1996 Champcar season

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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 Cosworth Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 2 Flag of the Netherlands svg.png Jos Verstappen (R) Marlboro/Food 4 Less
3 Flag of Brazil svg.png Christian Fittipaldi Marlboro/Food 4 Less
Target Ganassi Racing Ganassi-Honda CG-96 Honda Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 4 Flag of the United States svg.png Michael Andretti Target/Mobil 1
12 Flag of the United States svg.png Al Unser Jr. Target/Mobil 1
Walker Racing Walker-Mercedes W101 Mercedes-Benz Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 5 Flag of Brazil svg.png Roberto Moreno Miller/Kmart
15 Flag of Belgium svg.png Bertrand Gachot (R) VISA/Kmart
Newman-Haas Racing Newman Haas-Honda NH01 Honda Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 6 Flag of Italy svg.png Alessandro Zanardi (R) Texaco/Havoline
11 Flag of Canada svg.png Greg Moore (R) Budweiser
Pac-West Racing Reynard-Cosworth 96I Cosworth Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 7 Flag of Brazil svg.png Maurício Gugelmin Delco
17 Flag of the United States svg.png Eddie Cheever LCI International
Jim Hall Racing Hall-Mercedes JHR1 Mercedes-Benz Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 8 Flag of Sweden svg.png Kenny Bräck (R) Pennzoil
Hogan Racing Penske-Mercedes PC-25 Mercedes-Benz Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 9 Flag of the United States svg.png Parker Johnstone Alumax/Copec
99 Flag of the United States svg.png Robby Gordon MCI/Copec
Galles Racing Reynard-Honda 96I Honda Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 10 Flag of Mexico svg.png Adrián Fernández Tecate
55 Flag of Brazil svg.png Gil de Ferran SmithKline Beecham
A.J. Foyt Enterprises Lola-Mercedes T96/00 Mercedes-Benz Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 14 Flag of Italy svg.png Michele Alboreto (R) TBA
Bettenhausen Racing Reynard-Mercedes 96I Mercedes-Benz Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 16 TBA TBA
Brahma Team Rahal Rahal-Honda R1 Honda Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 18 Flag of the United States svg.png Bobby Rahal Brahma
28 Flag of Brazil svg.png Raul Boesel Brahma
Payton-Coyne Racing Lola-Toyota T96/00 Toyota1 Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 19 TBA TBA
34 Flag of Belgium svg.png Marc Goossens (R) Mi-Jack
Patrick Racing Patrick-Honda P96 Honda Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 20 TBA Firestone
40 Flag of the United States svg.png Jimmy Vasser Shell
Forsythe Racing Forsythe-Cosworth F196 Cosworth Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 22 TBA Indeck/Menards
33 TBA Motorola/Menards
Arciero-Wells Racing Arcerio Wells-Cosworth 001 Cosworth Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 25 Flag of Japan svg.png Hiro Matsushita Panasonic/Cristal
52 TBA Copenhagen/Cristal
Players Team Green Green-Honda NH01 Honda Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 26 TBA Players
27 Flag of Canada svg.png Paul Tracy Players
Castrol Tasman Motorsports Tasman-Toyota 100 Toyota1 Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 31 Flag of the United States svg.png Scott Pruett Castrol
32 Flag of Italy svg.png Max Papis (R) Castrol
Valvoline American Racers Eagle-Cosworth MK-V Cosworth Icon.png Goodyear Icon.png 36 TBA Valvoline
98 TBA Valvoline
Della Penna Motorsports Reynard-Mercedes 96I Mercedes-Benz Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 44 TBA Herdez
Comptech Racing Reynard-Cosworth 96I Cosworth Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 49 Flag of the United States svg.png Buddy Lazier Hollywood Cigarettes
Project Indy Reynard-Toyota 96I Toyota1 Icon.png Firestone Icon.png 64 TBA No Touch