Champ Car Starting Year With No Cars Subsidized By Series

Champ Car To Start ’07 Season With 18 Non-Subsidized Entries

The Champ Car World Series begins its ’07 season this weekend with 18 cars, the same number as the past four years, but Champ Car investor Kevin Kalkhoven said that “none of those entries are tapping the sanctioning body for subsidies,” according to John Oreovicz of ESPN.com. Kalkhoven said, “This year we have new cars, we have new teams and we have a series that is not being subsidized. This series is here for the long-term.” Oreovicz noted the schedule is “heavily revised” with six new races, including Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. The circuit “once again will try to crack the European market,” holding races in Belgium and the Netherlands, and it is making its first foray into China. Kalkhoven: “We have more new races than historically we have ever had. It’s a sign of the strength of the series, not the weakness, and we’re looking at new dates already for ’08 and ’09.” Oreovicz noted while the series will race for three straight weeks to start the year, there is a six-week layoff before a June 10 race in Portland. There is also “likely to be another six-week gap in the fall, and the season drags on” until December 2 (ESPN.com, 4/1).