Tracy doubtful of series reunification

Tracy has staunchly supported the Champ Car World Series in the past 15 years, while many teams and drivers defected to the IRL.

However, even though both Champ Car World Series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven and IRL founder Tony George have both publicly admitted they a speaking about a deal, Tracy believes that no real progress has been made.

"The answer for North American open-wheel racing is reunification, but I'm not putting a lot of hope into it yet," Tracy said in his first exclusive autosport.com column. "I've been through this war for ten years.

"Every year I've heard comments like 'we're working on reunification' or even 'it's going to happen'. It's the same every year: from January right up to the Indy 500 in May, a light bulb goes off in someone's head and they say 'Oh we need to get the two series together'.

"Well Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti, Barry Green, Gerry Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven, Roger Penske... they've all tried it, and so far what's happened?

"So no, I don't get my hopes up and lay in bed at night hoping and wishing they'd get back together. If it happens, then that's great: it would be great to have the best drivers from each series, mix in some of the races the IRL has with the great races we have in Champ Cars and you'd have one truly great series.

"That would be fantastic. But I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it, because I don't have any control over it, don't even have any influence over it."

In this week's edition of "Paul Position", Tracy gives his views on the state of open-wheel racing in America, previews the upcoming Champ Car season, considers his title chances, and rates his main rivals.

Click here to read the first instalment of "Paul Position"