| 2006 Champ Car season | |
|---|---|
| Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford | |
| Season | |
| Races | 14 |
| Start date | April 9 |
| End date | November 12 |
| Awards | |
| Drivers' champion | Sébastien Bourdais |
| Nations' Cup | France |
| Rookie of the Year | Will Power |
| Chronology | |
| Previous season | Next season |
| 2005 | 2007 |
The 2006 Champ Car season was the third and penultimate season of the Champ Car World Series era of American open wheel racing. It began on April 9, 2006 in Long Beach, California and ended on November 12 in Mexico City, Mexico after 14 races. The Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford Drivers' Champion was Sébastien Bourdais, his third consecutive championship. He was the first driver to win three American open wheel National Championships in a row since Ted Horn in 1948. The Rookie of the Year was Will Power.
Contents |
The 2.65 liter turbo V8 Ford–Cosworth XFE engine continued to be the exclusive power plant for the series. Bridgestone also continued as the exclusive series tire supplier. The two companies continued the marketing agreement that branded the series Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. All teams ran the Lola B02/00 chassis, the final year these chassis would be run in the series.
The following teams and drivers competed in the 2006 Champ Car World Series season.
| Team | No | Drivers | Races |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newman/Haas Racing | 1 | Sébastien Bourdais | All |
| 2 | Bruno Junqueira | All | |
| Forsythe Racing | 3 | Paul Tracy | 1-13 |
| David Martínez | 14 | ||
| 7 | Mario Domínguez | 1-4 | |
| A. J. Allmendinger | 5-13 | ||
| Buddy Rice | 14 | ||
| CTE Racing-HVM | 4 | Nelson Philippe | All |
| 14 | Dan Clarke | All | |
| Team Australia | 5 | Will Power | All |
| 15 | Alex Tagliani | All | |
| PKV Racing | 6 | Oriol Servià | All |
| 12 | Jimmy Vasser | 1 | |
| 20 | Katherine Legge | All | |
| Rocketsports Racing | 8 | Antônio Pizzonia | 1 |
| Nicky Pastorelli | 2-6, 8-11 | ||
| Mario Domínguez | 12-14 | ||
| 18 | Tõnis Kasemets | 5-8, 12 | |
| Antônio Pizzonia | 11, 13-14 | ||
| RuSPORT | 9 | Justin Wilson | 1-12, 14 |
| 10 | A. J. Allmendinger | 1-4 | |
| Cristiano da Matta | 5-9 | ||
| Ryan Briscoe | 13-14 | ||
| Dale Coyne Racing | 11 | Jan Heylen | All |
| 19 | Cristiano da Matta | 1-4 | |
| Mario Domínguez | 5-11 | ||
| Juan Cáceres | 12 | ||
| Andreas Wirth | 13-14 | ||
| Mi-Jack Conquest Racing | 27 | Andrew Ranger | All |
| 34 | Charles Zwolsman | All |
Newman/Haas Racing retained their 2005 Series Champion Sébastien Bourdais for the season, who was re-joined by Bruno Junqueira, who began the 2005 season with Newman-Haas but was replaced by Oriol Servià after sustaining a season-ending back injury in the 2005 Indianapolis 500. Oriol Servià, in turn, joined PKV Racing, replacing Cristiano da Matta.[1] Joining Servià was newcomer Katherine Legge, a three-time race winner in Champ Car's primary feeder series, the Toyota Atlantic Championship. Legge became the first woman to run a full season of Champ Car racing.[2] PKV co-owner Jimmy Vasser, the 1996 IndyCar champion, drove a third team car at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. While a preseason press release hinted at further appearances in 2006, it was Vasser's only appearance as a driver in a Champ Car until the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the final race contested under Champ Car rules.[3]
Two teams standing pat with their driving lineup for 2006 were Forsythe Championship Racing, retaining Paul Tracy and Mario Domínguez,[4] and RuSPORT with Justin Wilson and A. J. Allmendinger. However, both teams would see changes while the season was still young.
Walker Racing continued its branding as Team Australia and kept the same drivers that they ended the 2005 season with, retaining both Alex Tagliani and Will Power.[5] Mi-Jack Conquest Racing kept Andrew Ranger from their 2005 team. Ranger was joined by Charles Zwolsman, Jr., the 2005 Toyota Atlantic Championship series champion.[6] CTE-HVM Racing signed two new drivers after using four last year, with Nelson Philippe[7] matched up with rookie Dan Clarke as his teammate.[8] Dale Coyne Racing picked up the biggest wild card for 2006, signing 2002 series champion Cristiano da Matta as their number one driver alongside a debutant Belgian, Jan Heylen.[9]
Rocketsports Racing began the year as a one-car team. Former WilliamsF1 driver Antônio Pizzonia signed on with a one-race contract for Long Beach.[10]
The initial 2006 schedule announced by Champ Car on August 13, 2005 contained 15 races.[31] The 15th race was scheduled to take place on a new permanent road course in Ansan, South Korea. The scheduled 2005 race at the track was canceled in September 2005 when the circuit was determined to be unready to host the event. A return to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was also on the initial schedule, but on November 29, 2005 it was announced that the Champ Cars would be returning to Road America after a one year hiatus instead of returning to the banked oval in Vegas.[32] The race schedule shrank back to 14 races in July 2006 when it was announced that the event in Ansan had been canceled yet again.[33] It was the third year in a row a Champ Car event in South Korea failed to materialize.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Point Scoring System:
| Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| Points | 31 | 27 | 25 | 23 | 21 | 19 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Bonus Points:
1 Mario Domínguez was docked 7 points for causing an avoidable crash in Milwaukee
2 Paul Tracy was docked 7 points for causing an avoidable crash in San Jose
3 Paul Tracy was once again docked 3 points for causing an avoidable crash in Denver
| Pos | Country | LBH | HOU | MTY | MIL | POR | CLE | TOR | EDM | SAN | DEN | MTL | ROA | SUR | MEX | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 397 |
| 2 | England | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 15 | 2 | 331 |
| 3 | United States | 14 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 17 | 1 | 16 | 10 | 292 |
| 3 | Canada | 3 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 292 |
| 5 | Brazil | 5 | 9 | 9 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 266 |
| 6 | Mexico | 4 | 3 | 6 | 141 | 14 | 6 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 13 | 10 | 12 | 2 | 9 | 209 |
| 7 | Australia | 9 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 11 | 3 | 209 |
| 8 | Spain | 18 | 12 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 16 | 4 | 13 | 6 | 192 |
| 9 | Netherlands | 12 | 15 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 163 |
| 10 | Belgium | 7 | 13 | 16 | 12 | 15 | 5 | 16 | 16 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 14 | 13 | 137 |
| 11 | Estonia | 16 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 17 | 34 | |||||||||
| 12 | Germany | 9 | 15 | 19 | ||||||||||||
| 12 | Uruguay | 15 | 6 | |||||||||||||
| Pos | Country | LBH | HOU | MTY | MIL | POR | CLE | TOR | EDM | SAN | DEN | MTL | ROA | SUR | MEX | Pts |
1 Mexico were penalized 7 points as a result of a penalty applied to Mario Domínguez in Milwaukee
| Pos | Driver | Team | Entries | Wins | Podiums | Top 5 | Top 10 | Poles | Laps Led | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bourdais | Newman-Haas Racing | 14 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 7 | 512 | 387 |
| 2 | Wilson | RuSPORT | 13 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 2 | 172 | 298 |
| 3 | Allmendinger | Forsythe Racing RuSPORT |
13 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 246 | 285 |
| 4 | Philippe | CTE Racing - HVM | 14 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -- | 65 | 231 |
| 5 | Junqueira | Newman-Haas Racing | 14 | -- | 3 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 37 | 219 |
| 6 | Power (R) | Team Australia | 14 | -- | 1 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 14 | 213 |
| 7 | Tracy | Forsythe Racing | 13 | -- | 3 | 4 | 9 | -- | 5 | 208 |
| 8 | Tagliani | Team Australia | 14 | -- | 2 | 5 | 7 | -- | 19 | 205 |
| 9 | Domínguez | Rocketsports Racing Dale Coyne Racing Forsythe Racing |
14 | -- | 2 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 64 | 201 |
| 10 | Ranger | Mi-Jack Conquest Racing | 14 | -- | -- | 1 | 10 | -- | -- | 200 |
| 11 | Servià | PKV Racing | 14 | -- | 1 | 4 | 8 | -- | 51 | 196 |
| 12 | Clarke (R) | CTE Racing - HVM | 14 | -- | 1 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 175 |
| 13 | Zwolsman (R) | Mi-Jack Conquest Racing | 14 | -- | -- | -- | 8 | -- | 16 | 161 |
| 14 | Heylen (R) | Dale Coyne Racing | 14 | -- | -- | 1 | 4 | -- | 11 | 140 |
| 15 | da Matta | RuSPORT Dale Coyne Racing |
9 | -- | 1 | 4 | 6 | -- | -- | 134 |
| 16 | Legge (R) | PKV Racing | 14 | -- | -- | -- | 4 | -- | 12 | 133 |
| 17 | Pastorelli (R) | Rocketsports Racing | 9 | -- | -- | -- | 3 | -- | -- | 73 |
| 18 | Pizzonia (R) | Rocketsports Racing | 4 | -- | -- | -- | 2 | -- | 10 | 43 |
| 19 | Kasemets (R) | Rocketsports Racing | 5 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 34 |
| 20 | Wirth (R) | Dale Coyne Racing | 2 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 19 |
| 21 | Briscoe (R) | RuSPORT | 2 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 17 |
| 22 | Martínez (R) | Forsythe Racing | 1 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 13 |
| 23 | Rice (R) | Forsythe Racing | 1 | -- | -- | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 11 |
| 24 | Vasser | PKV Racing | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 7 |
| 25 | Cáceres (R) | Dale Coyne Racing | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 6 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||