Champ Car returns with an image overhaul

The Champ Car World Series returns to Long Beach for its annual April race Sunday, but the series otherwise is heading in unfamiliar directions.

With hopes all but dashed that Champ Car might reunite with the Indy Racing League in a single U.S. open-wheel racing series, Champ Car is pursuing an independent course with six new U.S. and foreign venues, several rookie drivers and a new race car.

Champ Car hopes its unique identity, combined with a new television contract, will broaden the series' less-than-widespread following. It is banking on 16 races, all on road courses or temporary street circuits like Long Beach.

"We are not a mainstream sport in the United States, but we are worldwide," said Champ Car President Steve Johnson. "We're in a position now where we're able to control our own destiny. We're going to prove we have some of the best racing, and most competitive racing, we've ever had."

The open-wheel series once known as CART split 11 years ago when the IRL split off, leaving what is now Champ Car as the other series.

The series' owners talked last year about merging, a move many observers believe is the only way to restore the popularity of open-wheel racing. But "there are no discussions going on right now," Johnson said. More at LA Times