If you think the IRL-Champ Car unification is completed after Graham Rahal's victory at St. Petersburg, think again.After two rounds of racing, it's IRL 1:ex-Champ Car 1. Rahal's victory in the rain-shortened Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg proved to be a stepping-stone for all former Champ Car teams. Besides Rahal's victory, the fact that most Champ Car teams ran competitively on the street course (Ernesto Viso, Enrique Bernoldi, Oriol Servia, Will Power and Justin Wilson all finished in the top 10) was a great news for IndyCar boss Tony George.
But wait a second. We really need to look deeper at the stats. The changing race condition really favored the Champ Car teams. The IRL teams ran 14 road/street races in the past three years, while the Champ Car teams ran 14 road course races last year alone. Moreover, it was the first wet race for IRL teams/drivers for a long long time. You do the math.
And the winning team was Newman/Haas/Lanigan -- the grand daddy of Champ Car teams who powered Sebastien Bourdais back-to-back-to-back-to-back Champ Car championships. Go figure.
Regardless, a Rahal won a race, and it was a good way to kickoff the pre-Indy 500 marketing campaigns before the month of May. Now you have the next generation of racers in the field – Macro Andretti, Rahal, AJ Foyt IV, you just need to add an Unser and a Luydendyk in the Indy 500 this year. Yes, they're trying. Even though both Al Unser III and Arie Luydendyk Jr. are not as good as their counterparts (they’re mediocre in Indy Lights), I'm sure TG and company still want them to be up there to drum up the 500.
So when is the unification going to be “completed”? Not until the field is well balanced. Looking back at the season opener at Homestead -- an oval race. No matter how you spin it the results weren't pretty, as all Champ Car teams finished at least five laps down in the race. Inexperience was an excuse as drivers such as Bruno Junqueira and Servia raced on ovals many times back in the CART days, and their pace were still way off.
When the Champ Car teams are in the mix on ovals, then we could call it "unification". It can come as early as the Indy 500, especially the fact that both Newman/Haas/Lanigan and Conquest raced at Indy recently. We shall see.
Regardless, IndyCar is moving to the right direction. After 12 years of separation we're pretty much back to square one, with the exception that TG has all the power to control one series (IRL, not CART). And remember the reasons why the IRL was formed? Well, forget what George said back then. It's not going to be an oval-bias, American drivers focus series as we’re moving back to the CART days in order to compete with Nascar. As long as open-wheel racing back to its glory days, who cares?
Champ Car Series Finale - Grand Prix of Long Beach Entry List:
Conquest: Franck Perera, Enrique Bernoldi
Dale Coyne: Bruno Junqueira, Mario Moraes
Forsythe: Paul Tracy, Franck Montagny, David Martinez
HVM Minardi: Ernesto Viso, Nelson Philippe, Roberto Moreno
KVRT: Will Power, Oriol Servia, Jimmy Vasser
Newman/Haas/Lanigan: Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal
Pacific Coast: Mario Dominguez, Alex Figge
Rocketsports: Antonio Pizzonia, Juho Annala
Walker: Alex Tagliani
Honda Indy Japan 300 Entry List:
AGR: Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Hideki Mutoh
Beck: Roger Yasukawa
Dreyer & Reinbold: Buddy Rice, Townsend Bell
Foyt: Darren Manning
Ganassi: Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon
Panther: Vitor Meira
Penske: Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe
Rahal Letterman: Ryan Hunter-Reay
Roth: Jay Howard, Marty Roth
Vision: Ed Carpenter, AJ Foyt IV
