AU N EGL

"Champ Car lost three more words from its official logo but, more importantly, a major ally on Wednesday when Ford Motor Company announced its withdrawal from participation in the series.

Aligned with CART and Champ Car for the past three decades, Ford had been a presenting sponsor, official vehicle and source of power for much of its association. In 2003, after Honda and Toyota bolted for the Indy Racing League, Ford came to the rescue and its Cosworth became the sole engine supplier for the open wheel series.

The past three years the series had been called “Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series powered by Ford” with Ford fielding cars for the pace car team, as well as courtesy vehicles for the Champ Car staff and other associate sponsorships. In addition, Ford of Mexico and Ford of Canada had served as title sponsors for races in those countries.

But, with Champ Car opting to drop the pace car program in favor of Minardi boss Paul Stoddart’s two-seat Formula 1 cars, Ford decided it was time to move on.

“We were surprised they chose to torpedo the pace car program and even more surprised they decided to go with the F1 two-seaters,” said Dan Davis, director of racing for Ford. “And we’re not leaving on bad terms, it’s just that Champ Car doesn’t align with our current business objectives.

“We’re not bitter, just very disappointed.”

The pace car program had been a staple of Champ Car since 1982, when the late Jim Chapman introduced a way for series sponsor PPG Industries to bring customers closer to the action.

It’s believed Ford had offered to increase its support and involvement this season, most notably in taking over the pace car program and expanding the on-track activities for its customers and dealers with the Hot Lap Program.

“Today’s decision was made from a business standpoint on both sides and in no way should tarnish the long legacy of success that the Ford Motor Company has established in Champ Car competition,” Champ Car President Steve Johnson said in a prepared statement. “We thank Ford for what it has done for the series, but we are continuing building a bright future for the series and are exploring a number of other options for a manufacturer partner.”

Champ Car is thought to be talking with Hyundai, Cadillac and Mazda about replacing Ford."

Source: http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/34990/

John Shiels

I guess Cosworth will still supply motors as per contract?

xsiveone

I hope so considering that Kalkhoven owns both Champ Car and Cosworth.

I think that was a bad move pissing off Ford. OTOH, Ford's days were probably limited anyway after posting that huge loss.

They're going to pace the field with a 2 seat F1 car?

Wicked Weasel

maybe some other engines will come in...

John Shiels

Doubt GM would want to sponsor a series that doesn't have their motors.

John Shiels

seems like he stepped on his own nose!

Wicked Weasel

some engine company must have some free time......

BrianCunningham

The 2 seat F1 car just doesn't make sense.I mean, how about a 2 seat Champ car? Now that would make sense!

Ford is just trying to keep their heads above water, and Champcar realizes this.

Ford owns Mazda, and they sponsor the engine in the new Formula Atlantics. So maybe.

Since the lastest GM IRL engine was actually a Cosworth, GM makes sense too.

Hyundai? That would just be weird

Champ and IRL really need to get back together.

AU N EGL

The 2 seater F1 car was to give A BIG sponsors Key person a ride during full course yellow flags. The "Pace Car option" gave 3 key people rides during Full course cautions. PLUS there was always a FORD pace car, more exposure for FORD.

This kept sponsors key ppl happy and money flowing in.

rudyarias

Hyundai and Kia use Mitsubishi engines.

I think it'll be a matter of time for Champ and IRL to wake up and realize that united they have a better chance to survive

varkwso

Ford is not that broke - I wonder where those advertising dollars will go now?

It was a mistake by Champ Car. Some "Champ VIP" got his nose bent over Ford somehow probably.

gkmccready

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...D3D61AA7887%7D

The $5.8 billion quarterly loss that Ford Motor Co. reported on Thursday capped the worst year in the century-old automaker's history, yet the market still gave CEO Alan Mulally passing marks for his first report card at the helm.

[...]

parkerracing

The order to stop a supertanker is given 7 miles from port. Alan will get plenty of credit for Ford losses a year or two after his termination into his "Golden Parachute".

fmrfast

Fords loss is multi billion 12.7 or something like that for last year. Stocks trading at around six to eight dollars a share. Yet it was announced in the news "top executives at ford getting a big bonus" This happens while the white & blue collar workers get no raise, no bonus & the workers have to participate more into their health care. The raises in the past few years have been a joke anyway. Head count reductions both voluntary & then involuntary if need be. Therefore less people will have to do the same amount of work & the cut backs go on & on.
Yet the executives get the bonus

01C5fan

Ford and GM are both on a slow boat to bankruptcy. It's the only way they can shed the huge liability of retired workers pensions and benefits. Not even major labor concessions would save them at this point. Look for Daimler to eventually ditch Chrysler for the same reason. This is probably several years away, but every long term economic analysis I've read of the domestic auto industry paints a very dismal picture. My hope is that something better will "rise from the ashes" and make our auto industry competitive with the rest of the world.

rudyarias

I disagree on your synopsis on Ford and GM. The financial analysis have been wrong (Chrysler in the late Seventies). Ford and GM are major Global players in which Chrysler was not.

Ford's 12 billion loss is a reflection on what the company is doing wrong with its domestic car/truck lines. Ford made some mistakes in ignoring its domestic car lines, poor R&D, quality control and acquiring brands like Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Volvo, etc. whose profits were non existent or marginal at the time their purchases.

GM's losses on the other hand has made the company more focused with keeping its engineering, design, R&D, quality control and production Global thus stream lining its bottom line. Its decision to retire Oldsmobile, bringing Saturn's car line into its badge/brand engineering production model, exclusively marketing Saab in the US and the sale of GMAC will eventually improve its financial health.

As for Chrysler/Dodge, The brands will stay as the merger with Daimler was to strengthen its mass production ability with Chrysler's Badge/Brand engineering production techniques which the German company dearly lacked. Mitsubishi is another story, that brand may slowly go away.

international blue

Maybe they will begin to understand that nobody really cares anyway.

The Champ IRL "experiment" is a fiasco. The drivers are boring and the racing an automotive sideshow. The path to F1 is not certain from either seat anymore than NASCAR. The homogenization of NASCAR as well should bring the series down as well as who wants to watch IROC again as a bunch of spec cars sponsored by male enhancement drugs joust?

The positives of all of this is a possibility for a real explosion of vintage racing with continuation cars and a bunch of car guys loving every minute of it. Any well run vintage series with real money would outdraw the 2500 fans that show up every week at champ car....

micro

First off, the title of this thread is false.

So all of that testing that Sébastien Bourdais was just nothing?

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor...s_x.htm?csp=34

2,500 fans?

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/29408/

IROC was designed as a spec series for racers. Did you see last the IROC road race at Daytona last year?

Which article says that about Panoz and Saleen?

Because Mulally has made the right moves so far

http://www.leftlanenews.com/2007/01/...-design-theme/

Ford doesn't own or even build the Champ Car engines. Cosworth in the UK builds them.

Cosworth was previously a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company, but has been owned by Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven since 2004.

Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven, and Paul Gentilozzi own the Champ Car World Series.

BrianCunningham

Chevy's 1st DOHC engine was a Cosworth

http://www.cosworthvega.com

Chevy's old Champ car engine was built by Ilmor, which now builds F1 engines for Mercedes.

The general public doesn't get that most race engines are outsourced, and whoever pays for it gets to put their badge on it.

micro

That's why I like ALMS racing, but there are two exceptions.

I wish Honda wouldn't call it their Acura LMP program though. Mazda didn't hide that AER is building a new 2.0 liter I-4 turbo for them. It is a clean-sheet design though.

http://www.speedarena.com/news/publi...cle_7283.shtml

Racing is a big part of Red Bull's marketing plan and they will back PKV Racing and Neel Jani this year. He is from Switzerland.

http://champcarworldseries.com/News/...e.asp?ID=11200

http://pkv.cmagic.com/

2006 Brazilian GP