MIKE HARRIS
Associated Press
February 6, 2008 at 12:12 PM EST
Paul Tracy smiled as he looked up and down the surprisingly busy pit road during last week's Champ Car World Series preseason test at Sebring International Raceway.
"Looks pretty good, doesn't it?" the series' elder statesman said. "We're already ahead of where we were last year."
Fourteen car-and-driver combinations were on hand for the first test of the season and optimism filled the hot, heavy Florida air.
Against all odds, Champ Car is getting ready for another far-flung season as an American-based series visiting Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia.
Sponsorship dollars remain in short supply, the series owners continue to cut the budget for TV and marketing, and none of the drivers — except perhaps the 39-year-old Tracy, causes a stir in America's national consciousness.
Almost anyone with knowledge of the situation will quickly volunteer the belief that the only way to save Champ Car would be for the circuit formally known as CART to merge with or sell out to its open-wheel rival, the Indy Racing League and its IndyCar Series.
Numerous negotiations between the two entities over the years have all broken down, mostly over who would control the merged series.
IndyCar has its own troubles — particularly losing stars such as Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr. to NASCAR. But it also has the popular Indianapolis 500 as part of its schedule — a fact not lost on sponsors and drivers.
But don't tell Champ Car president Steve Johnson it's time for the series to fade away quietly.
"We're sitting in a better position now than we were a year ago," Johnson said during the Sebring test. "Overall, I'm optimistic with the future.
"Last year here we might have had eight or 10 cars and not a (sponsor) decal on any of them," Johnson added. "This year, we have cars and more sponsors and there are a lot of good things happening that I can't talk about yet."
The 14-race Champ Car schedule begins April 20 in Long Beach, Calif., and Johnson said he expects to have at least 17 cars in the lineup.
The driver lineup is expected to include Tracy, a Canadian, 19-year-old American Graham Rahal, the son of longtime racing star Bobby Rahal, and a United Nations of returning stars such as Will Power of Australia, Justin Wilson of England, Robert Doornbos of The Netherlands, Bruno Junqueira of Brazil, Oriol Servia of Spain and Simon Pagenaud of France.
"Look at our driver lineup," Johnson said. "Up and down the paddock, it's the strongest they've seen in a long time."
Gone, though, is Sebastien Bourdais, the Frenchman who dominated the series by winning the last four championships before choosing to take his shot at Formula One in 2008.
But Johnson even found hope in that big loss.
"Everybody out there wants Sebastien's championship," he said. "It's a different intensity out there. You can see it in their eyes."
Even Tracy, whose title came in 2003, Bourdais' rookie season, is hoping he can be a factor in the championship after a disappointing 2007.
Tracy, who drives for Gerald Forsythe, was unhappy last year, complaining openly that he wasn't being given the tools to win.
All that changed the day after Christmas when he met with Forsythe and other team officials and a new plan of action was set out, including replacing all of the team's engineers and most of its mechanics.
"For us, right now, it's a big learning experience," Tracy said. "I'm pretty happy with what we've done over the winter. They've hired the best people they could find out there and we're all on the same page now."
As for the future of the series, Tracy has been through all the ups and down since making his CART debut in 1991, and he prefers to ignore all the rumors about the future and concentrate on the present.
"Everybody's talking about merger, no merger," he said. "I don't know what's going to happen. All I'm concentrating on is this. ... Just look around at all these cars for this first test. I'm looking forward to this year."