Ex-Champ Car teams expect big step

The warring series merged just a month before the start of the 2008 season, leaving the Champ Car teams in a race against time to prepare and adapt to the IndyCar Dallara-Hondas.

They were immediately competitive on road and street courses, with Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson winning at St Petersburg and Detroit respectively.

By the end of the year, many were getting amongst the front-runners on the ovals too. KV Racing's Oriol Servia was ultimately the top 'transition' driver and finished ninth in the championship.

Now, with a year's experience and a full off-season behind them, Rahal believes the ex-Champ Car squads will be on an equal footing to their rivals.

"It's been nice to see that everybody can take their time, we're bolting these things together properly, covering all the bases needed to make sure we can go out and compete with the big teams in this series," he said.

"We'd like to be one of those teams that can go out there and win on any given weekend. That's what we've taken our time to do.

"We don't want to set the expectations too high, but at the same time I see the effort that's being put in up there at the shop in Chicago, and I know that the guys certainly want to win.

"The way I look at it, if we can get some victories this year, if we can fight and be in the top five on the ovals, do the same on the road courses, we can finish I'd like to say in the top five in the championship at the end of the year. That's certainly do-able. It's going to take a lot of consistency and a fast car, and I think we can achieve that."

Conquest team boss Eric Bachelart also believes the field will be much closer in 2009, now that teams such as his are fully up to speed.

"We're going to go into 2009 with a better understanding and probably even closer competition," he said. "I don't think we're going to talk about transition teams anymore, just IndyCar teams. It will make things simpler for everybody. We won't have to explain what it was about before.

"The challenge for us is really to do well on the ovals. When it comes to the road courses, that was obviously our forte. We showed that last year on the road courses - all the ex-Champ Car teams were competitive."

Former champion Dario Franchitti, who is returning to the series with Ganassi this year, believes the long-time IndyCar teams will have to raise their game to fend off the rising challenge from the likes of Newman/Haas/Lanigan.

"I watched a lot from a distance last year to see what was happening. You saw the potential of the new teams with Graham winning at St Pete," said Franchitti.

"I think as those teams get more and more used to the regulations in the IndyCar Series, you're going to see the field get even more competitive and the drivers get more used to driving on ovals.

"It's going to be tough. I said to Scott (Dixon) recently, 'We're going to have to have everything together.'"