Champ Car is back to Long Beach start
The Champ Car World Series will return to opening its season in Long Beach next year after a short-lived attempt to launch the auto racing series’ schedule in Las Vegas.
The series Monday unveiled a 14-race schedule for 2008 starting with the 34th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 20. The race is held on a 1.97-mile temporary street course in the city.
Champ Car opened its season this year on a temporary street course in downtown Las Vegas. The same group that promoted that race also planned a similar race on Dec. 2 in Phoenix.
But in August the promoters called off the Phoenix race because of lack of sponsorship. That ended Champ Car’s interest in another Las Vegas race as well, said Champ Car President Steve Johnson.
“We’re not prepared to work with them again,” Johnson said Monday. “We did consider different options for returning to Vegas in ‘08, but the tight timetable just didn’t allow this to happen.”
The U.S. open-wheel racing series once known as CART was divided 11 years ago when the Indy Racing League was formed, leaving what is now Champ Car as the other series. Champ Car’s 2008 schedule includes six races on U.S. courses, three in Canada, one in Mexico (the series ends this season Sunday in Mexico City), one in Australia and three in Europe. The U.S. portion will move the series’ race in San Jose to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, and the European swing has a new race in Jerez, Spain.
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