by Iain Shankland Back in January I wrote an article "Is Champ Car Ready to Come off Life Support?" It was a positive piece on what the future may hold for Champ Car. Today, almost a year later, and I'm more convinced than ever that Champ Car will again be the dominant open wheel race series that it once was - perhaps even the only major open wheel series, other than F1. Things are looking good for Champ Car for the following reasons. Champ Car Atlantic Series There's the revamped Champ Car Atlantic's for 2006. A larger car with more horsepower. This is going to be a true ladder series for the step up to Champ Car. The Toyota Atlantic's were extremely important to give drivers a chance to step up to the big time cars of CART/Champ Car, but they were considerably smaller, lighter and had much less power than the top-tier cars. Now Champ Car are going to close the gap considerably, and they are encouraging more of the Champ Car teams to compete/sponsor teams in the Atlantic series. Many drivers such as Jacques Villeneuve, Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier, AJ Allmendinger and Danica Patrick , have come through the Toyota Atlantic's and broken into CART/Champ Car/IRL and even F1. To date 20 teams have purchased over 30 cars. There is a group of drivers in the Atlantic's that have serious superstar potential. There's Katherine Legge, Andreas Wirth, Charles Zwolsman, "Just Al" Unser III, Antoine Bessette & Tonis Kasemets. Plenty of quality racers to watch for. Speed Channel has already committed to covering every race in the 2006 season, which is sure to increase interest too. I've always enjoyed the Atlantic Series, but next year should prove to be a fantastic season! Track attendance The attendance at Champ Car races this year have continued to climb. TV ratings are increasing - though all the numbers aren't readily available. The series drew an average of 130,000 fans to events this season. Almost 1.2 million fans attended the first nine races, and the series was on track to average over 150,000 fans per event this season -- marking the first time in series history that Champ Cars have raced before such large crowds. You have to go back to 2002 for the last time CCWS attendance broke over 1,000,000 after only eight races. The inaugural Edmonton race drew well over 300,000 fans. Surfer's Paradise set a new 15-year record of 316,459 in attendance for the weekend. By the season finale in Mexico, a total of 1,958,827 paying customers had attended Champ Car races in 2005. Now that's impressive!
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