Just like rock stars touring to promote a new album source: whowon.com Champ Car is hitting the road, traveling on series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven's Gulfstream G550, for a six-day race market blitz to promote the start of the 2006 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season as well as the Yokohama Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda. Champ Car's first-ever Turbo Tour will begin with a media blitz in Los Angeles, America's number-two media market, on Sunday March 12. Drivers scheduled to participate on the trip include two-time defending champion Sebastien Bourdais, 2003 titlist Paul Tracy, 2004 Roshfrans Rookie of the Year A.J. Allmendinger, Champ Car race winners Mario Dominguez and Justin Wilson, the first female to win a major open wheel race in North America Katherine Legge and Champ Car Atlantic driver and former North American karting champion Alan Sciuto. The group will also be joined by Champ Car President Steve Johnson and 2006 Face of Champ Car winner Brandi Latimer, and will include visits from local Atlantic drivers in selected markets, on a tour that ends in Monterrey, Mexico on Friday, March 17. The Turbo Tour will stop at nearly every North American city that hosts a Champ Car event, covering 12 markets in a whirlwind five-day tour. "This is a huge initiative to promote the beginning of the Champ Car season," said Champ Car President and CEO Steve Johnson. "We are always striving to bring Champ Car to the people and there is no better way to do that than to create a whirlwind tour encompassing our entire North America schedule." Some of the unique activities of the event include landing on the actual racing surface in both Edmonton and Cleveland, the Turbo Tour Fan Forum in Portland and a media go-kart challenge in Denver. The drivers will also participate at a Toronto Raptors game and RodeoHouston 2006. The trip will see the Champ Car group spend nearly 18 hours in the air, flying more than 1,700 nautical miles criss-crossing the continent. "The Turbo Tour is a great chance for our promoters to raise awareness of Champ Car in each of their markets and ramp up anticipation for what is sure to be a very exciting 2006 season," Johnson continued. "Not only that, but being part of a groundbreaking event like this one is sure to create excitement at each stop along the way."
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