Motorcaster

Trenton Speedway

admin — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:14:46 +0000

Trenton Speedway was built as a permanent fixture on the Trenton State Fairgrounds, and existed as a home to a variety of racing series (especially National Championship racing) from about 1900 to 1979. The track went through several expansions from half-mile, to one-mile, to it’s most famous incarnation as a kidney-shaped 1.5 mile track with a unique right-turn. This dogleg as it was called, required a unique car setup as well as increased driver bravery as the turn was “blind” – a driver’s forward view was partially blocked by the outside concrete retaining wall.

Eventually Trenton Speedway hosted it’s last Champ car race in 1979, before it was demolished in 1983 to make way for the NJ Grounds for Sculpture. The concrete pad in front of the T1 grandstand is still there, and Hamilton Lake Drive now sits (and somewhat follows) where the backstrech and dogleg turn once stood.

Specifications

Track size: 1.5 mile kidney-shaped oval

Width: 65′ on turns, 55′ on straights, 80′ wide apron

Banking: T1+T2:10° dogleg:4° T3+T4:15°

Radius of dogleg turn: 20°

Front straight length: 2200′

Timeline History

1888: NJ State Fairgrounds built

1900-1945: half-mile dirt oval

1946-1956: one-mile dirt oval

1957-1968: one mile paved oval

1969-1980: 1.5 mile kidney oval

1983: Demolished. Now the NJ Grounds for Sculpture.

Pace lap formation along the backstretch Sept 1971

For Champ car and NASCAR stats, see: Wikipedia Trenton Speedway
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Nazareth Speedway History

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:24:30 +0000

Nazareth Speedway was an auto racing facility located in Northampton County, PA. about 50 miles north of Philadelphia. It was actually a pair of adjacent racetracks – the smaller half mile track was built in 1920, and a larger 1 1/8″ mile track built in 1966. Ownership of both tracks was mixed, and there were very few years when both tracks operated concurrently.

Timeline

1910: Auto racing begins at the Northampton County Fairgrounds 1 mile
dirt track, a few miles from the town of Nazareth. (Nazareth is
within Northampton County)

1920: A half-mile dirt track is built in Nazareth PA, intended for horse
racing.

1921: Auto racing shifts from the County Fairgrounds to the Nazareth
half-mile track.

Throughout the next 60+ years, the 1/2 mile dirt track will host a
variety of Stock, Modified, Midgets, and Sprint races… including
night racing under lights.

1959: The Andretti bros. enter their first ever race, at Nazareth
Speedway. Aldo drives… and wins! Over time, both Mario and Aldo
would have numerous wins at the track.

1966: Owner Jerry Fried builds a larger 1.125 mile dirt track on an
adjacent property called “Nazareth National”. For the time Nazareth Speedway is essentially a 2
oval facility with both the 1/2 mile and 1 mile tracks.

1969: Nazareth National hosts the last points-paying National
Championship race (with the Dirt Champ Cars) held at night under lights.
Mario wins… and his daughter is born later that evening!

1971: Nazareth National is shut down, but the 1/2 mile track
continues regular operation.

1981-84: Nazareth National re-opens for a few years under promoter Lindy Vicari to host occasional
USAC Silver Crown (formerly the Dirt Champ cars) and local Modifed races. He reconfigures T2 and shortens the backstretch due to zoning restrictions, changing the overal length to just under 1 mile. The venture eventually goes bankrupt.

1986: Roger Penske buys the 1 mile track from the bank and paves it. Portable grandstands from Cleveland are used for the first few years.

1987: The restored track hosts it’s first CART race. Mike Andretti wins.

1988: The last year of racing at the 1/2 mile dirt track. (which
eventually is torn-down and built-over) From now on, the Nazareth Speedway facility
has just the 1 mile* paved oval. (* .94 mile)

1997: New aluminum grandstands are built. Attendance for CART race peaks at ~45,000.

1999: Silver Crown cars return for the first time in 15 years. Jason Leffler wins

2000: Early April CART race snowed out! Make-up race held on Memorial Weekend the day before Indy… and Team Penske
gets it’s 100th Champ-Indy win.

2001: Last CART race at Nazareth.

2002: First IRL race at Nazareth including all three major USAC divisions: Midgets, Sprints, & Silver Crown cars.

2004: After continued declining attendance, ISC announces plans to shut down Nazareth Speedway. The IRL holds it’s last race at Nazareth in August 2004.

2005: ISC sells Nazareth Speedway to developers.

Photos – scanned from Nazareth souvenir programs, most by Bob Snyder.

Modifieds on the Nazareth National backstretch in the 60′s.

An aternate view in color.

Mario in 1969 in a USAC National Championship Dirt car.

…and in the pits.

Nazareth National T2 as it looked after the first shutdown in ’71.
The track originally went out much closer to RTE 248 and part of
that wall still stands outside the current wall along Georgetown Rd..

The T3 bridge as it looked in the 70′s.

After reopening in the early 80′s, Nazareth hosted the USAC dirt cars again,
now called the Silver Crown series. (1982 pictured)

1983 Silver Crown race

The main straight as it appeared in the 80′s.

The grandstands as they appeared in the 80′s.

T1 under modification during paving in ’86 – ’87.
Note 1/2 mile Speedway grandstands in upper right.

Nazareth Speedway as it looked in 1990.

Attendance for CART peaked in ’97.

A sattelite photo taken in 2000.

The First Pocono 500

admin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:43:56 +0000

The inaugural Schaefer 500 at Pocono was significant in many ways. It was the first time the USAC National Championship Trail had raced in the Northeast on such a large superspeedway (2.5 miles). Up until then, Champ/Indy car races had been held in this area at the more moderately sized Langhorne, Trenton, and Nazareth speedways. Secondly, by complimenting the recent inaugural California 500 (Sept 1970) as well as the Indy 500, it allowed USAC to promote a “Triple Crown” of 500 mile races.

Other significant items: This would be the first of Team Penskes 100+ Champ/Indy car wins. (Win #100 would come 29 years later at nearby Nazareth) 1971 was also the first year of the Gold/Silver crown split: the paved-speedway and dirt champ cars were broken out into separate series. The winning McClaren M16 was innovative in it’s use of wings, and was influencing many other car builders to also add them at the time. It also started the trend of cars having the radiators mounted in “side-pods” rather than with front radiator inlets (compare the difference in the front row PR photos). It was also the last time a front-engined roadster (Hurtubise’s Mallard) raced in a 500 mile race. These photos were mostly scanned from the 1972 & 1989 Pocono souvenir programs (credits at bottom), Motor Trend Sept ’71, The Unfair Advantage, and Champ Car magazine.

The box score for the race can be found here:
http://www.motorsport.com/stats/champ/data/ch197107.pdf

Still Photos

Front row photo – Parnelli Colt (A Unser) – Gurney Eagle (B Unser) – McClaren M16 (M Donohue)

Same pose, different angle, in color

Pre-race festivities included marching bands on the front straight

Turbo Ford in Mario’s Macnamara before the race

Front row during the pace laps

Pace formation before the grandstands
(pictured third row: Revson, Foyt, Rutherford)

Rounding T2 in pace formation (photo covered 2 pages)

Donohue runs away after the start
(Photo: Barry Tenin – “The Unfair Advantage”)

Aerial photo of full-house on opening day
Race day attendance: 60-75K (Motor Trend 9/71)

Nascar’s Donnie Allison spins as Rutherford and B Unser pass

Following the pace car under caution

Donohue on the apron
(Photo: Bob Tronolone – ChampCar magazine Aug/Sept 2000)

Team Penske pit stop
Notice the McClaren had the fuel intake on the opposite side

Another Penske pit stop photo in color

Steve Krissilof spins

Joe Leonard pulls away with the fuel hose still attached
(Foyt in the background)

Roger McCluskey, Joe Leonard, front of Lloyd Ruby’s car
(Motor Trend 9/71 photographer unknown)

Peter Revson in the other McClaren

Herk’s Mallard – the last roadster in a 500 miler

Mallard ontrack
(Motor Trend 9/71 photographer unknown)

Looks like Roger is ready to climb a fence
(Motor Trend 9/71 photographer unknown)

Photos of the top 5 finishers
(photos not taken at Pocono – note blue front wings on the McClaren)

Mark Donohue with his sons in Victory lane

Mark & Roger

Nazareth May 2001 in T2
Look closely – I still have my Schaefer 500 seat cushion

Photo credits as listed in 1972 program: Bud Jones, Dr. Robt Berman, Ike Refice, Dudley L. Stouch, Reinhold Radke, Bruce Craig, Dave Innes, Alber W. Koster, Paul W. Sernak, King Photos, William E Treible, Bruce Stromberg, Jan Dee Bowen.

USAC-IRL at Dover Delaware

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:01:53 +0000

On August 24, 1969 USAC held their one and only race for Champ cars at the high-banked (24 degrees) one mile oval at Dover Delaware. Bobby Unser’s qualifying speed of 155.259 mph remained the track record for 29 years until Rusty Wallace finally surpassed it on May 30, 1998 with a qualifying speed of 155.898 mph. 48 days days later, Tony Stewart surpassed that with a new qualifying record of 185.204 mph.

Indy cars returned to Dover for the IRL 400k races on July 19, 1998 and August 1, 1999 which were won by Scott Sharp and Buddy Lazier respectively. The green flag laps were being turned in the low 180′s mph. However, the attrition was high for both races due to the stress on equipment from the high banked track. They never returned after the 2 races.

The following 6 pictures are all I have of the 1969 event. The first two came from a promotional mail flyer from the IRL, and the third from an old issue of Racing Pictorial. The final 3 were from the souvenir program of the IRL race.

3 wide chasing the leader! Race winner Art Pollard in the STP Wedge (57) shown leading (l to r) Gordon Johncock (12) Mario Andretti in the Brawner Hawk (2), and Jerry Karl (68). Pollard’s car is the only Plymouth to ever win a Champ car race.

(Walt Chernokal photo)

Roger McCluskey (82) leading Gordon Johncock (12) into turn 1.

(Photographer unknown)

Gary Bettenhausen (8) leading Al Unser (15).

(Ray Masser photo)

Lloyd Ruby leaving his car after crashing during practice.

(Photographer unknown)

Pit stop. Note the imposing Turn 1 in the background.

(Photographer unknown)

Wally Dallenbach tags the wall in turn four.

(Photographer unknown)

A scan of the front cover of the 1969 Dover race featuring #36 Johnny Rutherford.

The Lost Rear-Engine Sprint Cars

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:36:32 +0000

The original version of this webpage dates to 1996, the first season of the IRL. At the time there was an idealistic intention to re-connect Sprint car racing with the Indy 500. More than a decade later, we can see that it’s not going to happen… more on that below.

The Rear-engine Revolution

In the mid-1960′s, a phenomenon known as the “rear-engine revolution” occured at the Indianapolis 500 in which the rear-engined monocoque formula car layout replaced the front-engined tube frame roadsters over the course of the 1964-1967 seasons. By the early 70′s, some rear-engined sprint cars were attempted and were somewhat successful. In 1973, Tom Sneva gathered a disproportionate number of wins in the Gehlhausen Huffaker car (see below).

In 1974, USAC banned the rear-engined sprint cars. Why? Some drivers complained that they were too dangerous or *innapropriate* for the sport… which was counter-argued that those drivers complaining were covering up for not being as good at driving a rear-engined car. Nevertheless, it was feared that the rear-engined layout would become successful very quickly and instantly render obsolete the front-engined cars (like Indy) necessitating everyone to buy new equipment. The difference was that unlike Indy, not everyone at the short-track level could afford all new cars, which would kill the car counts at races.

The Speedway Silver Crown and the PRA

In 2005-2007, a real-life example of switching equipment for an entire sprint car series actually happened. USAC moved it’s Silver Crown series to an all new Speedway car, instantly obsoleting the existing cars, somewhat like what the rear-engine sprinters might have done in the mid 70′s. The result? The majority of car owners did in fact mutiny, and created their own series, the PRA Big Car Series to run the existing traditional cars. Ultimately, both the USAC Speedway cars and the PRA series did not survive after about 2-3 seasons. (I’ll be writing an article about this in the near future). The point is that the Speedway Silver Crown cars show what kind of troubles may have happened in the 70′s had the new rear-engine sprint cars been allowed to quickly obsolete the existing field of front engine cars.

The Dowker Roadster as an example of a lower CG sprint car

Why would a rear-engine sprint car be faster? Surely, having a smaller frontal surface area will cut down on drag. However, the traditional front engine sprinter does has a very high CG (center of gravity) due to the driver sitting high directly above the drive shaft. Without that problem, the CG in a rear engine car can be made much lower. Low CG = better cornering = speed!

So what if a front engine sprint-car was built in which the driver was placed to the side of the drive-shaft like a roadster? Would it be as fast as a rear engine sprint car? In the late 70′s such a car was built by Butch Dowker called the “Titanium Roadster”. It featured many design tricks, but most importantly, it had an obviously lower CG, due to the driver sitting lower by the offset driveshaft. The Titanium Roadster won a LOT of races in the ’78-’79 seasons, until it too was legislated out of competitiveness. It now sits in a museum, and still carries the title of “World’s Fastest Sprint Car”.

Would a rear engine sprint car make a difference today?

The question remains, would a rear-engined sprinter help get more Sprint car drivers to the Indy 500 today? Probably not. Sure, it would give them some experience in the handling characteristics of a car with a rear weight bias, but not much experience in the details of setting up a monocoque aero “formula car”. For that they would still need to spend time in an actual “formula car” feeder series like Atlantics or Indy Pro, and they would still be at an experience deficit compared to drivers who have already spent their whole lower-level career coming up through the formula car ranks. Compound this with the experience sprint drivers already have with front-engined tubeframe cars is well suited to stock cars, it becomes a no-brainer… NA$CAR!

BTW, my favorite local sprint tracks are Williams Grove and Grandview in PA, and Bridgeport in NJ.

This 1973 photo shows the most dominant rear-engined sprint car of the era, owned by Carl Gehlhausen. It was actually a Huffaker Indy car which had been converted to a sprinter by Chief Mechanic Eddie Baue. Driven by Tom Sneva, it collected about a dozen wins in a relatively short period. The amazing success of this car had a lot to do with the banning. The other front-engined car is driven by Lee Kunzman.

Photo:Jim Chini

This 1972 photo shows builder Paul Leffler of St.Paul, Ind. in his shop building a rear-engine sprint car. Notice how low the driver seat is placed.

Photographer unknown

Yet another photo of a RE car leading a FE car on asphalt. Car#52 is driven by George Snider and #59 is driven by Steve Chassey.

Photo:Jim Chini

Here’s two possible interpretations of the term mid-engine. At Salem Bob Steleter is in the offset roadster-sprinter while Gary Albrittan is in the sprinter.

Photo:John Mahoney

Rear engine winged outlaw? No, it’s Gary Lee Kanawyer winning the 1997 Pikes Peak Open Wheel division. This car is a 1981 Coyote with a 430cid Chevy engine.

Photo:Larry Buche

Most of the Pikes Peak open wheel division cars are rear-engined. Here’s Stan Kossen in his Chevy powered car. These and more photos can be found at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
home page

Photo:Larry Buche

Although not rear-engined, the Dowker Roadster shared the advantage of having a lower center-of-gravity due to it’s offset engine, and dominated in the late 70′s until it too was “legislated”. Shown is Steve Chassey at Toldeo, Ohio, 1979.

Photo:JCRoche

Sprint Racing links:
USAC — World of Outlaws — Hoseheads — TJ Slideways — Jakes Site

April ’98–special thanks to Paul VanValkenburgh for the mention in Racecar Engineering!

An Unofficial History of the CART/Indy Split

admin — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 21:04:38 +0000

Since the mid 90′s, Indy-Champ car racing has attracted a lot of attention on the issue of a philosophical and business split between two sides… those on the side of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and those on the side of the CART/CCWS series. The following is intended to be a timeline of significant events related to the split between CART and Indy. I’m humbly NOT claiming to be an expert historian: just consider this page as a general guide. I’ve tried to list each event without bias or opinion toward either side. Over the years I’ve attended USAC, CART, and IRL races at Trenton, Pocono, Meadowlands, Dover, and Nazareth..

Pre-WWII: The Indianapolis 500 is the biggest race in America and as part of the National Championship is sanctioned by the American Automobile Association (AAA).

1944: The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) which specializes in sports car road racing is formed in Boston.

Nov 1945: Indiana businessman Tony Hulman purchases the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) and revives The 500 which had ceased during the war.

1948: The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) which specializes in stock car racing is formed in Daytona Beach.

June 1955: An accident kills 80 spectators at LeMans. As a result, the AAA soon after announces that it will no longer sanction auto races after 1955. In September, Tony Hulman helps form the United States Auto Club (USAC) to fill the void.

1956: First year of the USAC sanctioned National Championship.

Late 50′s-early 60′s: The USAC “Championship Trail” consists of front-engined Champ/Big cars, Sprint cars, and Midgets racing on paved and dirt oval tracks throughout the country. The participants of the 500 are made up largely of drivers from this series.

March 1965: Season-opener at Phoenix is the last win by a front-engined Roadster on pavement. From now all Championship races on paved tracks are won by rear-engined cars.

May 1965: First win for a rear engine car at the 500 by Scotland’s Jim Clark in a Lotus.

Late 60′s: Championship races at paved tracks with rear-engined cars start to become much more popular than the dirt track Champ races.

1971: USAC splits the National Championship Trail which had been a combination of paved and dirt tracks, into separate Paved speedway (Gold crown) and Dirt (Silver crown) Championships.

Early 70′s: SCCA F5000 becomes moderately successful as a formula car road racing series. Many Indy and F1 regulars participate in the series.

1974: USAC bans rear-engined sprint cars which remain front-engined to this day.

1974-75: USAC enters into co-sanctioning the F5000 series with the SCCA, but pull out after two years.

Mid 70′s: Champ car owners become increasingly dissatisfied with USAC’s series management.

1976: F5000, in decline, drops open wheel configuration and becomes “new-era” Can-Am with full-bodied chassis. (The original Can-Am had ceased in 1974)

Oct 1977: Tony Hulman RIP.

Early 1978: Dan Gurney writes a white paper proposal for a new organization uniting the car owners into a single entity. He suggests calling it “Championship Auto Racing Teams” or “CART”. The Long Beach Grand Prix (founded by promoter Chris Pook) is mentioned in the document.

April 1978: Plane crash kills 8 top USAC officials returning from Trenton.

Nov 1978: Several team owners submit a proposal to USAC for a new 12-person board (6 reps from USAC and 6 from the teams) to govern Champ car racing. USAC rejects it. Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) is formed by Roger Penske, Pat Patrick, and other team owners in response.

Mar 1979: CART, sanctioned by the SCCA, holds first race at Phoenix.

April 1979: CART teams submit entries to the 500 and IMS rejects them. CART takes them to court, and the judge orders IMS to accept the entries. The next year, IMS makes it clear that the 500 is by invitation only.

Nov 1979: After aquiring series sponsor PPG, the CART series is renamed “PPG Indy Car World Series”. This is the first time the cars are officially called “Indy cars” instead of “Champ cars”.

1979-1981: Tracks in the series quickly switch allegiance from USAC to CART.

April 1980: USAC and CART’s brief compromise: the Championship Racing League (CRL) is formed with the intention of combining the series and running it jointly.

July 1980: IMS expresses dissatisfaction with the CRL and announces they may accept bids from other sanctioning bodies for the ’81 500. USAC promptly pulls out of the CRL. Penske and Patrick, who had been given seats on the USAC board, are voted off. They re-focus their efforts on CART.

Aug 1981: Pocono is the last holdout for USAC Champ/Indy cars outside of IMS. CART teams do not participate in the race, and so Silver Crown (dirt) cars are used to flesh out the field. Pocono switches to CART the next year, and the 500 becomes the only USAC sanctioned Champ/Indy car race.

Mid 1980′s: CART grows while absorbing teams from now-defunct Can-Am and begins adding a substantial number of road and street races to the schedule.

Late 80′s: CART’s slower growth compared to NASCAR’s, as well as increasing non-American drivers and cars starts to draw criticism.

Jan 1990: Tony George, age 30, grandson of Tony Hulman becomes president of IMS

Nov 1991: George proposes to the CART board a new structure for Indy car racing to be called Indy Car Inc. It entails replacing the existing board of 24 car owners with a 5 person commission whose members are selected by IMS, with Leo Mehl serving as commissioner. CART rejects it.

Feb 1992: CART licenses the name “IndyCar” from IMS, while Tony George incorporates “Indy Car Inc”.

Mid 1992: Tony George offered a voting seat on the CART board. He refuses it on his assertion that only one vote is not representative of what he feels the 500 is worth to the overall series. He accepts a non-voting seat.

May 1993: Emerson Fittipaldi refuses traditional milk drink after winning the 500 and substitutes orange juice, drawing much criticism.

Late 1993: George increasingly states concerns over the lack of promoters and track owners voice in IndyCar (CART) decisions, and that the 500 is becoming less significant in the IndyCar (CART) series. Meanwhile, former Indiana sprint-car ace Jeff Gordon becomes NASCAR rookie of the year.

Jan 1994: Englishman Andrew Craig (with sports marketing background) is placed as IndyCar (CART) President with intentions to expand the series beyond it’s traditional base. George immediately resigns IndyCar (CART) board seat in protest.

Mar 1994: George announces early plans for what will be the Indy Racing League (IRL) publicly stating that Indy car racing should “be more like NASCAR”. (ESPN’s Speedweek)

Aug 1994: Inaugural Brickyard 400 with NASCAR is the first major non-Indy car race held at IMS. Jeff Gordon wins.

Dec 1994: After previously announcing a 2.2L turbo engine spec, IRL announces a set of chassis specs with critical differences from IndyCar (CART) specs. CART teams protest.

July 1995: IRL announces 25/8 rule: 25 spots in the 500 are essentially reserved for IRL regulars. Tony George would later explain his reasons in a letter to the StarNews.

Sept 1995: Due to the 25/8 rule and considering the IRL as a competing series, most IndyCar (CART) teams refuse to participate in the IRL and annouce the US500 protest race to take place at Michigan opposite the 1996 Indy 500. The race will include a $1 million prize and a new version of the Vanderbilt Cup.

Jan 1996: IRL, sanctioned by USAC, holds first race in Orlando, Fla.

May 26, 1996: Indy 500 and U.S. 500

Aug 1996: Though using existing turbo Indy cars for it’s first season, IRL unveils the first-generation cars to be used starting with the 1997 season, using a 4.0L naturally aspirated engine and a chassis with several dimensions different from CART specs. IRL and CART’s cars are now incompatible and cannot reasonably be used in either series.

Dec 1996: In a trademark dispute, CART agrees to drop the “IndyCar” mark after IMS sues. As part of the agreement, IMS cannot use “IndyCar” for 6 years until 12/31/02.

July 1997: IRL drops USAC sanctioning after timing/scoring errors occur during Texas Speedway race. Talks are held later in the year to align USAC with NASCAR but it doesn’t happen.

Oct 1997: Former USAC sprint-car champion Tony Stewart becomes IRL champion.

Dec 1997: FedEx replaces PPG as CART’s main sponsor, and the series is renamed the “FedEx Championship Series”. The cars are officially renamed as “Champ cars” which they were originally called in the 70′s when CART was formed.

Mar 1998: CART becomes a publicly-traded stock company on the NYSE with an IPO.

Oct-Nov 1998: CART engine manufacturers submit a proposal to IMS for a common engine spec to help bridge the 2 series. One month later IMS announces an already-planned revised IRL engine spec for it’s second-generation cars, but does not allow sealed/leased engines, which the CART manufacturers insist upon.

Dec 1998: IMS announces USGP F1 race to be held at the Speedway in 2000.

Late 90′s: Attendance at IRL and CART oval races start to significantly decline as CART road-race attendance grows.

June 1999: IMS is very close to taking the Indy 500 to the FOX network, when new ABC sports president Howard Katz signs a last-minute TV deal with them.

Summer 1999: Various parties to CART and IMS hold talks over several months to try to reach an agreement for a unified series. In Sept, Tony George decides to keep the IRL independant.

Late 1999: Former Indiana sprint-car ace (and former IRL champion) Tony Stewart becomes NASCAR rookie of the year.

May 2000: Target Chip Ganassi is the first and only major CART team to field an entry in the 500 in 5 years. Driver Juan Montoya wins.

Oct 2000: CART now awards the Vanderbilt Cup as the trophy for the series Championship instead of just for the US500. Gil DeFerran (driving for Penske) is the 2000 winner.

Nov 2000: Joe Heitzler (with TV sports background) becomes new CART president. Bobby Rahal had been interim president after Andrew Craig had resigned several months prior.

May 2001: More CART regulars participate in the Indy 500 and take the top 6 finishing spots, including the win by Penske driver Helio Castroneves.

Summer 2001: CART executes a number of major missteps including cancelled races and officiating errors. Soonafter, Toyota and Honda announce they will leave the series. Ford will be their only engine manufacturer backing.

Nov-Dec 2001: Roger Penske, CART co-founder, and owner of the reigning 2001 champion team, leaves CART for the IRL. LBGP founder Chris Pook becomes president of CART after Joe Heitzler is removed after only one year.

Feb 2002: CART announces specs for 2003. Chassis tub specs and a similar NA 3.5L engine will be generally compliant with those used in the IRL. Soonafter, the IRL enacts exclusivity agreements with their chassis suppliers. CART later reverts to their old chassis specs to be used with the 3.5L engine. In June, CART drops the plans for the 3.5L engine and announces it will continue with the 2.65L turbo.

May 2002: Honda announces that it will compete in the IRL in 2003, and host an IRL race at Motegi in Japan. Toyota and Honda have both left CART and joined the IRL. Nissan announces it will withdraw from the IRL after 2002.

Summer-Fall 2002: Oval races for both IRL and CART are lagging in attendance, though CART’s road/street attendance remains stronger. CART starts dropping ovals from it’s schedule plans. Increasing numbers of CART teams announce they will run cars, either exclusively or concurrently, in the IRL. Incentives from Toyota and Honda are a big motivator.

Jan 2003: IRL changes the name of it’s top series to “IndyCar” after the 6 year waiting period ends. Days later, CART changes the name of it’s top series to “Champ Car World Series” to emphasize the term “Champ Car”

May 2003: The number of entrants for Indy drops to the point where there are just enough participants to make a traditional 33-car field. “Bubble Day” becomes “Fill Day”.

Dec 2003: After exhausting it’s IPO cash reserves to maintain the 2003 season, CART declares bankruptcy.

Jan 2004: A group of team owners buy the remainder of CART’s assets and take the once-public company private. They will continue the series under the name of “Champ Car World Series”.

Fall 2005: Chevrolet and Toyota announce they will no longer participate in the IRL, leaving only Honda. Now both series have respectively one engine manufacturer.

Spring 2006: CCWS announce a new chassis, the DP01. For the first time it will use a single-supplier spec chassis, intending to cut costs and improve the overall competition with favorable aerodynamics.

August 2006: CCWS runs it’s last oval race, at the Milwaukee Mile. It is now an all road/street series. Meanwhile, the IRL is examining and adding additional road/street races, some of which were previously CART events.

Summer 2007: CCWS runs increasingly more foreign races, while IRL runs more road/street circuits.

Fall 2007: IRL’s current Indy/series champion Dario Franchitti and multiple Indy/series champion Sam Hornish both switch to NASCAR. Other former Indy winners in NASCAR include Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Montoya.

Feb 22, 2008: IRL and CCWS complete a merger agreement.

Thanks to CAR & DRIVER for the mention in the Mar 2004 issue