Danica Patrick First Stateside Conference - Long Beach

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

Danica Patrick Honors Long Beach Venue With First Stateside Conference

Danica Patrick, through the arrangement of the management of the Indy Racing League, held a news conference at 4:15pm PT in the press conference room at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. An honorable gesture was carried out by the IRL to have the woman who became the first-ever female motorsports driver to win a race in a professional open-wheel automobile racing series give a second news conference so soon after traveling from Japan to the Grand Prix racing venue in Long Beach.

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

This conference in Long Beach was held just 19 hours after Danica won the IRL race at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan and helps to strengthen the move toward unification of the two American Racing series (the merge of ChampCar into IndyCar).

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

The conference followed immediately after the ChampCar World Series podium winners conference and interview at the end of this, the final race featuring the rules, equipment, teams and drivers of the CCWS. The winner of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Will Power – KV Racing Technology, stated clearly that his hat was off for Danica and that she had earned the win through skill and strategy.

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

Thanks to the Indy Racing League for making this happen … a class act!

In the video, Danica discusses the final laps strategy and the end of the race, celebrating, and the team day planned for AGR at the American Honda facility in Torrance, California tomorrow.

... notes from The EDJE

Danica Patrick Sets Historic First-Ever Mark In Japan

Danica Patrick celebrates her historic achievement with Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon on the podium at the Twin Ring track in Motegi, Japan (live camera transfer of internet broadcast). Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

Danica Patrick Sets Historic First-Ever Mark In Japan

On a day where the possibility of water seeping onto the race track threatened to postpone racing at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan (as it had done the day before), Danica Patrick uses her skills and her cool foot to out drive, out pace, and out last the top echelon of Indy Racing League drivers to become the first-ever female driver to win a race at the highest levels of professional open-wheel automobile racing.

Danica Patrick take a parade lap after first-ever historic win to accept cheers from the fans at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan (live camera transfer of internet broadcast). Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

Indy Japan 300 Post-race Press Conference>>

2008 will easily go down as a year of firsts in American Motosports!

First unified open-wheel racing season in well over a couple of decades (INDY perspective). The youngest driver to win a professional open-wheel automobile race (Graham Rahal at age 19). First team to win an IRL race other than the three top teams in the IRL since 2005 when Newman/Haas /Lanigan placed Graham Rahal in the top spot in St. Petersburg. And NOW - - - The first woman to ever win a race at the highest levels of professional open-wheel automobile racing.

All of this activity and we are only two and a half races (or is that three?) into an eighteen race season.

The Dallara chassis may be old, but it still races as long as there are teams and drivers to suit up and show up.

Whats next? A ChampCar T-Team takes the championship points lead? If Graham Rahal wins in Long Beach tomorrow, he will be second in the points with three full races into the season (or is that four?).

All Hail Danica Patrick!

... notes from The EDJE

To Take A Walk On The Honor Side

LONG BEACH MOTORSPORTS WALK OF FAME: Racers Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones and Gary Gabelich are inducted. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

To Take A Walk On The Honor Side

On Thursday, April 17, 2008, at 11:00am, the kick-off event to the four-wheel Grand Prix speedfest through the streets of Long Beach was held on the western sidewalk in front of the Long Beach Convention Center and not one engine rev was heard.

The event was the third time in three years where the city of Long Beach honors the motorsports stars that have either lived in Long Beach or have graced the oceanside city with their talent, along the way to a pinnacle career behind the wheel in sporting competition. A one-of-a-kind, two-foot in diameter medallion was cast, listing the name and accomplishments of the honoree, and then set in cement for all race fans and visitors to see as they walk down the east side of Pine avenue in front of the Convention Center.

This year was witness to the honoring of three towering legends of motorsports in Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones, and Gary Gabelich and, to be honest, while these men were honored through the ceremony on Pine Avenue, Long Beach became the biggest winner in the exchange.

The Long Beach Motorsports Walk Of Fame induction ceremony helped to put aside the fact that this year is the last year the ChampCar World Series cars and management will be putting on the event of the race (as some of the people involved have) for over twenty years. It is a melancholy year, in that the cars will race but only nine drivers will be awarded points that matter to them for the balance of the year – twenty cars and drivers to honor ChampCar, but only nine with skin in the game.

The Indy Racing League has provided a path of unification where two open-wheel racing series merge into one, but this year, the IRL Management (other than season points recognition for the transitioning drivers) is nowhere to be found. No visibility, no public relations, no official status. This lack of interest extends all of the way to the non-recognition or listing of this 34th edition of the Grand Prix in Long Beach to their website where the race is not mentioned.

The Long Beach Motorsports Walk Of Fame for 2008 was a breath of fresh air and a walk on the honor side. The honor of the accomplishments of sportsmen inducted, the honor of a valiant legacy of American open-wheel racing, and the honor of a city, spirit, and a venue that have no equal. Long Live the Grand Prix of Long Beach … from Shoreline Drive to the short shute along Pine Avenue.

Now let’s go racing and make some history. Let the “fine nine” go immediately to the front of the pack and have a Grand Prix race for the Indy Racing League ages.

This excerpted from the Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA)

Cementing their legacies
WALK OF FAME: Racers Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones and Gary Gabelich are inducted.
By David Felton, Staff Writer

LONG BEACH - The man synonymous with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach - Mario Andretti - is now a permanent part of the community.

Andretti, who drove in the very first Grand Prix in 1975 and won the race four times, was inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame on Thursday, along with Parnelli Jones and Gary Gabelich.
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They were honored in an hour-long induction ceremony attended by city dignitaries, family members and racing fans.

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

"(Coming to Long Beach) is like coming back home," said Andretti, who won in Long Beach in 1977, 1984, 1985 and 1987. "I don't know anywhere on this planet I feel more welcome than Long Beach."
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Andretti said he wasn't confident race founder Chris Pook's idea for a street course in Long Beach would work.

"I thought it would never fly," he said. "But I could see it would have a chance when I saw how the city of Long Beach got behind it. The city fathers saw this as a tremendous opportunity to bring this city to the attention of the world.

"Look at this town now," he continued. "This city is a destination."

Grand Prix Association of Long Beach CEO Jim Michaelian said Andretti's thrilling 1977 victory over Jody Scheckter and Niki Lauda "put the stamp of authenticity on this event."
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Andretti, now 68, won four IndyCar titles and was honored as United States Driver of the Year in 1967, 1978 and 1984, the only driver ever chosen in three decades.

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

Jones won the Indy 500 as a driver (1963) and as an owner (1970-71) and also earned four NASCAR victories in 34 starts. He won numerous midget and sprint car races and is a legend in off-road racing as a driver and owner.

In 1975, Jones owned the Formula 5000 car Andretti drove.
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Jones, 74, was remembered by one speaker as the fiercest competitor he ever faced on a track.
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Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

Gabelich, perhaps more than any of the inductees, had the need for speed.
The San Pedro native began drag racing at 16 and won the first-ever jet-powered drag race in 1959 - topping 200 mph - at 19 years old.

He's best known for the Blue Flame, his 37-foot, 5,000- pound car powered by a liquid gas-hydrogen peroxide rocket engine that broke the land speed record in 1970 at 622.287 mph. The record stood for 13 years.

Gabelich later developed a love for powerboats and set the National Drag Boat Association record at 200.44 mph in 1969.
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Gabelich was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1984.

His widow is Long Beach Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, who spoke on his behalf. Gabelich's son Guy and mother Rae also attended. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (The EDJE) 2008

"It is beyond an honor for Gary to be recognized with two legends of racing," Councilwoman Gabelich said.

While preparing her remarks for Thursday, Gabelich randomly chose one of about 20 books she has on land speed records, trying to find the words to explain why some choose to race the clock instead of each other.

The book she grabbed was "Land Speed Record" by Cyril Posthumus, published in 1971, with a forward written by Gary Gabelich.

In it, he wrote land speed records are "the measure of man's assault ... on speed and time." He also wrote he still looked upon the Blue Flame as "a beautiful woman."

"Today is the most special of all," said Rae Gabelich. "To be recognized in the city he called home ... is an honor."
Reference Here>>

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is set to be televised live on ESPN2 - The race is scheduled to start on the track at 1:00pm PT.

... notes from The EDJE

Long Beach 2008 – The Panoz DP01’s Last Hurrah!

The Champ Car name - In 2003, Champ Car replaced CART as the sanctioning body of the racing series that has been promoted as Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. This name was adopted after FedEx dropped their title sponsorship of the CART series. /// In 2007, with the withdrawal of Bridgestone and Ford Motor Company, the official name of the top-tier series promoted by Champ Car is now simply the Champ Car World Series. Caption & Image Credit: champcar.wordpress.com

Long Beach 2008 – The Panoz DP01’s Last Hurrah!

After a little over one year of service, North American open-wheel racing’s ChampCar World Series racing platform, the Panoz manufactured DP01 will see its last competition this coming weekend - April 18-20, 2008.

The 34th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will be run through the streets and down Shoreline Drive featuring the DP01 and scored through Indy Racing League 2008 Championship points due to the unification of American rules open-wheel racing series between the ChampCar World Series and the Indy Racing League.

Panoz DP01 "Technical Tool" - The measuring rack used to make sure all chassis meet technical specifications. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (EDJE) 2007

By any measure, the Panoz DP01 was a success in its maiden, and as it turns out – last, year. A beautiful and functional design … from the smooth wishbone front wing mount to the rear sidepod airflow escape louvers, a stable platform from the words “Green!-Green!-Green!”

In the initial test of the chassis back at the end of August, 2006, the car spent testing week in the capable hands of two-time Champ Car race-winner Roberto Moreno. Roberto piloted the new machine through every lap of the more than 600 miles in searing 90 degree conditions of the week despite not having been in a Champ Car since 2003. The DP01 Sebring test team included engineers from Champ Car, Cosworth, Pi Research and Elan Motorsports along with Hewland and Performance Friction Brakes.

Top-Down DP01 - Alex Figge's Pacific Coast Motorsports Panoz at the Las Vegas Grand Prix 2007. Image Credit: Pacific Coast Motorsports - LAT

"It was nice to be back in a Champ Car and nice to have that kind of power at your fingertips again," stated Moreno at the time of the initial tests at Sebring International Raceway. "I couldn't be happier with this car. The new aero package is really nice and I think it will be great for the guys once the teams get ahold of it. We are really sticking well in the mid-speed corners and the car is really balanced well aerodynamically and we haven't even thrown anything at it from a standpoint of trying to gain mechanical grip. I think that the team has done a great job with this car."

The Panoz DP01 was developed to be safer, and less aero-dependent while racing closely with other cars. The new model had numerous changes from the previous Lola car, including more downforce from the underbody. Approximately 60% of the car's 5,500 lb (2,500 kg) of downforce at 200 mph (320 km/h) will come from the bottom of the car. This is done by directing the air in a way to create downforce on the car, by sucking it to the racetrack. This will put less dependency on the front and rear wings in the event of a failure at high speed.

Some believe that the Panoz DP01 is a better chassis than the IRL standard Dallara (if not just newer) but both chassis lack the meeting of cockpit measurement and safety standards set out by the FIA Institute. It is the intention of the IRL that the next generation of chassis employed (and hopefully introduced by the 2010 season) will conform to an international standard in design safety.

If the cockpit of the Panoz DP01 was FIA compliant, it still would be doubtful that a Tony George chaired operation would allow that much of a merging to take place within the IRL. Even though the DP01 was designed to fit with the IRL specified Honda engine, and the dimensions are roughly equal enough to run with the current and older Dallara chassis, this chassis is a “ChampCar” chassis and thereby does not fit in the management scheme of things.

Side By Side Comparison
ChampCar Panoz DP01 and the IndyCar Dallara

Image Credit: Scanned image from AutoWeek Volume 58, Issue 9 - (click to enlarge)

... notes from The EDJE

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Unifies With First Entrant List

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Position Pole - Image Credit: Ballhype.com

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Unifies With First Entrant List

The list features thirty-two drivers named for the 39 car entries, an increase of seven drivers over last year's initial entry list.

Penske has entered a 77 car just on the off chance that Sam Hornish (currently with a full year ride at NASCAR) commits and will be qualifying it.

Hopefully, Paul Tracy will end up in the no.22 Vision car. Contract sticking points with his former team, Forsythe, currently has him sidelined.

We know that there has to be others now that there is unification. Pacific Coast Motorsports is not listed but it is expected that Mario Dominguez and Tyler Tadevic (Team President) can pull a package together for the 500.

With all of the good drivers without a ride, there has to be more teams and personnel to rise up to the challenge.

Initial Entrant List (click to enlarge) - Image Credit: autosport.com

This Excerpted from The Canadian Press -

Open-wheel unification brings 12 rookies onto Indy 500 entry list
The Canadian Press – April 11, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS — The unification of U.S. open-wheel racing put 12 rookies, including recent IRL IndyCar Series race-winner Graham Rahal, among the initial list of 32 drivers entered in the Indianapolis 500.

Overall, 39 cars were on the entry list released Friday by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but most of the teams will have at least one backup car for each of their drivers.

"The entry list is very healthy this year," Speedway spokesman Ron Green said. "It's actually similar to what we've had in the last couple of years from an entry standpoint, but it's healthier from the standpoint that there are more car-driver combinations already established going into the month of May."

Practice for the May 25 race will begin with the annual rookie orientation program May 4.

The 19-year-old Rahal, son of car owner and former Indy winner Bobby Rahal, won his IndyCar Series debut last week in St. Petersburg, Fla., becoming the youngest winner of a major open-wheel race in North America. He'll drive the No. 06 Dallara entered by Newman/Haas/Lanigan, one of the former Champ Car teams that joined the Indy Racing League.

The recent merger, which also brings Newman/Haas/Lanigan teammate Justin Wilson of England, includes KV Racing (Oriol Servia and Will Power), Dale Coyne Racing (Bruno Junqueira and Mario Moraes) and Conquest Racing (Franck Perera and Enrique Bernoldi) among the new participants at Indianapolis.

"The unification of the sport, as we all expected, is making the entries, not only for the Indianapolis 500, but for the other IndyCar Series races, much stronger," Green said. "The people that really benefit are the fans that like to see all the car-driver combinations come together for the month of May."
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Besides Rahal, the rookies include Hideki Mutoh of Japan, who replaced last year's Indy and series champion Dario Franchitti with Andretti Green Racing. Franchitti left the series to race in NASCAR this season. Former winner Sam Hornish Jr. also left the IRL for NASCAR and was replaced on Team Penske by veteran Ryan Briscoe.

The former winners entered this year are Penske's Helio Castroneves (2001 and 2002), Buddy Rice (2004) of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Dan Wheldon (2005) of Ganassi Racing. The other rookies include Bernoldi, Moraes, Perera, Power, Servia, Wilson E.J. Viso, Jay Howard, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alex Lloyd.

Howard and Lloyd are former champions in the Indy Pro Series - now known as Firestone Indy Lights - the IRL's top developmental series. The 12 rookies would be the most to start the race since 13 newcomers started in 1997, the year after the IRL began.

For the second straight year, three women are entered: veterans Danica Patrick, Milka Duno and Sarah Fisher, who will drive for the first time as owner of her own team.
Reference Here>>

Potential Of 20 Car Field For The Long Beach Grand Prix

The beginning of the end for ChampCar World Series in the streets of Long Beach. The fans are feeling locked out of unity information from the IRL official website about Long Beach. The PANOZ DP01 makes its final appearence in a race in that the tub specifications do not meet minimum requirements as set by the FIA (governing body for Formula One - safety parity) going into the IRL merged format. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (EDJE) 2007

Potential Of 20 Car Field For The Long Beach Grand Prix Of 2008

In an era where transitioning from a two sanctioning body open-wheel series to one supreme governing and sanctioning body to stage open-wheel automobile racing, information is very hard to come by.

The websites of both governing bodies are not mentioning information about the race through the streets in Long Beach and it is tough to understand why.

As for the ChampCar World Series website, it is a little hard to see why they would apply any more resources than they have to. They are the series that is being merged into the Indy Racing League. The CCWS is no longer and has applied for bankruptcy protection as the doors swing shut so why maintain the website.

The Indy Racing League has other issues. For their part, they are choosing to behave as if the race in Long Beach doesn't even exist as far as their website, indycar.com, is concerned. Not one mention in their articles, their schedule, their advertising (if any, as of the posting of this article), even though they are going to award full and sanctioned points to count toward the 2008 Series Championship.

Some of the reasons for this lack of information coordination range from a conflict between Honda who supplies the engines for the IRL cars and the master sponsor of the Long Beach race, Toyota, to legal articles mentioned in the bankruptcy papers filed on behalf of the CCWS that limit the IRL to even show their face - WHO KNOWS ... but the fans in Los Angeles suffer without a care from the sanctioning body.

To add further insult to this purposeful tactic, the first information about a driver line up for the race has to come from a posting at a British Formula One Fansite!

Originally Posted by krp205 – IndyCar Nation, Talkback (indycar.com messageboard)

autosport.com has just announced a 20 car field for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Justin Wilson (#9 Finisher – St. Pete) and Graham Rahal (Winner of Round #2 – Saint Petersburg) at Newman/Hass. (2)

Jimmy Vasser will join Oriol Servia (#7 Finisher – St. Pete) and Will Power (#8 Finisher – St. Pete) at KV. (5)

Bruno Junqueira (T-Driver) and Mario Moraes (T-Driver) at Dale Coyne. (7)

Nelson Phillippe and Roberto Moreno joining EJ Viso (#4 Finisher - St. Pete) at HVM Minardi. (10)

Franck Perera (T-Driver) and Enriques Bernoldi (T-Driver) at Conquest (12)

Paul Tracy, Franck Montagny and David Martinez at Forsythe. (15)

Alex Tagliani at Walker. (16)

Mario Dominguez and Alex Figge at Pacific Coast. (18)

Antonio Pizzonia and Juho Annala at Rocketsports. (20)
Reference Here>>

This brings the number of drivers where the points actually matter to nine (in BOLD) who will be fighting for a points paying position with eleven drivers who are racing this race as the FINAL race for the ChampCar World Series and do not have a ride with the IRL series sanctioning body for the 2008 season.

Are you all ready … I am just going to have to say it!

THIS IS WEIRD!

If this lack of support and excitement from the Indy Racing League to the fans of open-wheel racing in Los Angeles continues, 2008 will have to go down as a mutt year in the annals of Long Beach Grand Prix history.

Mario Andretti to be inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk Of Fame, 11am, April 17, 2008. Artist conception of Mario Andretti passing Jody Scheckter to win the Formula One 1977 US Grand Prix West at Long Beach. Image Credit: lugnutsracing.com

The race is due to be held April 18-20, 2008 with civic activities to begin one day earlier at 1 p.m., racing greats Mario Andretti and Parnelli Jones will be inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame (Pine Ave. at the Convention Center), joining past inductees Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Paul Newman, Carl Haas, Chris Pook and Brian Redman. Former land speed record holder Gary Gabelich will also be inducted posthumously.

... notes from The EDJE

Got Parts! No Sponsor! No Problem - Graham Rahal WINS

Graham Rahal takes the checker flag at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg becoming the youngest ever to win an IndyCar Series race. Image Credit: Ron McQueeney – indycar.com

Got Parts! No Sponsor! No Problem - Graham Rahal WINS

This is a great story (again, with apologies to Kenny Chesney)!

It goes from No Parts (and no race for the first race), No Sponsor (Hole In The Wall Camp is, team owner, Paul Newman's charity), to No Problem for the first win by a CCWS T-Team!

Good on Graham Rahal (and father Bobby) of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

The reason this IS a great story has to do with many reasons.

Graham Rahal came close to winning his first race at the age of 18, last year in the ChampCar World Series when he came in second place on the podium for the Grand Prix of Houston, April 22, 2007.

Rahal came back from a spinout early in the Saint Petersburg race, Sunday afternoon, to become the youngest winner in major open-wheel history. At 19 years, 93 days, Rahal broke the age record set two years ago in Sonoma, Calif., by another driver from a racing family, Marco Andretti, who was 19 years, 167 days old.

With this win, the ChampCar World Series Transition Teams crack the ice on its first win in only two races proving that the “T-Teams” ARE competitive with recognized, established leading teams in the IRL in this first season of unification. Many experts speculated that at minimum, it would take six to ten races for the CCWS T-Teams to catch on to the racing set-ups of the IRL Dallara chassis - Honda engine package. This win was not only won on a closed temporary street course (a CCWS strong point), it was won through strategy.

The driver who came in second had won the race the previous two years running … and was poised, through a strategic last pit stop where Helio Castroneves, of Team Penske, took on fuel only (no tires) and leaped forward seven spots to come in right behind Graham Rahal for the re-start. The trick in strategy at this very point, and very easy to overlook, is that Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (four time CCWS Championship winning team) kept Graham Rahal out hoping that the car would have enough fuel to finish the race. The strategy gamble paid dividends in this unified 2008 IRL season by posting a first ever CCWS T-Team race win in the second of eighteen scheduled races.

Graham Rahal had help with fuel saving yellow flag laps where the racers were slowed and held behind the pace car for several laps while track crews cleaned up after cars that had collected the wall, or each, other around the track during the last stint before the checkered flag that would end the race.

In the final re-start with just a few laps left, it was feared that Castroneves, with all of his winning experience (two-time Indy 500 Champion), would be able to get the drop on the much younger, non-winning Rahal, but Graham’s age hides the fact that he comes from a grand racing DNA tradition being the son of past Three-Time CART Champion, Indy 500 Winner (both as a driver and team owner) and IRL team owner (Rahal-Letterman Racing), Bobby Rahal. Graham Rahal answered the challenge at the re-start by bringing the field up to racing speed before the first turn of the main straightaway to receive the checkered flag and resume racing. All Helio Castroneves could do is maintain position as Graham placed a little distance between them until the end of the rain-dampened race.

Some of the best news for the Indianapolis Racing League in this year of unification is how well the CCWS T-Teams did in a race venue that was completely new to most all of the teams and drivers. Five of the top ten places were occupied by T-Team drivers. P1 - Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing), P4 - EJ (Ernesto) Viso (Former Minardi Team USA – HVM Racing), P5 - Enrique Bernoldi (Conquest Racing - with consulting from Forsythe), P7 - Oriol Servia (KV Racing Technology), P8 - Will Power (KV Racing Technology). That is competitive no mater how one slices it!

The Indianapolis Racing League wants to say "Transition tag gone!" (as per an article posted at indycar.com by Dave Lewandowski) but until the IRL management shows an interest in the race weekend at Long Beach (which happens over the same weekend as the engine supplier race (Honda) held in Motegi, Japan), the ChampCar teams will always be viewed as T-Teams!

Com' On! the Long Beach Grand Prix race can not get any play as being listed as a race in the schedule at indycar.com website - No opportunity to link to event information - No ticket sales - NOTHING (as of the writing of this post). To be fair, the ChampCar site isn't much help either, although, this site at least has a link to additional information.

Heck, the race in Long Beach can not even be mentioned by the house writer in his article about Saint Petersburg ... you know, that the next race one will be able to see this race winner, Graham Rahal, compete in is LONG BEACH ... not Motegi, Japan! (please note: the possibility exists that Graham could race in Japan, catch a private jet and start the Long Beach race from the back of the field - pure speculation)

Again, Good on Graham Rahal and the ChampCar World Series Transition Teams for a great showing in the streets of Saint Petersburg, Florida before these guys give one last hurrah to the PANOZ DP01 through the streets in Long Beach.

The DP01 chassis will be featured in the final ChampCar race, and the only ChampCar race that will award IRL points toward the 2008 IRL season championship in the streets at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 17-20, 2008 - Long Beach, California.

See you all on Shoreline Drive!

UPDATE - 4-15-2008:

IndyCar Series News & Notes - April 14, 2008
By indycar.com

Today's IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights headlines
**One weekend, two races in two hemispheres
**Rahal's win broke three-team, 37-race streak
**Web traffic spikes at indycar.com
Reference Here>>

Two of the greatest takeaway’s of the article referenced are

1.) Rahal's win broke three-team, 37-race streak: Graham Rahal's victory in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg April 6 for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing was the first by a driver for a team other than Andretti Green Racing, Target Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske since Aug. 14, 2005 - a span of 37 IndyCar Series races. Fernandez Racing's Scott Sharp won the race at Kentucky Speedway in 2005 before the streak started.

Read that as T-Team success!

2.) Web traffic spikes at indycar.com: The unification of open-wheel racing under the IndyCar Series banner has already resulted in increased car counts and a renewed interest among sponsors and fans. Another sign of the growing excitement surrounding the unified IndyCar Series is the drastic increase in web traffic at the series' official Web site, http://www.indycar.com/. The site, which unveiled a new, improved design in March, has seen tremendous growth since the beginning of the year.

Read this as people wanting to get information on unification but can not get any.

This article mentions that there is a race in Long Beach … but try to get any direct information on the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach from the indycar.com website.

… notes from The EDJE