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Drivers embrace unified series

IndyCar drivers embraced the four-day-old concept of unification Tuesday as the series prepared for its annual pre-season test sessions and the newcomers scrambled to find cars

The addition of as many as nine teams and as many as a dozen cars is expected later in the season after the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series agreed last week to bring Champ Car teams into the IRL's IndyCar Series.

The announcement ended a 12-year division in American open-wheel racing and elicited a positive reaction from drivers attending Tuesday's IndyCar Series media day activities at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"Finally I might be in the right place at the right time," said Foyt Enterprises' Darren Manning, whose career has encompassed parts in both series. "Now we have a single-seater series that's second only to Formula One.

"It's where a driver wants to be. There are only 18 spots on a Formula One grid, and they aren't giving any of them up. This is going to be another place where the best drivers in the world can compete."

Tony George, CEO of the Indy Racing League and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is scheduled to address the media during a press conference Wednesday at Homestead with Kevin Kalkhoven, former head of Champ Car.

The newly unified series then will take to the Homestead oval - although no former Champ Car teams are expected to be ready on short notice - for testing. The season opener is scheduled March 29 at Homestead.

Representatives from all nine former Champ Car teams attended a meeting Monday at Homestead with Brian Barnhart, IndyCar's president of competition and operations.

Most of those team officials are expected to attend the Wednesday and Thursday practice sessions at Homestead, as well as a three-day test next week at Sebring International Raceway.

While the new additions got a feel for the new equipment and the way things are done in the IndyCar Series, those already on board offered their ideas about the future of open-wheel racing and how it's presented.

"You've got to have some name continuity; it can't be musical chairs for drivers," said Ryan Hunter-Reay, who competed in Champ Car in 2003 and 2004 before landing at Rahal Letterman Racing in the IndyCar Series last year.

"You have to show personalities. That's the thing NASCAR does so well. I'm not saying we copy NASCAR, but people need to know what our drivers are like. I don't even watch NASCAR that much, but I know the personalities of their drivers."

Also of interest in Wednesday's press conference are future venues and car specs for the new generation of chassis and engines, set for implementation in 2010. Drivers and teams from both sides have expressed an interest in more road and street courses and fewer large ovals.

Future schedules could expand to 20 or more races a season from the current 16. Champ Car street races at Long Beach, Surfers Paradise and Edmonton are expected to be added to the 2008 IndyCar schedule, but drivers and teams are interested in what lies in 2009 and beyond.

"I firmly believe that open-wheel racing should be a mix of road courses, street courses and ovals," Hunter-Reay said. "That's what makes a true champion. You have to have a variety of skills to be successful with that format."

By the time the former Champ Car teams have acquired new Dallara chassis and Honda engines, the fields for races are expected to be somewhere around 24 to 26 cars. That won't happen consistently until after the Indianapolis 500 in May, insiders say.

Some of the top crossovers are expected to be Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal from Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, Paul Tracy from Forsythe Racing, and Will Power from Derrick Walker's Team Australia.

As many as a dozen new cars could be added to races outside the Indianapolis 500, which could draw 40 or more competitors for the 33-car field.

That depends, of course, on whether those teams can find cars. The IRL reportedly has begun the process of buying Dallara chassis from current teams and redistributing them to former Champ Car teams, but it's not clear how many new teams will be ready for a season opener that's less than a month away.

Still, the mood was upbeat Tuesday as drivers shuffled through routine preseason photo shoots. Franck Perera of Conquest Racing was the only former Champ Car driver to attend, but others are expected to be available during the next two days of testing.

"Now drivers can focus on racing and not on the overall picture," Manning said. "It's going to be great."

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