Champ Cars ready to go out at night

Musco Lighting towers have been erected and tested both at the Milwaukee Mile and the Cleveland airfield circuit, which will hold Round Nine of the series on July 5. According to CART officials, Cleveland will be the largest outdoor lighting project ever attempted and the series' governing body has contracted the company that provided temporary lighting at Ground Zero, after the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, to facilitate the event.

Floodlit racing has, of course, already been successfully adopted in America by the IndyCar Series and the NASCAR Winston Cup, but this is the first time out at night for Champ Cars. The larger of the two projects will require 21 Mobile lighting trucks producing the energy equivalent of nearly half a million standard car headlights - comparable to lighting 23 football fields at once!

"With the bright lights and the Cleveland downtown skyline in the background, Champ Car racing is going to be showcased in a manner like it's never been seen before," said CART CEO Chris Pook. "This is truly going to re-energize what is already a terrific event."

The series returned from its two European legs with the veteran drivers under pressure from up and coming Champ Car talent. Paul Tracy shares the championship lead with Bruno Junquiera, while back to back wins at Brands Hatch and the EuroSpeedway Lausitz have catapulted rookie driver Sebastien Bourdais into fourth, behind Michel Jourdain Jr. Third and second place finishes abroad have promoted Mario Dominguez to fifth, ahead of the more experienced Patrick Carpentier.