The Champ Car World Series isn't as divided by class as Formula 1 is, but there is still a definite line between the sport's "Big Three" teams (Newman/Haas Racing, Forsythe Championship Racing and RuSPORT Racing) and the rest. source: champcarworldseries.com / John Oreovicz More often than not in 2006, CTE Racing/HVM led the group chasing the top six cars, and at Surfers Paradise, Nelson Philippe took a popular and well-deserved victory for the resilient team. Philippe's October triumph was a remarkable turnaround for a team that struggled to keep the shop doors open at the start of 2006. And the good news just kept coming, because just prior to Christmas, former F1 team owner Paul Stoddart took over a majority ownership of the team and renamed it Minardi USA, marking the fourth name change since team founder Tony Bettenhausen died in a February 2000 private plane crash. With no disrespect to Keith Wiggins, who held the team together after Tony B.'s death and kept it afloat for the last seven years, Stoddart's arrival gives the Indianapolis-based team a more solid base to work from. "It's no secret that we've struggled as CTE/HVM Racing the last couple of years," admitted team manager Vince Kremer. "Having Paul on board gives us stability. My hat is off to Keith and the whole crew that hung with us through the tough times. But now that we have a little stability, we can't relax. We have to work just as hard as we did when we felt we were underdogs." Along with rookie Dan Clarke, Philippe was part of an all-new driver lineup that replaced the six-driver committee that served in 2005. Under the Herdez Competition banner, this team won races in 2002,'03 and '04, but slipped down the grid in '05, when the best results were a pair of fifths by Rodolfo Lavin. A third-year Champ Car driver despite being only 19 years old, Philippe served notice of his potential with a strong drive to fourth place at Houston, and he followed it up with an excellent performance on the Milwaukee oval that netted the young Frenchman his first podium. Philippe's dice with eventual race winner (and series champion) Sebastien Bourdais was the highlight of the Milwaukee event. Meanwhile Clarke demonstrated some early wildness, but he settled in during the summer with top eight finishes at Milwaukee and Portland. He looked set to finish on the podium at Cleveland, only to spin it away while tying to wrest second place from Mario Dominguez on the final lap.
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