Champ Car and IRL end war and confirm merger

Posted on

| Written by

The Champ Car World Series and Indy Racing League have ended a rift that has lasted over a decade and issued a statement that the two championships are to merge.

The full details of the merge are not yet known, including what the series will be called, how many teams will participate, and what races will be on the calendar.

The IRL Dallara chassis and Honda engines will be used. The calendar is expected to feature the majority of the IRL venues: The Champ Car rounds planned for Long Beach, Edmonton and Surfer’s Paradise are expected to be added to the existing IRL calendar, with some arrangement put in place to resolve the clash between the Long Beach race and the Motegi rounds currently scheduled for the same day.

The rift dates back to 1995 when a group of teams left the former CART Indy Car championship to form a new series called the Indy Racing League. The group lead by Indianapolis owner Tony George took the prestigious Indianapolis 500 with them.

Over time the IRL has become proportionally stronger compared to Champ Car, but both have plunged in popularity and wealth compared to NASCAR. Many of the series’ top drivers have left the sport, most going to the stock car series that now dominated American motor sports coverage.

Hopefully this reconciliation is the first step towards the redevelopment of open-wheel racing in America. But it will be a long time before we can expect that to be achieved.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

2 comments on “Champ Car and IRL end war and confirm merger”

  1. I fear that this is too late to save open wheel racing in North America. I defected to F1 years ago because racing on ovals all the time is not what open wheel racing is about. For the new series to compete it needs its best drivers back and they need to have just as many road races (or more) then ovals. But still the best race I ever saw was the Michigan 500 1992. Still have it on tape and watch it every so often.

  2. I’m happy for the merger but I think there’s too much emphasis on the IRL side of it.

    Champ Car was the superior series, with the more interesting car (IRL Dallaras look seriously dated) and more interesting schedule. They were also starting to have quite a bit of success in expanding into Europe, and I wonder if quite a few promoters have now lost their investments.

    Maybe IRL will work push-to-pass into their road races, and change their habit of calling full-course cautions on every bump, because quite frankly, IRL road races suck.

Comments are closed.