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Long Beach plans Champ Car finale

The Long Beach organisers say they are determined to make this year's race a final celebration of Champ Car

The famous Californian street event has become part of the IRL IndyCar Series after the merger between Tony George's championship and the Champ Car World Series.

But with the unification taking place late in the winter, it was impossible to resolve the calendar clash between Long Beach and the IRL's scheduled Motegi event for this season.

The series will therefore split again for the weekend of 18-20 April, with the IRL teams running at Motegi and the ex-Champ Car squads taking their Panoz DP01 chassis to Long Beach for a final race. Both will count for full IRL points.

Grand Prix Association of Long Beach CEO Jim Michaelian is aiming to attract many names and cars from Champ Car's past to the event to pay a proper tribute to the championship.

"For 25 years, we've hosted a series that has given our fans countless great racing thrills," he said.

"We plan on using the weekend of April 18-20 to celebrate the many notable drivers, great cars and memorable moments that have been a hallmark of Champ Car racing here at Long Beach for a quarter-century.

"We'll be honouring our past and, at the same time, setting the stage for the showcasing the unified IndyCar Series as it comes to the streets of Long Beach in 2009."

There were fears that Long Beach would struggle to attract a sufficient Champ Car field as teams turned their attention to their IndyCar programmes.

But the IRL has announced that the ex-Champ Car squads must compete at Long Beach if they want to receive the package of financial and technical incentives that is being provided to ease their transition to the IndyCar Series.

Former Champ Car co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven did not rule out the possibility of some IndyCar drivers flying back from Motegi to race at Long Beach the following day.

"You never know, we might even see a couple of drivers coming back from Motegi and jumping in a DP01," he suggested during yesterday's unification press conference.

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