The Last Champ Car Race

[@joshuasweeney7864]

props to Indycar for keeping Long Beach on the schedule and making it still feel like an important race on their schedule

[@joshherman4214]

Making it feel like? It is a very important race lol.

[@tacklefatkids]

​@@joshherman4214 no offense but even then in IndyCar history and importance look what they did to Michigan and Fontana. Both important tracks yet IndyCar management did nothing to improve their chances to stay

[@warrenself]

@@tacklefatkidsI have to agree. Although a big factor was Penske selling the tracks to ISC which is now owned by NASCAR. They sold Auto Club this year and sadly I can see them doing the same with Michigan one day since the whole Street course deal was a success and they can just go to Belle Isle or Detroit for a cup race in Michigan. MIS is about as old school as it gets in terms of amenities and they don’t promote or do anything to try and increase attendance. They could at least try to make it a playoff opening round race by moving it later by one month.

[@AceBlake]

Note on how Will Power started so well - in Champ Car you weren't allowed to do burnouts before the race start... But as this was the last race in the series, Power did burnouts anyway as there was no threat of sanction for the next race. He had nice hot tyres and got an amazing start 👌

[@Billiamiscool]

based as fuck

[@bogthing1]

How aesthetically pleasing these cars were compared to the modern variants. I miss Champ and CART

[@Demise90Racing]

Me too. Best looking open wheel cars ever.

[@Probowler37]

Same here. "99 was the first season I watched and it was fantastic. Sadley, I saw Greg Moore lose his life in the final race that season. CART definitely needs to make a return! Great memories growing up with them.

[@animaltj619]

Yup. Im my opinion the Penske Marlboro cars looked amazing

[@ronpeacock9939]

It's funny you talk about the cars they ran positively... there is an interview with Micheal Andretti and Paul Tracy where they talk about things and one of the things that Paul brings up is how much more reliable the cars are today. It seems back in the Cart days they were much more fragile and broke down more often. Micheal agreed and both wondered how many more wins they may have gotten simply due to not breaking down. (crashes are still crashes...). I will agree, the look was much better though.

[@blackflagqwerty]

I was thinking the same thing. They look fantastic, they'd look great in 90's era liveries.

[@jobervelasco8614]

I remember this weekend well. Being a Long Beach native, I attended every year and then started working with race teams later on. This particular weekend I was working with the sponsor of one of the Toyota Atlantic Teams. The driver was Alan Sciuto. I remember this weekend for Danica winning in Japan, Simona de Silvestro winning the Atlantic race, and Jamie Little winning the Pro/Celebrity Race. I ran into Kevin Kalkhoven in the paddock and had a nice chat with him thanking him for keeping Champ Car alive for as long as they could. I remember bringing a friend with me into the paddock and we got into a conversation with Alex Tagliani. I had raced against Alex in go karts so we knew eachother a little bit. My friend had no idea who he was and Alex took slight offense to that....lol. It was pretty funny at the time.

[@Demise90Racing]

That's awesome. Really cool hearing your perspective of being at the race. Very cool stuff. Appreciate you sharing that.

[@matpk]

@@Demise90Racing you forgot Danica ruined last ever Champ Car Race

[@bull705]

@@matpk If that ruined it for you then you're not much of a Champ car fan.

[@slayerdeth0705]

Keep em coming boss. 90's CART was the best. Over the last 2 years I've watched every race from 1993 to half way through the 2013 season. Love it.

[@Demise90Racing]

Hell yeah. Will do Shane!

[@tainvestor]

I didn't realize both Justin Wilson and Antonio Pizzonia were in the last Champ Car race. Jaguar was the team that got me interested in F1. I was a Mark Webber fan, and in 2003 Antonio Pizzonia was horrible in the second car. It was a relief to see him replaced by a young Justin Wilson mid-season. In retrospect, its really sad how things all shaped out. RIP Justin Wilson.

[@dxfifa]

Wilson was also horrible at Jaguar

[@AntKart]

@@dxfifa Justin at lease got some points, Pizzonia was never even close

[@dxfifa]

@@AntKart Pizzonia was close a few times. And Wilson only got points in a wet race where only 3 guys finished behind him, 2 backmarkers and a toyota that fucked the strategy badly and took 2 wasteful stops in the first 10 or so laps, gambling way too soon on wets

[@peterolsson1470]

I so miss this series. It had the best racing on the planet.

[@slashracingproductions5593]

I feel like the politics of indycar, specifically the split, kept it from really being able to stay with F1 into the current age. The 90s for racing was absolutely nuts, indycar was about as popular as nascar, and a household series. And F1 had senna and Prost battling it out with v12s. Shame to see nascar and indycar fall off a bit.

[@SlimTheGoat]

A little bit? Nascar took a header off the tallest bridge into 2 inches of water. They didn't listen to the fans about the stupid playoff system and then doubled down when they went woke.

[@slashracingproductions5593]

@@SlimTheGoat exactly, but not quite the same as indycar in the mid 2000s until about 2015. I do think indycar is on the upswing compared to nascar, and the star power they have in the series now is arguably better with more personalities

[@SlimTheGoat]

@@slashracingproductions5593 I'll have to take your word, never been a huge indycar fan. I've only watched a handful of full races, last time Alonso tried for the 500 and the first couple this year to see how Grosjean and Johnson were doing. Motorsports as a whole just ain't what it used to be. Just seems to me drivers today ain't built like they used to be.

[@gustavomachado3488]

Well, of course. The split was a complete disaster for Indycar. Remember that in 1993 you had Mansell, Fittipaldi, Andretti, Al Unser Jr. and Sr., Piquet, Johansson, Cheever, Tracy, Luyendyk all racing the 500.

[@slashracingproductions5593]

@@gustavomachado3488 wish I was alive to see it all, imagine a stacked indycar lineup, F1 in its best era. Group C and GT1 in lemans, and very infamous nascar drivers. Unbelievable era

[@Alex_Mac_]

Name a more iconic duo than Paul Tracy and pulling out into traffic.

[@leograae]

Regarding the standing starts being trialled and dropped, I think a big part of the issue was the series not using flag marshals along the straight on the start. When you watch standing starts from other championships, there are flag marshals at every row of the grid and when a car stalls, yellow flags wave to alert drivers of the danger. In this race (and when Indycar later attempted standing starts), they never included that safety feature, which was a huge oversight IMO.

[@racer501_sb]

That and the fact they didnt had an anti-stall system, they could've worked, they just didnt prepare enough

[@ZontarDow]

The Panoz DP-01 was the peak of open wheel spec chassis, there are many decent ones but none in any series has been as good.

[@precesionnoreaster1507]

I remember teams saying they flexed so bad they cracked the carbon monocoque, and i remember also that they had to quit oval racing partially because the chassis couldnt take the load, beautiful: ye but good? Nah

[@iowadoyle93]

@@precesionnoreaster1507 They never ran the Panoz on ovals. I believe they developed it solely for road/street racing. Maybe you're thinking of the old Lola they ran just before the Panoz? I know that ran at Las Vegas and Milwaukee for sure.

[@danielhenderson8316]

By 2006, Champ Car only had the Milwaukee Mile as their only oval and Lola had either declared bankruptcy or had completely shut down leaving teams no way of getting new cars. So for 2007, they dropped the ovals and developed the Panoz DP-01 to only run road/street courses. It wasn't built to survive an oval crash, and the reunification was funded almost completely by Tony George which gave any Champ Car team 1 free Dallara. If they were to swap cars depending on the track, that would basically double the running cost at a time where everyone was scrounging for spare coins.

[@halkieria7581]

actually was a shitty chassis

[@dperry7309]

This is one of my favorite channels. Great job bringing back so many exciting memories. I was at this race standing at the hairpin. The evolution of the LBGP has been so fun! If you have never been, go!

[@Demise90Racing]

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I got more to come. I would love to make it out to Long Beach one day. I've been wanting to go there since I was a little kid.

[@MaunoKoivistoOfficial]

Will Power said in an interview that this was his favorite race car. Good engine performance, a bit oversteery but controllable. "Lively" and very fun to drive, he said. Really been enjoying these recaps!

[@xSoccerxCorex]

he also mentioned how that panoz was more "spec" then the dallara, as the teams couldn't tamper with anything on the car while the dallara at least will let you do whatever you want with the dampers/suspension geo.

[@iowadoyle93]

The big V8, for an open wheel car, with a big turbo made for a great "drivers" race car. To me it's like the old Cup cars from the mid 2000s that was making over 900 hp during qualifying. While I miss the Champ Cars themselves, I'm glad we have the IndyCar Series we have today. Penske knows how to run a series and get smart people in the right places.

[@Bartman954]

Can remember hanging out in Champ Car pit area back in 2007 and in 2005 getting to sit in a Team Australia/WPS car as a kid, some great memories

[@osrn2]

Remember watching this race and felt a lot of emotions knowing that this was the last Champ Car race. Took me a few years before I watched IndyCar again and even then, it took Tony George leaving for me to come back. By the way, awesome channel you have. Loving the content that is on here.

[@CarlosMedina-vj7ot]

Man I’m right there with you. Tony George getting out of the game is the best thing that’s happened to American Motorsport in the 21st century.

[@warrenself]

I’m happy all this content is on KZbin. I never got to see the CART/CCWS.

[@UncleJimboo]

Wow i used to watch this series with my dad. What a blast from the past watching these vids. Awesome job

[@Demise90Racing]

Thanks Uncle Jimbo. Glad you enjoyed them. I've got more in the works 👍

[@joalmaor]

Oh, those beautiful DP01 cars.

[@mikulitsi1819]

Love these videos as a relatively new Indycar fan

[@Demise90Racing]

That's awesome. I'm glad you got into IndyCar, and I'm glad you can catch up on some history through my videos. Appreciate it 👍

[@brettsterken7716]

Watching this brings back so many memories, mostly of loathing Paul Tracy.

[@sadaba43]

love him in commentary now but he was a menace oh my god

[@tommcglone2867]

Its surreal watching Justin Wilson racing at the sharp end in a race. At the time of this race no one though he would become Indycar's most recent driver fatality to date.

[@TheShockninja]

And his death was simply a freak accident when debris from another car hit him on the head. Otherwise, Wilson would either still be in IndyCar or probably in IMSA today.

[@luisvaldes1568]

You should do the Roberto Moreno race win. His only win in his long career. He could get out of the car after the win. Also do Dale Coyne first win.

[@albertusdrostable]

You can"t believe how much I still miss this series.....

[@RobertDetert]

I don't. I just miss when everything wasn't spec cars and spec engines like it is now.

[@ericlopez7825]

I was there! Wanted Jimmy Vasser to win! These cars sounded and looked so good! 🔥

[@joalmaor]

Man, those Cosworth V8 turbos were awesome!

[@millennialchicken]

God I miss these cars. Please let the next gen of IndyCar have something reminiscent of these.

[@earlybirdearlybird1371]

With Aeroscreen

[@Glenn7719]

Im glad i had the pleasure of watching them back in 2003, at brands hatch. Thanks for bringing them over to here. 👍 Just a shame they didnt run the GP circuit instead of the indy.

[@nickporter574]

O god, they didnt run the GP circuit? O well.

[@rybuds47]

I miss champ cars.

[@Warren_Flatt]

Justin Wilson R.I.P

[@rjmidwest6911]

Little emotional watching this. Our last season and we won 2 races but performed really good all season. Keep up the good work.

[@Demise90Racing]

Hell yeah RJ. I appreciate man. Till this day CART/Champ Car era cars are still some of the best looking race cars of all time.

[@rjmidwest6911]

@@Demise90Racing I agree. They were clean, no extra winglets and wheel pods.

[@tommcglone2867]

Not just that. Just seeing Justin Wilson racing is surreal.

[@craigyirush3492]

Looks like bigger crowds in the waning days of Champ Car than today.

[@danielhenderson8316]

The timed race is what Champ Car went to in order to be a little different from IndyCar, but unofficially I think they were paying for TV coverage ESPN and one race in CBS could be ran in a 2 hour block and be guaranteed not to go over.

[@Mario_Ramirez]

I was there, the end of a great era. It took me 10 years to go back to Long Beach.

[@Space_Reptile]

As a European, watching these makes it look like a wierd class under F1 but above F2 I might have to check out some replays of that era

[@samuele64246]

it's like an American super formula tbh

[@nickporter574]

Hell yea. CART/Champ Cars were no joke. Obviously F1 reigned supreme but o man these were funs cars to watch. Loved the mix of road, street and oval. Pure racing.

[@left8138]

Standing start were used in 2013 , one example that I can remember was in Houston

[@kyleolson8977]

The fountain turn seems crazy. Pretty, but crazy. On the distant camera angles (like at 5:20) there's nothing but curb and flower bed between the cars and the concrete fountain. I would have to guess the chicane that leads up to the turn gives little hit it badly because they can't be side to side by that point and it's hard to make a mistake large enough at that point to crash to the inside.

[@danielhenderson8316]

It was either this year or last year's race where Simon Pagenaud became the first person to get spun out into the flower bed. Otherwise, it hasn't been an issue because no one wants to pay the fine that the city would throw out for damaging their property.

[@belislemathieu2061]

Best looking race car ever

[@alekhine3424]

Man those Champ Cars looked superb and sounded great, shame they lost out to Indy...

[@Demise90Racing]

Champ car/CART era cars are some of my favorite race cars of all time.

[@MrLeigh]

Great work. I'd love to see you do a video on Justin Wilson!

[@Demise90Racing]

Thank you. You know I've definitely thought about it. Even doing one on Greg Moore and some others. Definitely something for the future.

[@danielhenderson8316]

@@Demise90Racing The only thing that concerns me about that is there's no way to not end either video on a depressing downer. If you do that, consider it a challenge.

[@Demise90Racing]

@@danielhenderson8316 it's very true. So far I've managed to avoid that, but a time will come when I'm ready for that challenge.

[@noorazfaruddin467]

So sad to see one of the greatest auto-racing series fold down.

[@PaperBanjo64]

But at least IndyCar now is a lot like Champ Car but better and more competitive

[@donathandorko]

I miss CART. It was legit the best single seater/open wheel series for a couple of seasons there. It died for me at Surfers 2002. The crash was Belgium 98 x 100, but the farce that followed was the death knell for the series IMO. (Lauzitz 01 didn't help either tbh). I distinctly remember, as an F1 fan in Europe, loving CART for years up until 2003 when IRL took over in my eyes. As you can see in this video, CART became a glorified F3000 series.

[@tommcglone2867]

Lausitz 2001. I know what you mean. Zanardi...

[@dxfifa]

Yeah the rule changes in 2002 were the final killing blow that put the crapwagon IRL ahead as a series. The IRL was a joke by comparison up until about 2001, then CART scored own goal after own goal, not to mention finances

[@Number-ju1nl]

This was when real men drove real race cars I miss champ car! Great video man, thanks for sharing!!

[@RobertDetert]

This race was awarded IRL.points as it was already on the 2008.schedule before Champ Car went out of business.

[@MedicSBK]

Paul Tracy almost caused an accident? SHOCKING. He's one of the worst drivers to ever climb into the cockpit. Friggin dangerous. I remember the year he hit one of his pit crew in Nazareth.

[@Demise90Racing]

He's still driving like a bozo to this day in the SRX Series.

[@wendigockel]

How young Franck Perera looked then!

[@capnrob97]

Not a fan of the current look of Indy Cars, these cars look great.

[@earlybirdearlybird1371]

Good Times !

[@Mike-vt6nc]

Very Cool

[@PaperBanjo64]

Indy Racing League was so shitty, shame that Champ Car had to die in the merger, but at least current IndyCar is similar to Champ Car and not the IRL crapwagon series.

[@parksidepaulie8490]

By this time I already had checked out and left American Open Wheel Racing for Formula 1 for good. The split soured me. I no longer believe Americans are capable of running a top flight open wheel racings serials. Todays Indycar confirms that.

[@thegreenberetlife0191]

The majority of the fast drivers didn’t do the IRL race in Japan and did the Champcar race allowing Danica Patrick to win the poorly attended IRL race. She did absolutely nothing in any junior series and was never a legitimate driver in any series…

[@fernandogesteve1942]

is there no blue flags in the US system?

[@danielhenderson8316]

You're also allowed to fight the leaders for your lap back as well.

[@TheVirtualSportsNetwork]

No. We make the drivers actually work to get around lapped traffic instead of telling someone who's fighting to stay on the lead lap or is a lap down to just move over. I hope that European blue flag rule never sees the light of day in the US because it's one of a few things that turn me off from F1.

[@fernandogesteve1942]

@@TheVirtualSportsNetwork thats cool, definitely makes for more exciting racing, but also this teams dont seem to worried about wrecking the cars

[@warrenself]

NASCAR has the blue/yellow flag but you aren’t required to adhere to it.

[@jayf7945]

is it Firestone or Bridgestone ??

[@Demise90Racing]

It was actually Bridgestone for Champ Car. Firestone in the IndyCar series.

[@kellyb9432]

Shout out to the Turn One club!

[@dalemihocik4732]

IMO push to pass and the two tire rule are giant obstacles in the growth of the sport. It's hard enough for a novice fan to understand the nuances in general, let alone these two pieces to the puzzle.

[@patrickkennedy2533]

i believe those were Swift chassis

[@Demise90Racing]

They were Panoz DP01.

[@danielhenderson8316]

Nope. It was the Panoz DP-01. It was fun, cheap, and quite fragile. During the 2007 season, you could almost breathe on them and parts would break off.

[@undefined21]

Bro this kid made a video and copied ur title word for word about this same race

[@secretsquirrel6257]

DP-01....Indycar should have switched over to this chassis. DP-01 was a US developed chassis with Panoz by Elan Technology, while Dalarra was Italian. And should have adopted the 2.65L turbos over the lower power, terrible sounding V8s from Honda, Toyota, and Chevy. 🤮 I know that those companies put a lot of money into those engines, but all of them have built successfully 2.65 V8s in the past and would have likely because they wanted to win the Indy 500.

[@PaperBanjo64]

Those IR-05s were garbage, the DP-01 was beautiful, for me the true beginning of the end of the split was 2012 when the DW12 was introduced.

[@aaronaigner3481]

Boy did Tony George screw up a GREAT series (Cart). That series had it all, the big names, the cars, the competition. And then George ripped it all apart. And here we are 15 years later and still the effects of George's ego and stupidity are felt. The IRL was garbage. Stock spec cars and engines. BORING, I dont care how close the IRL racing was, as Paul Tracy said "the IRL cars are crapwagons". He was right.

[@RobertDetert]

The whole Indy Car Series now is spec cars and spec engines. And this was after 2008.when this all started. Tony George wasn't bad. He had the right idea. An open wheel series based around the Indianapolis 500. What's wrong with that..and the IRL cars weren't that bad actually. It did take them awhile for them to get them better..and adding road course tracks in 2005 was actually good for the IRL.

[@RobertDetert]

Roger Penske and company actually started the whole mess in 1979 when they started CART. CART never sanctioned the Indianapolis 500. That was still USAC. And that was a major problem. At least now beginning in 2008 there weren't 2 groups trying to run American open wheel racing. The current series actually sucks in my opinion. Spec cars and spec engines.

[@user-tv1le7sw2l]

Now we have no less than 6 Paul Tracy style drivers in 2022, and that's a good thing.

[@brettsterken7716]

gods these cars were gorgeous. Modern Indy are just so hideous

[@michelleferrero8206]

Poor man's Formula 1.

[@TheVirtualSportsNetwork]

There's always one elitist F1 snob trying to discredit someone else's series........

[@michelleferrero8206]

@@TheVirtualSportsNetwork Actually, I was an CART/ChampCar fan first. But when they gave up on ovals ( Michigan), I gave up on CART/ChampCar.

[@warrenself]

Ironically Bernie egged Tony George on to create the IRL because CART was becoming a global player and a threat to F1. The had a good relationship and it’s why F1 went to Indy in the 2000’s.

[@brendonburgess9721]

@@warrenselfdivide and conquer