Okay, so I drove 400 miles to watch the Champ Car World Series have its media day and two days of practice at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. source: paddocktalk.com - Ann Proffit I arrived with deep hopes that cars would be in full livery (as decreed in a CC technical bulletin), drivers would be wearing brightly colored sponsor-filled suits and that there would be a full day of revelations about series partnerships, team affiliations and the like. I drove home disappointed. The only great news came late Saturday afternoon when Sebastien Bourdais wrested the track record over Mazda Raceway's 2.238-mile track from Ricardo Zonta, test and reserve driver for Panasonic Toyota's Formula 1 team. Once Champ Car posted the $5000 bounty, it was just a matter of time before the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team trimmed their bright red and yellow McDonalds-festooned Panoz, put new Bridgestone tires on (there were no alternates, just standard tires similar to those used here the last time Champ Car ran) and sent the exceptional Frenchman out. Sebastien Bourdais is that good. Yes, Champ Car did announce that Holmatro, the Dutch company that's been furnishing Lon Bromley and his vaunted Safety Team with extraction devices for the past 17 years has taken over as sponsors of the group and yes, Mazda is now the official car/truck for the organization. Pacific Coast Motorsports rolled out their two Panoz DP01 cars for Alex Figge (black with red accents) and Ryan Dalziel (silver with yellow). They didn't use them for practice, as they'd pretty much dialed the cars in and wanted them ready for action in Las Vegas next month. Therefore, Figge and Dalziel practiced in, yawn, basic carbon black. So did just about everyone else. The only cars sporting sponsorship colors and decals included the two Team Australia cars, sponsored by the newly announced Champ Car official wines - Aussie Wines - that team co-owner Craig Gore is rolling out around the USA this year. Their green and gold livery is still quite handsome and distinctive, and both Will Power and Simon Pagenaud look ready for prime time. The #1 McDonalds car has new graphics, as does Paul Tracy's #3 Indeck machine, while Justin Wilson continues in red CDW colors with RuSPORT. Neel Jani's PKV Red Bull car has the energy drink company's logos on it, while PKV's newest driver, Tristan Gommendy had Pay by Touch lettering on his sidepods and Alex Tagliani sported a Lexington logo on his rear wing. That was it!
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