Grand Prix of Houston
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The Grand Prix of Houston is an annual auto race on the Champ Car World Series circuit. It is held in Houston, Texas, on a temporary course laid out in the parking lot of the Reliant Park Complex. The 2007 event is scheduled for April 22. It will be the third event of the Champ Car season.
From 1998 to 2001, CART (Champ Car's predecessor series) held a race on Houston's downtown streets, adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center. This event was sponsored by the oil company Texaco, and named the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston. However, construction in downtown Houston resulted in the race not being renewed for the 2002 Champ Car season. In 2005, the Champ Car World Series announced that it would be making a return to Houston in 2006; for some time, series directors had wanted to make a return to the city. The 2006 event was held on May 13 as the second round of the 2006 Champ Car schedule. However, this time the race was held on a 1.7-mile temporary street circuit on the Reliant Park complex instead of the downtown streets and was the first race held on a street course to run at night in the history of Champ Car or its precursor series (in 2003 and 2004, Champ Car ran under the lights at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio). Also, the American Le Mans Series held an event, the Lone Star Grand Prix, on the previous night, marking only the second time Champ Car and American Le Mans promoted their own events in the same city on the same weekend (they joined in 2003 for the Grand Prix Americas in Miami, Florida). For 2007, JAG Flocomponents picked up the naming rights to the previously unnamed street course, naming it JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park.
[edit] Unique Features
A unique feature of the 2006 Grand Prix of Houston was the Champ Car paddock, which was located inside Reliant Arena. The Newman/Haas, RuSPORT, Dale Coyne, and Team Australia haulers were on the northern side, while the Forsythe, Rocketsports, PKV, and CTE-HVM teams were on the southern side.
A round of the popular Face of Champ Car beauty contest was also held during the Grand Prix weekend. Current Face of Champ Car Brandi Latimer had a visible presence at the circuit, and Brooke Adams won the Houston round of the contest. Adams, along with the winners of contests at Long Beach (Holly Weber), Cleveland, Toronto, Edmonton, San Jose, Denver, Surfers Paradise, and Mexico City, will compete to become the 2006 Face of Champ Car.
[edit] Race Winners
| Season | Date | Winning Driver | Team | Chassis | Engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | October 4 |  Dario Franchitti |
Team KOOL Green | Reynard | Honda |
| 1999 | June 26 |  Paul Tracy |
Team KOOL Green | Reynard | Honda |
| 2000 | October 1 |  Jimmy Vasser |
Target Chip Ganassi Racing | Lola | Toyota |
| 2001 | October 7 |  Gil de Ferran |
Penske Racing | Reynard | Honda |
| 2006 | May 13 |  Sébastien Bourdais |
Newman/Haas Racing | Lola | Ford Cosworth |
[edit] External links
| 2007 Champ Car World Series | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/H/L | Forsythe | Minardi | Australia | PKV | RSPORTS | Coyne | PCM | Conquest | |
| 1 Bourdais 2 Rahal |
3 Tracy 7 Dominguez |
4 Clarke 14 Doornbos |
5 Power 15 Pagenaud |
21 Jani 22 Gommendy |
8 Tagliani 9 Wilson |
11 Legge 19 Junqueira |
28 Dalziel 29 Figge |
42 Halliday | |
| Las Vegas - Long Beach - Houston - Portland - Cleveland - Mont-Tremblant - Toronto - Edmonton - San Jose - Road America - Assen - Zolder - Surfers Paradise - Zhuhai - Mexico City - Phoenix | |||||||||
| Tracks of the Champ Car World Series |
|---|
| Current Tracks (2007)
Assen • Cleveland • Edmonton • Houston • Las Vegas • Long Beach • Mexico City • Mont-Tremblant • Phoenix • Portland • Road America • San Jose • Surfers Paradise • Toronto • Zhuhai • Zolder Former Tracks (Ovals) Former Tracks (Road Courses) Former Tracks (International) |
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