Champ Car confirms return to Europe

There will be a race in Assen, Holland on September 2, and at Zolder, Belgium, on September 9, both promoted by Dutchman Bart Rietbergen.

"It took a while to finalise," commented Champ Car President Steve Johnson, "but it was important to us all to persist. We have about five times the number of European drivers as we do US drivers in our series, and so we have a great number of fans in Europe.

"At some venues, it takes a while to build up a strong fanbase but I'm confident that these races at Assen and Zolder will be huge successes right from their inaugural events."

There had been worries that Zolder required too much work, elevation changes meaning that Champ Cars might start taking off over the crests, but Johnson said that work had already started on modifications.

He said: "Tony Cotman [Champ Car VP of Operations] has just returned from Zolder and he's confident the work can be done within the required time frame."

"We are excited to bring the American equivalent of Formula One racing to Europe ," said Rietbergen.

"Champ Car provides close racing that is easy for European fans to understand, and they will be very impressed with the access that they will have in the Champ Car paddock."

Johnson stated that Champ Car's deal with Assen and Zolder was a multi-year agreement but that he would "rather not go into the details of the length of the deals."

However, he did add that the length of the agreements would not preclude the possibility of other European tracks joining the Champ Car calendar, including the long-rumoured Greek event held at an old airport in Athens, and possibly an event in France too.

Johnson said: "We are launching six new venues in one year [Las Vegas streets, Zhuhai, St Jovite and Phoenix streets are the others] which has never been done before in Champ Car or before that, CART, history.

"But thanks to the huge influx of European drivers and European sponsors, there is the chance for more races in Europe as soon as 2008. We want to do what's best by our series, our fans and our sponsors."

Although this would expand the Champ Car calendar to a total of 17 races theoretically, the Denver race is in doubt, following its long-term sponsor Centrix withdrawing its sponsorship before last year's event amid financial difficulties and job layoffs.

No replacement has been found.

Johnson said: "We haven't made any official decision to pull that race. We're evaluating the situation."