Laguna off calendar

Although the Californian road course was absent from the provisional schedule published at the end of last year, efforts had been ongoing to secure one of the remaining spare slots for the popular track.

"Champ Car is very disappointed about not being able to continue our long history with Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this season," said Champ Car's Joe Chrnelich.

"Many of the legends of open-wheel racing have made their names with victories at Laguna Seca, and we regret having to exclude the track from our 2005 schedule due to issues of date conflicts and economic issues. It was a very difficult business decision that we had to make for the future health of the series.

"The fact that the track is not part of the 2005 series does not mean that we are closed to the idea of returning to the venue in the future."

Laguna Seca has been on the Champ Car schedule every year since 1983, when Teo Fabi won the first CART-sanctioned event at the track in a Forsythe Racing March-Cosworth. Patrick Carpentier, also in a Forsythe-entered car, won what may well have been Laguna Seca's final Champ Car race in September 2004.