2007 Champ Car season explained

The 2007 Champ Car World Series season was the fourth and final season of the Champ Car World Series. It began on April 8, 2007 and ended on November 11 after 14 races. Unbeknownst at the time, this would end up being the final contested season of Champ Car, as the following February, the series unified with the Indy Racing League (IRL), marking the end of the Champ Car World Series for good.

For 2007 Champ Car underwent some major changes. The opening race of the season was switched from the Grand Prix of Long Beach to Las Vegas for the first running of the Vegas Grand Prix. The Long Beach Grand Prix was the second race of the season, followed by the Grand Prix of Houston. Also, the entire schedule was held on road and street courses, and the events were timed races instead of races for a set number of laps. The full 2007 schedule was announced on Wednesday, September 27, 2006.

Champ Car officials confirmed that Panoz would be the sole chassis supplier for Champ Car for the three years beginning in 2007. The Panoz DP01 was built by sister company Élan Motorsport Technologies and was powered by a turbo-charged Cosworth engine. The new formula was reported to significantly lower the costs of competing in the series, which was in turn expected to increase car counts for the 2007 Champ Car season. However, 2007 entries did not exceeded those of 2006. Ford announced it would no longer badge the Cosworth engines as Ford sold Cosworth to Kevin Kalkhoven. Mazda was then confirmed as the new pace car and courtesy vehicle supplier.

ESPN announced a new, multiyear agreement that marked the return of the Champ Car World Series to the network in 2007.^[1]

On January 16, 2007, Champ Car announced their return to Europe, for the first time since 2003, with races scheduled for August 26, 2007 at the historic Zolder circuit in Belgium, and September 2, 2007 at the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands.^[2]

On January 23, 2007, Champ Car unveiled its new logo for the Champ Car World Series and the Atlantic Series. According to its website, it is a sleeker design with the new Panoz DP01 chassis on the right with an emphasis on a chicane-style layout, representing the street track racing that dominates Champ Car. There were no oval tracks on the calendar, with Milwaukee removed after the 2006 race.

The 2007 Champ Car World Series season also marked that last time an IndyCar Series Championship was secured before the final race of the season until Álex Palou's win in the 2023 IndyCar Series Season.^[3]

Rule changes

The new rules of the 2007 season included the implementation of standing starts at venues where they could be safely implemented. Additionally, all events were timed events instead of running a set number of laps. As the time limit approaches, the drivers were notified that they were beginning the last lap. The leader would NOT be shown the white flag, which was instead employed in a similar manner to its use by the FIA. Teams were also allowed unlimited access to their tires during all qualifying sessions. The requirement for each team to use at least one set of the alternate Bridgestone Potenzas during the race would remain in place.

Starting this season drivers no longer received a bonus point for leading a lap of the race.

Drivers and teams

The following teams and drivers competed in the 2007 Champ Car World Series season. All teams used a Cosworth 2.65-litre turbocharged V8 engine, a Panoz DP01 chassis, and Bridgestone tires.

Team	No.	Driver(s)	Rounds
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	1	Sébastien Bourdais	All
	2	Graham Rahal	All
Forsythe Racing	3	Paul Tracy	1, 4–14
		Oriol Servià	2–3
	7	Mario Domínguez	1–3
		Oriol Servià	4–12
		David Martinez	13–14
Minardi Team USA	4	Dan Clarke	1–10, 12–14
		Mario Domínguez	11
	14	Robert Doornbos	All
Team Australia	5	Will Power	All
	15	Simon Pagenaud	All
RSPORTS	8	Alex Tagliani	All
	9	Justin Wilson	All
Dale Coyne Racing	11	Katherine Legge	All
	19	Bruno Junqueira	All
PKV Racing	21	Neel Jani	All
	22	Tristan Gommendy	1–7, 9–12
		Mario Domínguez	8
		Oriol Servià	13–14
Pacific Coast Motorsports	28	Ryan Dalziel	1–8, 10–12
		Mario Domínguez	9, 13–14
	29	Alex Figge	1–2, 4–14
		Roberto Moreno	3
Conquest Racing		Matt Halliday	1–3
		Jan Heylen	4–12
		Nelson Philippe	13–14

Mid-season changes

• Oriol Servià replaced Paul Tracy at Forsythe Racing for Long Beach & Houston, after Tracy injured his back in a practice accident on Saturday morning of the race weekend at Long Beach. Servià was then signed as a permanent replacement for Mario Domínguez prior to the fourth round of the series.^[4]
• Alex Figge was unable to take part in Houston, citing back pain suffered in a crash at Long Beach. He was replaced by Champ Car veteran Roberto Moreno, making his first start in the series since 2003.
• Jan Heylen was signed initially to drive for Conquest Racing at the European rounds of the series; however, on June 1, the team confirmed that the Belgian was signed for the remainder of the season replacing Matt Halliday.^[5]
• Tristan Gommendy was unable to take part in Edmonton, suffering a couple of microscopic fractures in a practice accident on Friday of the race weekend. He was replaced by Mario Domínguez, who was on hand to drive the Minardi two-seater Formula One cars.
• Ryan Dalziel was unable to take part in San Jose after suffering a broken collarbone while training on his bicycle. He was replaced by Mario Domínguez.
• Dan Clarke was banned from the rest of the inaugural Belgian Champ Car Grand Prix weekend after causing a four car pile up in the first practice session at Zolder, which involved himself, Paul Tracy, Justin Wilson and hometown hero Jan Heylen. Clarke was replaced for the rest of the weekend at Minardi Team USA by Mario Domínguez.
• Champ Car Atlantic driver David Martínez replaced veteran Oriol Servià in the No. 7 Forsythe/Indeck car for the Surfers Paradise and Mexico City races.
• Mario Domínguez replaced Ryan Dalziel in the No. 28 Pacific Coast Motorsports car for the Surfers Paradise and Mexico City races.^[6]
• Nelson Philippe replaced Jan Heylen in the No. 34 Conquest Racing car for the Surfers Paradise and Mexico City races. Philippe will be able to defend his 2006 race win at Surfers.^[7]
• Oriol Servià found a ride with PKV Racing for the Surfers Paradise race after "an unresolved business situation" prevented Tristan Gommendy from taking part.^[8]

Schedule

The 2007 Champ Car season ended up having 14 races, down from the proposed 17 races.

Rnd	Date	Race Name	Circuit	Location
1	April 8	Vegas Grand Prix	Streets of Las Vegas	Las Vegas, Nevada
2	April 15	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach^[9]	Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California
3	April 22	Grand Prix of Houston	JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park^[10]	Houston, Texas
4	June 10	Mazda Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland Presented by Joe's Sports and Outdoor^[11]	Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon
5	June 24	Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by LaSalle Bank^[12]	Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport	Cleveland, Ohio
6	July 1	Champ Car Mont-Tremblant^[13]	Circuit Mont-Tremblant	Mont-Tremblant, Quebec
7	July 8	Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto	Exhibition Place	Toronto, Ontario
8	July 22	Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton	Edmonton City Centre Airport Speedway	Edmonton, Alberta
9	July 29	San Jose Grand Prix at Redback Raceway^[14]	Streets of San Jose	San Jose, California
10	August 12	Generac Grand Prix	Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
11	August 26	Belgian Champ Car Grand Prix	Circuit Zolder	Heusden-Zolder, Belgium
12	September 2	Bavaria Champ Car Grand Prix Powered by Audi, Gant, Hertz, Jumbo & Pioneer^[15] ^[16] ^[17]	TT Circuit Assen	Assen, Netherlands
13	October 21	Lexmark Indy 300	Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Australia
14	November 11	Gran Premio Tecate Presented by Banamex	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	Mexico City, Mexico

• The Grand Prix of Denver was cancelled by Champ Car on February 1.
• The Chinese Champ Car Grand Prix, after having its original May 20 date postponed, was cancelled on April 2 after the FIA rejected Champ Car's replacement date.
• The Grand Prix Arizona was cancelled on August 29.

Season summary

Race results

Rnd	Race Name	Pole position	Fastest lap	Lead most laps	Winning driver	Winning team	Report
1	Vegas Grand Prix	Will Power	Will Power	Will Power	Will Power	Team Australia	Report
2	Grand Prix of Long Beach	nowrap	Sébastien Bourdais	Simon Pagenaud	nowrap	Sébastien Bourdais	nowrap	Sébastien Bourdais	nowrap	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
3	Grand Prix of Houston	Will Power	nowrap	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
4	Grand Prix of Portland	Justin Wilson	Sébastien Bourdais	Justin Wilson	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
5	Grand Prix of Cleveland	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Will Power	Paul Tracy	Forsythe Racing	Report
6	nowrap	Mont-Tremblant Grand Prix		Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais		Minardi Team USA	Report
7	Grand Prix of Toronto	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Oriol Servià	Will Power	Team Australia	Report
8	Grand Prix of Edmonton	Will Power	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
9	San Jose Grand Prix	Justin Wilson	Justin Wilson	Oriol Servià		Minardi Team USA	Report
10	nowrap	Grand Prix of Road America	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
11	Belgian Grand Prix	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
12	Bavarian Grand Prix	Sébastien Bourdais	Dan Clarke	Justin Wilson	Justin Wilson	RSPORTS	Report
13	Lexmark Indy 300	Will Power		Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report
14	Gran Premio Tecate	Will Power		Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	Report

Final driver standings

See also: List of American Championship car racing point scoring systems.

Pos Driver LAS LBH HOU POR CLE MTT TOR EDM SAN ROA ZOL ASS SUR MEX Pts 1 Sébastien Bourdais 13 1* 1* 1 12 2* 9 1* 5 1* 1* 7 1* 1* 364 2 Justin Wilson 14 4 10 2* 4 5 3 2 13 8 5 1* 2 10 281 3 2 13 3 3 2 1 6 11 1 14 7 13 4 16 268 4 Will Power 1* 3 11 4 10* 3 1 15 4 16 4 14 16 2 262 5 17 8 2 9 8 7 11 3 6 3 3 9 11 4 243 6 Oriol Servià 2 4 11 7 9 10* 6 3* 4 6 8 14 3 237 7 Bruno Junqueira 7 6 7 13 16 17 5 7 7 9 2 3 3 7 233 8 12 14 5 8 5 4 4 4 10 11 12 6 5 6 232 9 10 7 15 12 3 6 2 9 2 10 8 5 8 9 231 10 Alex Tagliani 4 5 9 5 6 8 8 14 15 5 9 15 7 13 205 11 Paul Tracy 3 Wth 10 1 15 14 5 11 12 10 17 9 5 171 12 5 11 13 7 13 12 15 Wth 8 7 16 4 140 13 Dan Clarke 15 12 17 6 11 14 12 8 17 2 Wth 11 17 17 129 14 11 9 8 14 9 10 7 12 17 15 10 116 15 Katherine Legge 6 10 16 17 15 11 16 16 16 15 11 12 15 15 108 16 Jan Heylen 15 14 16 13 10 9 6 13 2 104 17 8 16 Wth 16 17 13 17 13 14 13 14 16 13 11 95 18 Mario Domínguez 9 17 6 17 12 17 12 8 78 19 Nelson Philippe 6 12 28 20 10 14 18 21 16 15 14 18 22 Roberto Moreno 12 9 Pos Driver LAS LBH HOU POR CLE MTT TOR EDM SAN ROA ZOL ASS SUR MEX Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th–10th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10) Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did Not Start (DNS) Race abandoned (C) Blank Did not participate In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap *|style="background:#F2F2F2;" align=center|Led most race laps|-|style="background-color:#F2F2F2"||style="background-color:#F2F2F2"|Rookie of the Year|-|style="background-color:#F2F2F2"||style="background-color:#F2F2F2"|Rookie|}|} Driver breakdown Pos Driver Team Races Wins Top 3 Top 5 Top 10 Poles Laps Led 1 Bourdais N/H/L Racing 14 8 9 10 11 6 463 2 Wilson RSPORTS 14 1 5 9 12 2 113 3 Minardi Team USA 14 2 6 7 9 – 61 4 Power Team Australia 14 2 5 8 9 5 153 5 N/H/L Racing 14 – 4 5 11 – 18 6 Servià Forsythe Racing PKV Racing 13 – 3 5 10 – 85 7 Junqueira DC Racing 14 – 3 4 11 – 33 8 Team Australia 14 – – 6 10 – 19 9 PKV Racing 14 – 3 4 12 – 30 10 Tagliani RSPORTS 14 – – 4 10 – 14 11 Tracy Forsythe Racing 12 1 2 4 7 – 49 12 PKV Racing 11 – – 2 5 1 31 13 Clarke Minardi Team USA 13 – 1 1 3 – 2 14 PC Motorsports 11 – – – 6 – 16 15 Legge DC Racing 14 – – – 2 – – 16 Heylen Conquest Racing 9 – 1 1 4 – – 17 PC Motorsports 13 – – – 1 – – 18 Domínguez Forsythe Racing PKV Racing PC Motorsports Minardi Team USA 8 – – – 3 – – 19 Philippe Conquest Racing 2 – – – 1 – – 20 Forsythe Racing 2 – – – 1 – – 21 Conquest Racing 3 – – – – – – 22 Moreno PC Motorsports 1 – – – – – – References Web site: Champ Car World Series 2007 . Åberg, Andreas . Driver Database . May 19, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081122131944/http://www.driverdb.com/standings/5-2007/ . November 22, 2008 . live . mdy . Web site: 2007 Champ Car World Series . Champ Car Stats . May 19, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090502182723/http://www.champcarstats.com/year/2007.htm . May 2, 2009 . live . mdy . Web site: Standings after Mexico City . Champ Car World Series . May 19, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080411233951/http://champcar.ws/Results/Standings.asp?Year=2007 . April 11, 2008 . dead . mdy . See also 2007 Champ Car Atlantic season 2007 Indianapolis 500 2007 IndyCar Series 2007 Indy Pro Series season ]

Notes and References

1. http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=5&id=2664958 Champ Car coming to ESPN beginning in 2007 – Racing – ESPN
2. Web site: Champ Car > News Tuesday, January 16, 2007 . 2007-03-10 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070307230320/http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=11193 . March 7, 2007 . mdy .
3. Web site: Kelly . Paul . PALOU CLINCHES CHAMPIONSHIP WITH DECISIVE PORTLAND VICTORY . IndyCar.com . 4 September 2023.
4. News: Servià keeps Forsythe drive. autosport.com. May 22, 2007. June 1, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070525045718/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/59040. May 25, 2007 . live.
5. News: Heylen at Conquest for rest of year. autosport.com. June 1, 2007. June 1, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070603081833/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/59310. June 3, 2007 . live.
6. News: Pacific Coast Motorsports signs Mexican Superstar Mario Domínguez. champcarworldseries.com. September 20, 2007. September 21, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071011081150/http://champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=12232. October 11, 2007 . dead.
7. News: He's back!Nelson Philippe returns to Conquest Racing team. champcarworldseries.com. October 3, 2007. October 6, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084623/http://champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=12249. October 11, 2007 . dead.
8. News: Oriol Servià To Compete For PKV Racing At Lexmark Indy 300. champcarworldseries.com. October 16, 2007. October 16, 2007 .
9. News: Vegas Grand Prix opens 2007 Champ Car season. reviewjournal.com. August 1, 2006. September 2, 2006 .
10. News: Sponsor boost for Toronto, Houston. crash.net. March 13, 2007. March 13, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070927210107/http://www.crash.net/news_view~cid~3~id~144461.htm. September 27, 2007. dead.
11. News: Mazda New Title Sponsor for Portland Champ Car Grand Prix. whowon.com. May 10, 2007. May 11, 2007. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930014910/http://www.whowon.com/sresults.asp?SanctionID=198&StoryID=219539. September 30, 2007. mdy .
12. News: Cleveland 2007 date announced. motorsport.com. August 24, 2006. September 5, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930023625/http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=230185&FS=CHAMPCAR. September 30, 2007. dead. mdy-all.
13. News: Champ Car set to add Quebec pit stop. globeandmail.com. September 25, 2006. September 26, 2006. September 30, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930060835/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060925.CHAMP25/TPStory/TPSports/OtherSports/. dead.
14. News: 2007 Champ Car Schedule Coming – China, Europe to be Added?. paddocktalk.com. September 17, 2006. September 17, 2006. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070928013538/http://www.paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=41412. September 28, 2007. mdy .
15. News: Champ Car in 2007 naar Assen?. https://archive.today/20110806105231/http://www.telesport.nl/autosport/article564565.ece. dead. August 6, 2011. telesport.nl. August 26, 2006. September 1, 2006.
16. News: Champ Car coming back to Europe. https://archive.today/20070707234412/http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft17495.html. dead. July 7, 2007. grandprix.com. September 25, 2006. September 26, 2006 .
17. News: Champ Car adds 2 European races . indystar.com . January 15, 2007 . January 16, 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120221224516/http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20070115%2FSPORTS01%2F701150423 . February 21, 2012 .