque du Soleil a Champ Car Partner [TSN.ca]

Related:
Question of the Day: What Will Happen To Champ Car? [Internal]

Just like that, in a slash of the accountant's broadpen, Ford has withdrawn its sponsorship of the Champ Car World Series, the open-wheel racing series once known as CART. Ford Racing Technology head, Dan Davis, said the company's sponsorship, "does not align with our current business objectives." Those objectives, we'd imagine, include clawing back toward profitability. So what will happen to the Champ? A merge with Indy or some other, less high-profile, fate? You call it, we listen. – Mike Spinelli

Champ Car World Series

Press Release:

DEARBORN, Mich., January 24, 2007 - Ford Motor Company announced today that it would no longer serve as an official sponsor of the Champ Car World Series. Ford had participated in Champ Car and its predecessor, CART, since re-entering open-wheel racing in 1992.

"We evaluate all of our racing programs on an annual basis and have decided that this sponsorship does not align with our current business objectives," said Dan Davis, director of Ford Racing Technology. "Although we are leaving open wheel racing at this time, we're proud of our long relationship with Champ Car, its teams and drivers, and we wish them well as they try to grow the sport."

Ford's withdrawal from Champ Car will not affect the other racing programs the company currently supports, including NASCAR's three major national touring series, the NHRA PowerAde Drag Racing Series, both the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car and KONI Challenge Series and several series sanctioned by USAC.

Related:
Wiedervereinigung? IRL and Champ Car May Finally Merge; Humbert Humbert is Sad: Lola Says Goodbye to Champ Car; More Questions of the Day [internal]

We have to say, we can't not back Alex Zanardi, who lost his legs five years ago in a CART wreck with fellow Alex — and fellow vowel-ending-surnamed racing driver — Tagliani. For the first time since his stint with Williams in '99, Zanardi got back into a Formula One car, trading his normal size-9 prosthetic feet for a pair of 4 1/2s (how rad is being able to change your shoe size on a whim?) and whipped four laps around the Valencia circuit. That guy must have more chest hair than Donkey Kong. R k. [Thanks to Scott for the tip.] – Davey G. Johnson

Alex Zanardi Makes Heroic Return to F1 [Contra Costa Times]

Related:
Out of Step, With the IRL! [Internal]

We've always loved Lola. But who wouldn't love a green-haired, tatted-up Oregon stripper (full nudity + alcohol) who pole-danced to Iron Maiden and Slayer, whose real love was erotic performance art? Oh wait, sorry. Cars, right. Eric Broadley's brainchild bore fruit on the American open-wheel circuit as early as 1966, with Graham Hill's win at Indy. Sadly, that association is about to end, with the adoption of Panoz chassis for the entire Champ Car series next season. But mostly, we're posting this just to have an excuse to run a picture of a T70. We mean, if you were us, wouldn't you? – Davey G. Johnson

Lola: An era ends [Crash.net]

Related:

On Monday, our buddy Steve told us to keep an eye out for video of Champ Car racer Katherine Legge' off-the-wall crash this past weekend. Of course, we were all busy navigating various bits of the inter-continental aviation industry. Thankfully, Autoblog located the clip and gave us a heads' up. Yeah, Steve, she sure did hit that wall. But she seems ok in this interview video. Still, maybe someone should keep her from falling asleep for a few days, just in case.

[via Autoblog]

Related:
Video Of The Horrific Paul Dana IndyCar Crash [internal]

The man only known by the moniker of MyNameIsIRL steps up and makes a compelling argument as to why the IRL and Champ Car shouldn't merge. He posits that a merger would tilt the series in favor of Cosworth (which Champ Car maven Kevin Kalkhoven controls), that Champ Car fans won't watch oval races anyway, (which is likely true, besides the Indy 500), and that Americans prefer watching three-wide oval action.

We're not so sure about that. Open-wheel racing was the deal in America for years. Stock-car racing was what you watched when Indy wasn't on TV. And that's back when stock-car racing was actually cool. It's where the top-flight heroes of American motor racing competed. Sure, guys like Andretti and Gurney would run F1 on a bit more than a lark, and Europeans like Colin Chapman would send a Jim Clark over to change the game. But honestly, the only breakout hero we really see in a faceless mass of American open-wheel drivers is Marco Andretti. Danica scores the attention, and she was a smart marketing move for AGR. But Marco seems to have a bit of his granda' in him. And Mario was a guy who knew how to build a brand, speak his mind, make the ladies swoon, kick Burt Reynolds' ass in a street fight and drive the living snot out of pretty much anything with a steering wheel.

Then again, we don't know if all of this pontificating really matters. The mass-sponsorship and driver-grooming classes of top-level motorsport have sucked the life out of almost all of it. Even the lengendarily tell-it-like-it-is-in-too-many-words John Force has been reduced to a televised buffoon. So what if Champ Car and the Indy Racing League merge? It might help them take on NASCAR in terms of TV deals and sponsorship dollars, but it won't bring back the "Let's just try this, motherfucker!" spirit that ran though motorsport from its lowest rungs to the top levels.

Still, we like the road races. More Sears Point and Laguna Seca, less Talladega and Daytona. We won't say that effectively turning left at 200 mph doesn't require some driving skill that most don't have, but we'd rather watch people turn both directions at around 120. That said, we can totally get behind half-mile oval and dirt-track action. There should be at least one Cup race run on dirt as an homage to the sport's roots. If you want some Jalopnik love, France family, get that in the hopper, stat. It's a way better idea than the "Chase for the Jehosephat" or whatever you guys call that new-fangled points thingy you've got going. Maybe the mandate should just be for everyone to give up the corporate teat and let the asses that fill the seats pay your way. And that? Well, that'll happen right about the time Rush Limbaugh starts a Bikini Kill cover band.

Indy Star Begs for Series Merger [MyNameIsIRL]

Related:
Foyt Wins the Indy Five Hunnert! [Internal]

Faithful tipster Scott sent over this bit from ESPN regarding Champ Car-driver Cristiano da Matta's collision with a deer during a practice session at Elkhart Lake. Cristiano is currently hospitalized in critical condition, in a medically-induced coma, due to a subdural hematoma. In layman's terms, it means that the accident resulted in a burst blood vessel on the surface of his brain. Stefan Johannson — who courteously dropped off the Bullrun so's we could snake his room at the W Hotel in San Diego — also had a run-in with a deer back in '87 while racing F1 for McLaren in Austria. He comments, "I got a hell of a fright, I can tell you. And the thing is that the deer was apparently running around in the woods and the field for some time but no one thought to have practice stopped."

Meanwhile, Road America officials are saying that although deer have been known to leap the 8-foot, barbed-wire-topped fence, Road America media director Julie Sebranek notes, "The race track has been here for 50 years. It's highly, highly unusual." We're inclined to agree with Sebranek. We hope that da Matta fully recovers from the incident, and as we mentioned yesterday, we wish he, his family, and the RuSPORT team the best.

Champ Car driver critical after collision with deer [ESPN]

Related:
(Deer) Blood on the Track: da Matta Hits Deer at Road America [Internal]

Pretty as they are, deer can be pretty damn stupid, and it didn't even require headlights for Champ Car driver Cristiano da Matta to catch one with his car at speed when it wandered onto the track at Road America. Knocked unconscious by the collision, da Matta was airlifted to Theda Clark Memorial Hospital in Neenah, WI. We currently have no word on the 2002 season champ's condition, but we wish him the best and a speedy recovery. [Thanks to Scott for the tip.]

Champ Car driver hits deer on track [Contra Costa Times]

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BMW Fails Swedish Elk Test [Internal]

Go ahead. Call Richard Petty a relic. Call him back-asswards on women's issues. Fair game, of course. But never let it be said that the man doesn't have personality. The kids over at thefirehouse.biz, Chrysler's media-only blog, posted a podcast featuring some short interviews with NASCAR drivers past and present, and while Petty was diplomatic, at least he was instructive and human, explaining the post-Second-War origins of motorsports in general. On the other hand, Kurt Busch, Jeremy Mayfield and Casey Kahne were roughly as fascinating as potting soil blended with bleached flour, and honestly, recently-retired Rusty Wallace wasn't much more interesting.

Where are the two-fisted adventurers? Why is it now a requirement that a racing driver be as bland as a two-bit pile of mashed potatoes with skim-milk sauce? Of course, the answer is money, but the biggest deal in racing lately has been the Andrettis and Danica Patrick referring to Eddie Cheever as an idiot. Where are the A.J. Foyts, the Cale Yarboroughs, the Connie Kalittas of years past? Even when Doug Kalitta hit on our then-girlfriend, he did it in a lame, smarmy way that smacked of desperation instead of suave, swaggering racing-car-wrestling masculinity. When the most entertaining motorsports-personality-related thing one has seen in the past week is Helio Castroneves giggling like a schoolgirl after winning at the Texas Motor Speedway, something is definitely wrong with top-level motorsport.

Bring back the hairy-chested mofos (see #14 on this list who would brawl on the streets of New York City with Burt Reynolds...and win.

Related:
Coop Vouches for the '70s [Internal]

Riley Technologies, based just outside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is headed south to Mooresville, SC in a bid to gain more NASCAR business. The company, who've built open-wheel racers, sports prototypes and USAC cars and won the Grand Am championship last year, sees fewer and fewer opportunities in Indy and greener pastures in stock car racing. Admittedly, we'd rather live in the South than the Midwest, but somehow, this really bums us out.

Riley Technologies to leave Indy [Indianapolis Star]

Related:
IRL-NASCAR Coalition Wins 24 Hours of Daytona [Internal]

Punkey tossed a heads-up on this one, and well, since we're listening to Minor Threat at the moment, we figured now would be an appropriate time to post it. Apparently, open-wheel mucky-mucks Tony George and Kevin Kalkhoven have been spending a bit of time together lately, talking about how much a deal could work. Salient points? Panoz chassis, Honda and Cosworth 2.5 turbo mills, Bridgestone/Firestone tires. We've come to regard Kalkhoven as a pretty savvy operator, and both men are obviously worried about what was once America's premier motorsport. Here's to hoping it happens. But please, keep Gene Simmons out of it.

Agreement to merge the IRL and Champ Car may finally be at hand [AutoWeek]

Related:
Gene Simmons Points Love Gun in Indy's Direction [Internal]

When Toyota pulled its Champ Car Atlantic Championship sponsorship last year, followed by an announcement that the next iteration of series cars would lose Toyota's 4AGE 1600cc mill in favor of a 2.3-liter Cosworth engine, many speculated that Ford would take over. Well it is; kind of. Today, Mazda announced a three-year marketing deal with the Champ Car Atlantic Championship racing series, which is generally a proving ground for upcoming racers. For the 2006 season, Atlantic cars will be powered by a 300-hp 2.3-liter four-cylinder Mazda-designed MZR engine — also known as the Ford Duratec 23 — prepared by Cosworth Engineering, and mounted in identical Swift 016.a chassis and riding on Yokohama tires. That means the official series name will now be (grab your pencils) "Yokohama Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda." Now all it needs is some fans.

Related:
Lola Surprised by Champ Car Panoz Choice [internal]

Everyone's fave blingin' Canuck racing driver reveals more of his plans to take on the southern roundy-round juggernaut; Paul Tracy is headed to Florida for NASCAR testing. With six races in the Cup season before the Champ Car World Series gets underway, tracy plans to try his luck in stock cars early in the year and then run his regular season in the full open-wheel series. He comments, ""I've got a couple of things cooking nothing I can really talk about right now, but we're hopeful we'll have something in place right after Christmas, hopefully to run a couple of races right before my (Champ Car) season starts."

Tracy plans to try driving stock cars [Toronto Star]

Related:
Paul Tracy Still Knockin' on NASCAR's Door [Internal]

Champ Car bids a tearful adieu to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, saying, "We will continue to research other opportunities for future events in the Las Vegas market that hopefully are a better fit for our business model expectations." But screw all that, because they're replacing the event by coming back Road America! We've never actually driven the famed course at Elkhart Lake, WI, but we did do some funky simulator thingy at SEMA years ago that took you around the track, and well, compared to a 1.5-mile oval, it's kind of a no-brainer, really.

CART announces 2006 return to Road America, Departure from Las Vegas Motor Speedway [Internal]

Related:
Lola Surprised by Champ Car Panoz Choice [Internal]

Al Unser, Sr., he of mad Brickyard fame, is cooling his heels in a hospital bed right now as a result of an inflamed pancreas. The 66 year-old Unser checked in on Tuesday due to the condition, which was likely caused by gallstones. Our best to Al and his pancreas. Man, we are so not looking forward to pancreatic and gall-bladder related problems as we get older. Erf.

Unser Sr. in hospital [Arizona Daily Star (2nd item)]

Related:
Herbie: Fully Loaded Update Filming Continues, Lohan Recoups [Internal]

Lola, whose chassis have dominated the Champ Car field as of late, is a bit perturbed that the series has inked a deal with Panoz to supply cars for the series. The British race car manufacturer has been building Champ Cars since the 1970, but it's not their only meal ticket, as they're the sole supplier to the new A1GP, their LMP2 competes in prototype sports car racing and they're working on a new LMP1 chassis, among other things.

Still, the Panoz deal's gotta smart some. Says Lola chair Martin Birrane, "I am surprised at their decision not to choose Lola as their partner for the 2007 series." He then went on to add, in a choice bit of press-release-ese, "Lola continue to be a world leader in many industries which is a result of sound business principles providing technical innovation and excellence." Gee, thanks for the reminder, Marty.

Lola surprised by Champ Car choice. [crash.net]

Related:
Sorry, Indy: Champ Car Buys Long Beach Grand Prix [Internal]

We reported almost two months ago that popular Champ Car driver and proponent of large amounts of ice (and we don't mean Molson Ice) Paul Tracy was testing with Richard Childress Racing for a possible run at NASCAR next season. While the window of opportunity hasn't closed yet and Tracy's still interested, apparently getting down with the Frances has been a little tougher than the Canuck expected. "If you're not down there in front of them all the time, it makes things difficult. I can't get to every (NASCAR) race," he explains, adding, "I do get a lot of respect when I do go out there." If the good ol' boys don't want him, expect to see Tracy back in a Champ Car seat next season.

Tracy Still Looking at NASCAR [Long Beach Star-Telegram]

Related:
Paul Tracy to Run NASCAR? [Internal]

The cleanser with approximately 800,640,321 uses, Simple Green, is apparently a pretty potent weapon on the track. And a banned substance. According to an unnamed Champ Car mucky-muck, they've tested the substance and found that it extended tire life by around four laps. We don't know what their secret application method is, but maybe some of you chemist-types out there could let us know what the possible reaction between the green and the black is.

CCWS: Magical Tire Substance Makes Champ Cars Faster ??? [Paddock Talk]

Related:
Wife Sells Cheating Arsehole's Lotus for Half-Quid [Internal]

Champ Car's Tracy Tries for NASCAR Ride [San Jose Mercury News]

Related:
Busch Series to NEXTEL Cup: Get Off My Plane! [Internal]