The 2006 Champ Car World Series Season is now over but the Forsythe Team has not slowed down one bit. source: champcarworldseries.com This week the blue and white transporters headed south from their Indianapolis headquarters to Houston, Texas where three up and coming young drivers had the chance to put some of the last laps on the Team's Lolas B2K00 before switching to the new Panoz DP01 for next year. Andreas Wirth and Richard Philippe spent most of the 2006 season behind the wheel of their Forsythe Atlantic machines in what turned out to be one of the most exciting and competitive years in the history of the Champ Car Atlantic Championship, the premier open-wheel development series in North America. Lawson Aschenbach's 2006 season was spent competing in the SPEED GT Championship in a Porsche 911 GT3. This week the young trio got a chance to further develop their skills and help the Team prepare for the 2007 Season by strapping on to one of Forsythe's 750 horsepower turbo-charged Champ Cars and completing a full test day each at the MSR Houston Road Course. Wirth finished third in the Champ Car Atlantic Championship this year with back to back opening round wins at Long Beach and Houston, 2 Poles, and 6 Podium finishes. He also made his Champ Car debut this year with Dale Coyne Racing competing in the last 2 rounds of the 2006 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford, scoring a 9th place finish in Australia. 2005 Formula BMW USA Champion Philippe graduated to Champ Car Atlantic at the tender age of 16, becoming the youngest driver in the Series. He went on to become a consistent front runner having his best qualifying effort of third at Cleveland, and scoring his first career Podium at the same event by finishing second. After successful karting, Formula 2000, and Formula BMW USA seasons Aschenbach competed in the 2006 SPEED GT Championship and became the first ever rookie Champion capturing his first career victory at St. Petersburg, finishing on the Podium three times, and never scoring outside the Top 10. At the same time the 23 year old also managed to earn a Bachelor of Science degree from Vanderbilt University in Engineering and Mathematics.
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