1996 Champcar season
The 1996 Champcar World Series season is the first season after the American open-wheel split and also the first to be branded under the Champcar World Series banner after partially losing the rights to the Indycar name used before. Overall it is the eighteenth in the CART era of U.S. open-wheel racing
The American Open Wheel Spilt
Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner, Tony George founded his own open-wheel series with the intention of competing with the already established series sanctioned by CART. George had been unsatisfied with the direction U.S. open-wheel racing seemed to be heading in with spiraling costs, and a dwindling number of American drivers. Thus he formed the Indy Racing League with its first season set to run in 1996 with the aim of keeping costs low by banning teams from constructing their own cars and encouraging teams to stick to American drivers as he felt this was the way CART should have remained. Many fans have dismissed the new series as little more than a "gloried 'Murica series", "backward redneck" and even "borderline-racist" referring to George seemingly attempting to keep international drivers out of his series.
Indeed it seemed that the Indy Racing League would be unlikely to challenge CART as the main open-wheel series in North America as only three CART teams; A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Project Indy and Della Penna had entered the new series and all three of them have also still entered a car in Champcar as well. The rest of the teams consisted mainly of low budget operations that most fans had never heard of and the same could be said of the drivers. However George had one trump-card up his sleeve in the Indianapolis 500. His intention was to keep the CART teams out of the crown jewel event by allowing only a small amount of the grid to go to teams outside the IRL and taking the event off the CART schedule. However he could only succeed in guaranteeing his series, ten of the 33 starting births in the race with the rest to be set by speed, whats more he was unable to completely steal the event away from CART and the Indy 500 would now feature on both the IRL and CART's schedules. Many fans consider this a relief and a victory for the integrity of American open-wheel racing as this meant that the great race would be contested by the best drivers from both series.
This looks to be a huge blow for George's plans as he had planned on mandating production based engines from the 1997 season but he was forced to abandon these plans in order to keep the IRL teams were to remain competitive with the CART teams in the Indy 500, causing costs for the IRL to be not much lower than in CART. However George achieved one victory in managing to end CART's license to the Indycar banner though the IRL were restricted from using it themselves until the 2003 season. CART as a result have now rebranded themselves as the Champ Car World Series rebooting the term, Champcar that had been used before the CART era began in 1979.
Teams and Drivers
| Team | Constructor | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | No. | Race Drivers | Sponsors | Rounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marlboro Team Penske | Penske-Cosworth | PC-25 | 
|
|
2 |  Jos Verstappen (R)
|
Marlboro/Food 4 Less | |
| 3 |  Christian Fittipaldi
|
Marlboro/Food 4 Less | ||||||
| Target Ganassi Racing | Ganassi-Honda | CG-96 | 
|
|
4 |  Michael Andretti
|
Target/Mobil 1 | |
| 12 | Al Unser Jr.
|
Target/Mobil 1 | ||||||
| Walker Racing | Walker-Mercedes | W101 | 
|
|
5 | Roberto Moreno
|
Miller/Kmart | |
| 15 |  Bertrand Gachot (R)
|
VISA/Kmart | ||||||
| Newman-Haas Racing | Newman Haas-Honda | NH01 |
|
|
6 |  Alessandro Zanardi (R)
|
Texaco/Havoline | |
| 11 |  Greg Moore (R)
|
Budweiser | ||||||
| Pac-West Racing | Reynard-Cosworth | 96I |
|
|
7 | Maurício Gugelmin
|
Delco | |
| 17 | Eddie Cheever
|
LCI International | ||||||
| Jim Hall Racing | Hall-Mercedes | JHR1 |
|
|
8 |  Kenny Bräck (R)
|
Pennzoil | |
| Hogan Racing | Penske-Mercedes | PC-25 |
|
|
9 | Parker Johnstone
|
Alumax/Copec | |
| 99 | Robby Gordon
|
MCI/Copec | ||||||
| Galles Racing | Reynard-Honda | 96I |
|
|
10 |  Adrián Fernández
|
Tecate | |
| 55 | Gil de Ferran
|
SmithKline Beecham | ||||||
| A.J. Foyt Enterprises | Lola-Mercedes | T96/00 |
|
|
14 | Michele Alboreto (R)
|
TBA | |
| Bettenhausen Racing | Reynard-Mercedes | 96I |
|
|
16 | Stefan Johansson
|
TBA | |
| Brahma Team Rahal | Rahal-Honda | R1 |
|
|
18 | Bobby Rahal
|
Brahma | |
| 28 | Raul Boesel
|
Brahma | ||||||
| Payton-Coyne Racing | Lola-Toyota | T96/00 | 
|
|
19 | Dennis Vitolo
|
TBA | |
| 34 | Marc Goossens (R)
|
Mi-Jack | ||||||
| Patrick Racing | Patrick-Honda | P96 |
|
|
20 | TBA | Firestone | |
| 40 | Jimmy Vasser
|
Shell | ||||||
| Forsythe Racing | Forsythe-Cosworth | F196 |
|
|
22 | Michel Jourdain Jr. (R)
|
Indeck/Menards | |
| 33 |  Taki Inoue (R)
|
Motorola/Menards | ||||||
| Arciero-Wells Racing | Arcerio Wells-Cosworth | 001 |
|
|
25 | Hiro Matsushita
|
Panasonic/Cristal | |
| 52 | Scott Sharp
|
Copenhagen/Cristal | ||||||
| Players Team Green | Green-Honda | NH01 |
|
|
26 | TBA | Players | |
| 27 | Paul Tracy
|
Players | ||||||
| Castrol Tasman Motorsports | Tasman-Toyota | 100 |
|
|
31 | Scott Pruett
|
Castrol | |
| 32 | Max Papis (R)
|
Castrol | ||||||
| Valvoline American Racers | Eagle-Cosworth | MK-V |
|
|
36 | TBA | Valvoline | |
| 98 | TBA | Valvoline | ||||||
| Della Penna Motorsports | Reynard-Mercedes | 96I |
|
|
44 | Carlos Guerrero
|
Herdez | |
| Comptech Racing | Reynard-Cosworth | 96I |
|
|
49 | Buddy Lazier
|
Hollywood Cigarettes | |
| Project Indy | Reynard-Toyota | 96I |
|
|
64 | TBA | No Touch |