Kalkhoven bullish on '07 season

"In the last 12 months we have taken huge, huge steps forward," he said, "and the fact that we have not gone out and been crowing about them was part of the plan.

"Looking at it objectively I think you'll say the series has taken significant progress for 2007 and beyond."

Speaking ahead of Spring Training at Laguna Seca next week, Kalkhoven said: "Next Thursday people will discover that there are a number of new sponsorship deals in Champ Car which we will develop, and there are a number of very fully-funded teams and it's going to be one hell of a season.

"There is absolutely no financial support being offered to any of the teams this year and the teams are standing or falling on their own success or failure. I'm delighted to say they tend to be standing.

"I'm not a great fan of highly subsidised racing as we have seen in the past or see in other series. And this year we have a new car, new teams and a series that is not being subsidised."

Kalkhoven did admit there had been some bad signals sent out by the lack of information surrounding the series.

"I do understand that series owners' teams running just one car in a test is a disquieting message to send to the fans and the constituency of Champ Car; I admit we've probably got the PR side a little bit wrong in the off-season.

"But I think you'll discover next week that everyone is moving in the right direction."

Asked to compare Champ Car in 2007 to 2006 in terms of its growth, Kalkhoven said: "We recognised we had some issues with our television. We have signed a major long-term agreement with a new television partner that is being announced.

"Obviously this is a transition year from where we were with some of our committed contracts, and it's a transition year that all our various partners are comfortable with.

"We also recognised that we needed to update the technology of the racing so we committed to a new car purchased by all the teams and which is being well proven in all of its trials as extremely effective.

"And I think it will be the basis of very close and competitive racing. We have already seen that in testing at Houston where two rookies were in the top four, and it's been a great development.

"The other thing is we've signed long-term agreements with a number of new promoters and we have new events which fit the pattern and future of our series and we will be announcing series sponsors as well."

Kalkhoven also stated his satisfaction with the growth of the Atlantic series.

"Atlantic is the foundation series for open wheel racing of the future. Last season we had the largest field we'd had for many years.

"This year the field will be as large. Last year we had a champion who will be racing in Champ Car this year [Simon Pagenaud], and next week there will be another announcement regarding a fully sponsored young American with a famous name [Graham Rahal].

"So Atlantics is the backbone and foundation of Champ Car and what we will be doing in future."

Although unwilling to impart information on the subject, Kalkhoven also hinted that one of the announcements at Laguna next week may be a new partnership between Cosworth, who build the 2.65-litre V8s in Champ Car, and a new engine manufacturer.

Ford and Champ Car split in late January just before huge financial losses were announced by the Dearborn manufacturer.