No end in sight for IndyCar-Champ Car rift

HOUSTON, Texas — Allow us for a moment to imagine how things should be. Three-time champion Sebastien Bourdais, trying to earn an unprecedented fourth consecutive Champ Car title, would test his amazing road-racing skills against Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon this weekend in the Houston Grand Prix.

Or, if you prefer, oval-racing master Sam Hornish Jr. and IndyCar Series star Dan Wheldon would see how they fare against Bourdais and Will Power in the Indy Japan 300 on the super-fast track at Motegi.

And wouldn't it be fun to compare Britain's Katherine Legge to Danica Patrick?

Or how about young stars in the making, with the famous last names — Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal — carrying on their family legacy against each other?

It's a Xanadu for American open-wheel racing fans, but we can't see it. This is not a perfect world. Far from it.

Champ Car and the Indy Racing League remain separate and competing series, as they have been for more than a decade.

"This split has been going on forever," Bourdais said Friday. "But we all know there's only room for one series when we have two. We need to be one, but those are things I don't have control over, so I've stopped worrying about it."

In April 2006, there were encouraging signs that the rival leagues finally would come together in some fashion. Champ Car co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven and IRL founder Tony George were talking and trying to find a solution.

Kalkhoven said at the '06 Houston event that he was optimistic something would work out. One year later, the two leagues are far apart again. A merger of any kind isn't even on the radar screen.

What happened? "You have two people [George and Kalkhoven] who don't want to give up their 51 percent [ownership] for decision-making," said Rahal, who is clearly wise beyond his 18 years. "And you've got Tony, who in my opinion is a little bit caught in the mind-set that his series is OK." More at ESPN.com