2006 Champ Car World Series season
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The 2006 Champ Car World Series season was the twenty-eighth Champ Car World Series, however only its third season under the Champ Car title. It began on April 9, 2006 and ended on November 12 after 14 races.
Contents |
[edit] Drivers and Teams
The following teams and drivers competed during the 2006 Champ Car World Series.
[edit] Driver changes
Newman/Haas Racing retain their 2005 Series Champion Sébastien Bourdais for this season, who is re-joined by Bruno Junqueira, who began the 2005 season with Newman-Haas but was replaced by Oriol Servià after sustaining a season-ending back injury in the 2005 Indianapolis 500. Oriol Servià, in turn, joins PKV Racing, replacing Cristiano da Matta alongside newcomer Katherine Legge, a 2005 Champ Car Atlantic Championship graduate who will be the first woman to ever attempt an entire season of Champ Car racing. Team Co-Owner Jimmy Vasser will also be making several appearances in a third team car at several events during the year. Forsythe Championship Racing retain both Paul Tracy & Mario Domínguez for 2006, while RuSPORT also keep both Justin Wilson & A. J. Allmendinger from 2005
Team Australia have the same drivers that they ended the 2005 season with, retaining Alex Tagliani & Will Power. Mi-Jack Conquest Racing keep Andrew Ranger from 2005, who is joined by Charles Zwolsman, the 2005 Champ Car Atlantic Championship series champion. Rocketsports Racing is now a one-car team, losing both 2005 Champ Car Rookie Of The Year Timo Glock and Michael McDowell, but gaining the talented Brazilian Antônio Pizzonia from WilliamsF1. However, it isn't known how long this will last.
CTE-HVM Racing has two new drivers after using four last year, with Dan Clarke debuting with Nelson Philippe as his team-mate. Dale Coyne Racing have picked up the biggest wild card for 2006, signing two-time series champion Cristiano da Matta as number one driver alongside debutant, Belgian Jan Heylen.
[edit] Mid-season changes
- Antônio Pizzonia is conducting a limited programme for Rocketsports Racing. Nicky Pastorelli, who was confirmed as several months ago as Midland F1 Racing's first "third" driver only to have one of his primary backers fall through, was testing for Rocketsports at the Portland test and is believed to have out-bid Pizzonia for the seat following the Long Beach round, however Pizzonia is to drive the #18 Rocketsports car in Montreal replacing Tõnis Kasemets who continues to drive selected rounds, after he in turn made his debut at the Portland event.
- Following the race at the Milwaukee Mile, A. J. Allmendinger left the RuSPORT team to be replaced by Cristiano da Matta, who moves across from Dale Coyne Racing. Also in the weeks following the Milwaukee event, Mario Domínguez left the Forsythe Racing team by mutual consent to take the vacant Coyne drive and Allmendinger replaced him at Forsythe.
- At the Toronto event, it was reported that Nicky Pastorelli had run out of sponsorship dollars. Rocketsports failed to run his car that weekend however he returned for the subsequent round in Edmonton.
- Cristiano da Matta was seriously injured after colliding with a deer during testing at Road America. RuSPORT raced in Denver with one car (Justin Wilson) and the replacement is yet to be announced.
- Mario Domínguez leaves Dale Coyne Racing before the Elkhart Lake race weekend to drive for Rocketsports Racing.
- Former European F3000 driver and one-time Minardi F1 test driver, Uruguayan Juan Cáceres replaced Domínguez at Dale Coyne Racing in the #19 at Elkhart Lake. German Andreas Wirth will replace Cáceres in the #19 at Surfer's Paradise.
- Following the Surfer's Paradise race, A.J. Allmendinger announced his intention to drive in NASCAR commencing with the 2007 season. He was immediately dropped by the Forsythe team and replaced by Buddy Rice for the final race of the season.
- Paul Tracy will miss the final round in Mexico City [1] after receiving a shoulder injury while attempting to jump sand dunes riding a golf cart [2]. He will be replaced by David Martínez who had already been signed to drive an extra car for Forsythe in Mexico.
[edit] Grands Prix
[edit] Full series results
[edit] Races
[edit] Drivers
Point Scoring System:
- 1st - 20th = 31-27-25-23-21-19-17-15-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Bonus Points:
- 1 For Fastest Race Lap
- 1 For Fastest Friday Qualifying Lap
- 1 For Fastest Saturday Qualifying Lap
- 1 For Leading A Lap Of The Race
- 1 For Most Positions Gained From Starting Position (in the event of tie, the better-placed driver gets the point. In Toronto Will Power moved from 12th to 7th and Charles Zwolsman from 14th to 9th, so point was given to Power)
The most points a single driver can earn in a single race is 35.
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-Notes-
- Mario Domínguez was docked 7 points for causing an avoidable crash in Milwaukee
- Paul Tracy was docked 7 points for causing an avoidable crash in San Jose
- Paul Tracy was once again docked 3 point for causing an avoidable crash in Denver
[edit] Nation's Cup
- Top result per race counts towards the nations cup
| Pos | Country | LBH  |
HOU |
MTY  |
MIL |
POR |
CLE |
TOR  |
EDM |
SAN |
DEN |
MTL |
ROA |
SUR  |
MEX |
Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  France |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 397 |
| 2 |  United Kingdom |
2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Ret | 2 | 331 |
| 3 | United States |
Ret | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 1 | Ret | 1 | Ret | 10 | 292 |
| 3 | Canada |
3 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 5 | Ret | 6 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 292 |
| 5 |  Brazil |
5 | 9 | 9 | Ret | 4 | 2 | 5 | Ret | 2 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 266 |
| 6 | Australia |
9 | 7 | 11 | Ret | 18 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 11 | 3 | 209 |
| 7 | Mexico |
4 | 3 | 6 | Ret1 | 14 | 6 | 11 | 8 | 6 | Ret | 10 | 12 | 2 | 9 | 209 |
| 8 |  Spain |
Ret | Ret | 8 | 5 | 10 | 3 | Ret | 4 | 8 | Ret | Ret | 4 | Ret | 6 | 192 |
| 9 |  Netherlands |
Ret | Ret | 12 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 163 |
| 10 | .svg/22px-Flag_of_Belgium_(civil).svg.png){kind=small} Belgium |
7 | 13 | 16 | Ret | 15 | 5 | Ret | Ret | 11 | 11 | 9 | 9 | Ret | 13 | 137 |
| 11 |  Estonia |
16 | 12 | Ret | 11 | Ret | 34 | |||||||||
| 12 |  Germany |
9 | 15 | 19 | ||||||||||||
| 12 |  Uruguay |
15 | 6 | |||||||||||||
| Pos | Country | LBH |
HOU |
MTY |
MIL |
POR |
CLE |
TOR |
EDM |
SAN |
DEN |
MTL |
ROA |
SUR |
MEX |
Points |
-Notes-
- Mexico were penalized 7 points as a result of a penalty applied to Mario Domínguez in Milwaukee
[edit] Driver Breakdown
| Pos | Driver | Team | Entries | Wins | Podiums | Top 5 | Top 10 | Poles | Laps Led | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bourdais |
Newman-Haas Racing |
14 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 7 | 512 | 387 |
| 2 | Wilson |
RuSPORT |
13 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 2 | 172 | 298 |
| 3 | Allmendinger |
Forsythe Racing RuSPORT |
13 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 246 | 285 |
| 4 | Philippe |
CTE Racing - HVM |
14 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -- | 65 | 231 |
| 5 | Junqueira |
Newman-Haas Racing |
14 | -- | 3 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 37 | 219 |
| 6 | Power (R) |
Team Australia |
14 | -- | 1 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 14 | 213 |
| 7 | Tracy |
Forsythe Racing |
13 | -- | 3 | 4 | 9 | -- | 5 | 208 |
| 8 | Tagliani |
Team Australia |
14 | -- | 2 | 5 | 7 | -- | 19 | 205 |
| 9 | Domínguez |
Rocketsports Racing Dale Coyne Racing Forsythe Racing |
14 | -- | 2 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 64 | 201 |
| 10 | Ranger |
Mi-Jack Conquest Racing |
14 | -- | -- | 1 | 10 | -- | -- | 200 |
| 11 | Servià |
PKV Racing |
14 | -- | 1 | 4 | 8 | -- | 51 | 196 |
| 12 | Clarke (R) |
CTE Racing - HVM |
14 | -- | 1 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 175 |
| 13 | Zwolsman (R) |
Mi-Jack Conquest Racing |
14 | -- | -- | -- | 8 | -- | 16 | 161 |
| 14 | Heylen (R) |
Dale Coyne Racing |
14 | -- | -- | 1 | 4 | -- | 11 | 140 |
| 15 | da Matta |
RuSPORT Dale Coyne Racing |
9 | -- | 1 | 4 | 6 | -- | -- | 134 |
| 16 | Legge (R) |
PKV Racing |
14 | -- | -- | -- | 4 | -- | 12 | 133 |
| 17 | Pastorelli (R) |
Rocketsports Racing |
9 | -- | -- | -- | 3 | -- | -- | 73 |
| 18 | Pizzonia (R) |
Rocketsports Racing |
4 | -- | -- | -- | 2 | -- | 10 | 43 |
| 19 | Kasemets (R) |
Rocketsports Racing |
5 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 34 |
| 20 | Wirth (R) |
Dale Coyne Racing |
2 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 19 |
| 21 | Briscoe (R) |
RuSPORT |
2 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 17 |
| 22 | Martinez (R) |
Forsythe Racing |
1 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 13 |
| 23 | Rice (R) |
Forsythe Racing |
1 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 11 |
| 24 | Vasser |
PKV Racing |
1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 7 |
| 25 | Cáceres (R) |
Dale Coyne Racing |
1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 6 |
[edit] Rumours and speculation
[edit] Drivers
- Paul Tracy has signed a 5 year deal with Forsythe Championship Racing that will take him through to the 2011 season, when he will be 43 years old. This squashes any rumours of a possible move to NASCAR next season.
- Justin Wilson was injured in qualifying for the Surfer's Paradise round, breaking the Scaphoid bone in his right wrist. He didn't race in the event. Adam Carroll is on stand-by to replace him in Mexico City [3].
[edit] Races
- At the time of the West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix of Edmonton, it was confirmed the Grand Prix of Ansan would not be held again this year.
[edit] Series
- Rumours flying around in Houston are that a merger between Champ Car & IRL to form a single open-wheel racing series will be announced later in the month at the Indy 500. Nothing has been confirmed as yet but the rumours have been fuelled by Kevin Kalkhoven (Co-Owner of Champ Car) visiting Indianapolis to view practice for the Indy 500 and Tony George (Owner of IRL & the Indianapolis Motor Speedway visiting Houston on Saturday to view Champ Car qualifying and the ALMS race.
[edit] Notes
-Round 2-
- Jimmy Vasser (PKV Racing #12) did not compete in Round 2.
- Nicky Pastorelli replaces Antônio Pizzonia in the Rocketsports Racing #8 car from Round 2 onwards.
-Round 4-
- Mario Domínguez was penalized 7 points for causing avoidable contact in the race at the Milwaukee Mile. [4]
-Round 9-
- The first all-American Champ Car Panoz DP01 is launched on the weekend of the San Jose Grand Prix. Every team in the Champ Car World Series will be using the chassis next year.
- In San Jose, it was announced that Atlantic Series team Gelles Racing would run a two-car operation in next years Champ Car World Series.
- Paul Tracy was penalized 7 points and fined an undisclosed amount for causing avoidable contact and bringing the sport into disrepute for his part in the accident and shoving match with Alex Tagliani. He was also placed on probation for 3 races (Denver, Montreal & Road America). Tagliani was also fined an undisclosed amount.
-Round 10-
- Cristiano Da Matta is in a medically induced coma after a testing accident at Road America between San Jose & Denver in which he hit a deer on track. As a result, RuSPORT will only run the car of Justin Wilson for the Denver round.
- Paul Tracy was penalised 3 points and fined US$25,000 for causing avoidable contact for his part in the accident with Sébastien Bourdais. His probation was also extended to include Surfer's Paradise. Bourdais was not assessed a penalty.
[edit] External links
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