2008 Champ Car season

The 2008 Champ Car World Series season would have been the 30th season of the series and the fifth instance of the Champ Car World Series. It was scheduled to begin on April 20, 2008, and end on November 9 had the open-wheel unification not occurred. The season, with the sole exception of the Long Beach Grand Prix (won by Will Power), was canceled on February 21, 2008, because of the buyout of Champ Car by the rival IndyCar.[1]

2008 Champ Car season
Champ Car World Series
2008 Champ Car season
Season
Races14
Start dateApril 20
End dateNovember 9
Awards

The Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton and the Gold Coast Indy 300 were retained and transferred to the IndyCar Series schedule.[1] The schedule included what would have been the first Monterey Grand Prix since 2004 and the supposed debut of the Champ Car Grand Prix of Spain. Some of the Champ Car races were scrapped.

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

Races

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

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

References
  1. "2008 IRL IndyCar Series". Champ Car Stats. Archived from the original on 2009-05-28. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  2. "Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal To Make Up Newman/Haas/Lanigan Lineup". champcarworldseries.com. 2008-01-29. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  3. "Rocketsports Signs Former F1 Driver". champcarworldseries.com. 2008-01-28. Archived from the original on 4 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  4. "Oriol Servià Signs With PKV". champcarworldseries.com. 2008-01-05. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  5. "Conquest Racing Confirms Atlantic's 'Fearless' Franck Perera For 2008 Champ Car World Series Season". champcarworldseries.com. 2008-02-06. Archived from the original on 4 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
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