ALMS to replace Trans-Am at Long Beach?

AutoRacing1.com heard this past weekend in San Jose that there may be just two races that Champ Car and ALMS run together in 2006, Long Beach and Sebring. Whether there is more as originally thought remains to be seen. If ALMS is added to the Long Beach card, is there enough hours in the day to also run Trans-Am?

This Long Beach Press Telegram article says, The 32nd running of the LBGP on April 9 won't look too much different from this year's race. Expect the race to include:

* The Champ Car World Series. The organization formerly known as CART will be back, although questions remain whether four-time race winner Paul Tracy will return. He told the media at the San Jose race that he's testing a Nextel Cup car in hopes to getting into NASCAR.

* Atlantics. Kalkhoven said there's been orders for 20 new Atlantic cars within hours of Saturday's announcement of a $2 million purse for the series champ and a guaranteed Champ Car ride for the winner of the development series. It was also announced that Cosworth will supply the engines for the Atlantic cars, which had been powered and sponsored by Toyota.

* Formula D. The drifting series impressed crowds again in San Jose just like it did for the first time on a street course in Long Beach.

The two remaining question marks are whether Toyota will return as a title sponsor and what sports car series will make its way to Long Beach.

It's expected that Toyota which has been the title sponsor since 1980 will re-up. Les Unger, Toyota's national sports manager, said recently that he expects an announcement to be made within the next several weeks.

Trans-Am may not be so lucky. The series fielded only 11 cars with the rest of 22-car field at the LBGP made up of fillers. The LBGP may be looking for a series that has more of a following and auto manufacturer support, like the American Le Mans Series or the Speed World Challenge.

But those are relatively minor issues compared to a time when Unger uttered the following 11-word sentence with regularity a couple years back to reassure fans. "There will always be a Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach."

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