USA boss eyes Champ Car venues
A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger hopes that the A1GP series might be able to pick up some of the American venues that lost open wheel racing dates due to the Champ Car World Series and IRL IndyCar Series merger
With the unified championship primarily following the IRL calendar, eleven circuits have lost Champ Car races for 2008 - including American tracks Houston, Laguna Seca, Cleveland, Portland and Elkhart Lake.
A1GP raced at Laguna in its inaugural season, but has not returned to the United States since then.
"We'll take a look at the established road races that are not going to be a part of the unified schedule for IndyCar and see if there might be an opportunity for A1 Team USA to race on home ground," Weidinger said.
Weidinger has sponsored one of Dreyer & Reinbold Indy entries for the past two seasons, and was also a co-owner of former IRL team Kelley Racing.
He praised the IndyCar and Champ Car series owners for finally achieving reunification.
"American open-wheel fans, and I'm proud to be a member of that group, now have a rallying point to support IndyCar racing," Weidinger said.
"I'm very pleased and encouraged for the future of the sport. It's been said that compromise is what makes men noble and both Tony George and Kevin Kalkhoven have shown character of the highest quality in doing what is in the best interest of IndyCar racing.
"Tony George has made it possible for the Champ Car teams to switch to the IndyCar equipment without financial harm. Kevin Kalkhoven recognised that one series was needed for IndyCar racing to prosper and, along with his partners, was willing to relinquish controlling a major racing series.
"It should have an immediate impact with more teams, cars and drivers, a couple of additional races in new markets and higher television ratings. The entire package will be much more attractive to sponsors."
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