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Here's an outline rundown of what was announced over the past two days....
-Schedule was officaly announce with two holes that will be filled within the week.
16 Races
April 18- Long Beach
May 23- Monterrey, Mexico
June 5- Milwaukee
June 20- Portland
July 3- Cleveland
July 11- Toronto
July 25- Vancouver
August 8- Road America
August 15- Denver
August 29- Montreal
Sept. 12- Laguna Seca
Sept. TBA- South Africa*
Oct. 17- South Korea
Oct. 24- Surfers Paradise
Nov. 11- Mexico City
Nov. 25- Las Vegas*
-Herdez Competition Announcement
-Mario Dominguez is the only announced driver. Hunter-Reay was in the room, and previous internet reports have said they are still negotiating.
-Forsythe Racing Announcement
-Paul Tracy and Rodolpho Lavin will drive for Forsythe. Lavin will be sponsered by Corona. No sponser announcement for Paul Tracy.
Patrick Carpentier will remain under contract to Forsythe, but will be transfered to another team, as Forsythe couldn't
come up with any sponsorship to run a third car. Carpentier has been a fixture at Forsythe, (for 8 seasons now) so this
wasn't the best news.
-Rocetsports Racing announcement
-Alex Tagliani and Nelson Phillipe will race for Rocketsports. Tagliani will be sponsored by Johnson Controls, while Phillpe (who
will be a series rookie) will be back by LeasePlan. Phillpe will be interesting to watch this year, and Tagliani should
be steady like normal.
-Formula BMW announces it will be a support series to ChampCar
-PKVR Racing Announcement
-It was announced that Jimmy Vasser (former series champ) is now a part owner of the team and will drive for them this year,
alongside Roberto Gonzalez. Both Vasser and Gonzalez's car have a NII logo on them. NII is NEXTEL International, but will
run as NII in the states as to avoid confusion with NASCAR. Big money involved in this deal and two very nice looking cars.
Day 2-
-Rule changes announced
-Champ Car has announced that it has implemented the push-2-pass button for the 2004 Champ Car World Series competition. Below are some of the highlights of what the rules will be for it:
-They will be allowed to use the button for 60 seconds for an entire race. Champ Car will be monitoring a black box with has a chip inside of it, which can not be touched by the teams.
-To put it in perspective, the longest straight in the series is in Mexico City, and that is just 17 seconds long.
-The button will give an extra 2 1/2 pounds of boost pressure, which equals around 50hp.
-The boost button also ONLY works when the throttle is being pushed at 85% or more.
-This has been thought through extremely well and will create a very interesting aspect to the racing.
-Races will be reduced to 1 hours and 45 minutes, as opposed to the usual 2 hour window that they were run in prior. The reason for this is to purchase a 2 hour TV time window, as opposed to a 2 1/2 hour time window.
-There will be mandatory 2-3 green flag stops for each race. However, each driver must have completed his 2-3 stops before 15 minutes is left in the race.
-Teams are only allowed to tinker with parts of the car that are visible. i.e. they can not mess with the undertray.
-Teams are allowed to share parts and pieces without a problem or a rule violation.
-Radio scrambling is NOT allowed.
-Champ Car is going to be extremely strict on the 1 block rule.
-If a driver causes an accident, he will be black-flagged.
-Newman/Hass Announcement
-McDonalds and Newman-Haas Racing have signed a multi-year deal with Sebastien Bourdais as the driver for 2004. They will be advertising Paul Newman's "Newman's Own" salad dressing for McDonalds.
-Bruno Junqueira also was announced as the second driver for Newman-Haas with PacifiCare sponsorship.
-Team Rahal announcement
-Nothing that wasn't already known.... Jourdain in the Gigante car... same as last year
-Team Rahal announced that Danica Patrick will be testing a Champ Car at Sebring on March 26th. This will be her first test in a Champ Car.
-RuSport Announcement
-AJ Allmendinger (American rookie) will driver for them. No title sponsor was announced. However, Red Bull will be AJ's personal sponsor with a helmet design and his suit designed in Red Bull livery.
-TV Deal Announcement
Highlights of the TV deal:
-Bronte (Tag's wife) will be the life style reporter
-Tommy Kendall will be the color commentator
-Bob Jenkins will be in the booth
-Derek Daly will be the pit reporter
-The races will be broadcast by SpikeTV and HDnet at 4:00 in every time zone.
-There will be a 24 episode 1/2 hour show, showcasing Champ Car on SpikeTV. Those timeslots have not been released yet.
-HD Net is going to have Friday and Saturday events televised
-HDnet will also have an Internet site set up for a subscription fee of like $10/year you can get the broadcasts over the Internet.