2006 Champ Car season

Drivers and teams

Team and driver changes

• Newman/Haas Racing retained their 2005 Series Champion Sébastien Bourdais for the season, who was re-joined by Bruno Junqueira, who began the 2005 season with Newman-Haas but was replaced by Oriol Servià after sustaining a season-ending back injury in the 2005 Indianapolis 500.
• Oriol Servià, in turn, joined PKV Racing, replacing Cristiano da Matta. Joining Servià was newcomer Katherine Legge, a three-time race winner in Champ Car's primary feeder series, the Toyota Atlantic Championship. Legge became the first woman to run a full season of Champ Car racing.
• PKV co-owner Jimmy Vasser, the 1996 IndyCar champion, drove a third team car at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. While a preseason press release hinted at further appearances in 2006, it was Vasser's only appearance as a driver in a Champ Car until the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the final race contested under Champ Car rules.
• Two teams standing pat with their driving lineup for 2006 were Forsythe Championship Racing, retaining Paul Tracy and Mario Domínguez, and RuSPORT with Justin Wilson and A. J. Allmendinger. However, both teams would see changes while the season was still young.
• Walker Racing continued its branding as Team Australia and kept the same drivers that they ended the 2005 season with, retaining both Alex Tagliani and Will Power.
• Mi-Jack Conquest Racing kept Andrew Ranger from their 2005 team. Ranger was joined by Charles Zwolsman, Jr., the 2005 Toyota Atlantic Championship series champion.
• CTE-HVM Racing signed two new drivers after using four last year, with Nelson Philippe matched up with rookie Dan Clarke as his teammate.
• Dale Coyne Racing picked up the biggest wild card for 2006, signing 2002 series champion Cristiano da Matta as their number one driver alongside a debutant Belgian, Jan Heylen.
• Rocketsports Racing began the year as a one-car team. Former WilliamsF1 driver Antônio Pizzonia signed on with a one-race contract for Long Beach.

  Mid-season changes

• Dutchman Nicky Pastorelli was announced as Rocketsports Racing's "full-time" driver on April 28. Pastorelli was a test driver for Jordan Grand Prix in 2005 and in October 2005 had been originally introduced as the third driver for the team which was renamed Midland F1 Racing after the 2005 season, but that opportunity fell through in December when one of Pastorelli's investors backed out of the deal. It would not be the last time Nicky would have sponsorship problems.
• On June 9, following the race at the Milwaukee Mile, the RuSPORT team announced that they were replacing A. J. Allmendinger with Cristiano da Matta. The change was surprise, as Allmendinger had been the cornerstone of the team since its founding in 2002. The Champ Car series was temporarily left without an American driver.
• On June 12 Forsythe Racing announced that they were parting company with Mario Domínguez. Domínguez had crashed on this opening lap of the Milwaukee race, taking out himself and his teammate Paul Tracy as well as Bruno Junqueira. The series stewards penalized him for the crash, stripping him of the points earned for his 14th-place finish. Two days later the open seat was filled as A. J. Allmendinger was announced as Domínguez's replacement at Forsythe, a pairing that was quickly rewarded with victories in the following three races starting at Portland. Meanwhile, Domínguez moved to Dale Coyne Racing to take the seat vacated by da Matta.
• Rocketsports Racing expanded back to a two-car team beginning with the Portland race. Atlantic series veteran Tõnis Kasemets became the first Champ Car driver of Estonian descent. Kasemets was initially slated to run six races for the team, but would only end up running five races.
• Rocketsports Racing reverted to a one-car team at Toronto when one of Nicky Pastorelli's sponsors defaulted and his #8 car was not run. The sponsorship problem was solved in time for the next round in Edmonton.
• On August 3 Cristiano da Matta was seriously injured after colliding with a deer during testing at Road America. While da Matta would eventually recover, the crash ended his open-wheel racing career. RuSPORT did not run da Matta's #10 car again until the final two rounds of the season when IndyCar veteran Ryan Briscoe made his Champ Car debut at his home race, Surfers Paradise.
• Antônio Pizzonia returned to Rocketsports Racing as the driver of the #18 car for the race in Montreal. Pizzonia would go on to sit out the Road America round in favor of Tõnis Kasemets, but would finish out the remainder of the year for the team in the #18 car.
• Mario Domínguez found a home at his third race team for the year by signing up to join Rocketsports Racing before the Road America race weekend, taking over the #8 car from Nicky Pastorelli. Dale Coyne Racing replaced Domínguez in the #19 car with Euroseries 3000 driver and one-time Minardi F1 tester Juan Cáceres of Uruguay.
• German Andreas Wirth, the third-place finisher in the 2006 Champ Car Atlantic season, took over the Dale Coyne #19 car at Surfers Paradise and also finished the season with the team at Mexico City.
• On October 24, following the race in Surfers Paradise, A. J. Allmendinger announced that he would drive for Team Red Bull in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series in 2007. On October 27 the Forsythe Racing team announced that Allmendinger would be replaced by 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice for the final race of the season in Mexico City. This would be Rice's only career Champ Car start.
• On October 31, the Forsythe Racing team announced that they would run a third car in Mexico City. Mexican David Martínez, a veteran of the Atlantics series, was signed to make his Champ Car debut driving the #33 car.
• Paul Tracy did not race in the final round in Mexico City after he broke his right scapula in an alcohol-fueled accident that was alternately reported as happening on either an ATV or a golf cart. David Martínez ended up making his Champ Car debut driving Tracy's #3 car instead of the #33 he was originally slated to drive.

  Season summary

Schedule

Rnd	Date	Race Name	Circuit	City/Location
1	April 9	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach	Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California
2	May 13	Grand Prix of Houston	Streets of Houston	Houston, Texas
3	May 21	Tecate Grand Prix of Monterrey Presented by Roshfrans	Fundidora Park	Monterrey, Mexico
4	June 4	Time Warner Cable Road Runner 225	Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin
5	June 18	Grand Prix of Portland Presented by G. I. Joe's	Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon
6	June 25	Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by U. S. Bank	Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport	Cleveland, Ohio
7	July 9	Molson Grand Prix of Toronto	Exhibition Place	Toronto, Canada
8	July 23	West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix Presented by The Brick	JAGflo Speedway	Edmonton, Canada
9	July 30	Canary Foundation Grand Prix of San José Presented by Taylor Woodrow	Streets of San Jose	San Jose, California
10	August 13	Grand Prix of Denver	Streets of Denver	Denver, Colorado
11	August 27	Champ Car Grand Prix de Montréal	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve	Montreal, Canada
12	September 24	Grand Prix of Road America	Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
13	October 22	Lexmark Indy 300	Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Australia
14	November 12	Gran Premio Telmex Presented by Banamex	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	Mexico City, Mexico

Race results

Rnd	Race Name	Pole position	Fastest lap	Lead most laps	Winning driver	Winning team	Report
1	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach						Report
2	Grand Prix of Houston	Mario Domínguez	Sébastien Bourdais	Mario Domínguez	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
3	Tecate Grand Prix of Monterrey Presented by Roshfrans	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
4	Time Warner Cable Road Runner 225	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
5	Grand Prix of Portland Presented by G. I. Joe's	Bruno Junqueira	Will Power '	A. J. Allmendinger	A. J. Allmendinger	Forsythe Racing	Report
6	Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by U. S. Bank	A. J. Allmendinger	Nelson Philippe	A. J. Allmendinger	A. J. Allmendinger	Forsythe Racing	Report
7	Molson Grand Prix of Toronto	Justin Wilson	Alex Tagliani	A. J. Allmendinger	A. J. Allmendinger	Forsythe Racing	Report
8	West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix Presented by The Brick	Sébastien Bourdais	Justin Wilson	Sébastien Bourdais	Justin Wilson	RuSPORT	Report
9		Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
10	Grand Prix of Denver	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	A. J. Allmendinger	A. J. Allmendinger	Forsythe Racing	Report
11	Champ Car Grand Prix de Montréal	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
12	Grand Prix of Road America	Dan Clarke '	Sébastien Bourdais	Sébastien Bourdais	A. J. Allmendinger	Forsythe Racing	Report
13	Lexmark Indy 300	Will Power '	Paul Tracy	Nelson Philippe Will Power '	Nelson Philippe	CTE Racing-HVM	Report
14	Gran Premio Telmex Presented by Banamex	Justin Wilson	Sébastien Bourdais	Justin Wilson	Sébastien Bourdais	Newman/Haas Racing	Report

Final driver standings

Notes: Alex Tagliani withdrew from the race in Milwaukee after his car was heavily damaged in a crash during practice Mario Domínguez was docked 7 points for causing an avoidable crash in Milwaukee Paul Tracy was docked 7 points for causing an avoidable crash in San Jose Paul Tracy was once again docked 3 points for causing an avoidable crash in Denver Justin Wilson withdrew from the race in Surfers Paradise after breaking his wrist in a crash during practice Nation's Cup Top result per race counts towards the Nation's Cup Pos Country LBH HOU MTY MIL POR CLE TOR EDM SJO DEN MTL ROA SRF MXC Pts 1 France 1 1 1 1 3 10 3 2 1 5 1 3 1 1 397 2 United Kingdom 2 5 2 2 2 7 4 1 3 3 4 5 15 2 331 3 United States 14 8 3 4 1 1 1 3 7 1 17 1 16 10 292 3 Canada 3 2 4 7 7 4 2 5 13 6 2 8 3 5 292 5 Brazil 5 9 9 13 4 2 5 15 2 2 11 2 6 4 266 6 Mexico 4 3 6 14 14 6 11 8 5 13 10 12 2 9 209 7 Australia 9 7 11 11 18 9 7 6 6 4 5 13 11 3 209 8 Spain 18 12 8 5 10 3 12 4 8 15 16 4 13 6 192 9 Netherlands 12 15 12 9 12 15 9 10 9 10 6 7 7 11 163 10 Belgium 7 13 16 12 15 5 16 16 11 11 9 9 14 13 137 11 Estonia 16 12 15 11 17 34 12 Germany 9 15 19 12 Uruguay 15 6 Pos Country LBH HOU MTY MIL POR CLE TOR EDM SJO DEN MTL ROA SRF MXC Pts Driver Breakdown Round 2 Jimmy Vasser did not compete in Round 2. Nicky Pastorelli replaces Antônio Pizzonia in the Rocketsports Racing #8 car from Round 2 onwards. Round 4 Mario Domínguez was penalized 7 points for causing avoidable contact in the race at the Milwaukee Mile. Round 9 The first all-American Champ Car Panoz DP01 is launched on the weekend of the San Jose Grand Prix. Every team in the Champ Car World Series will be using the chassis next year. In San Jose, it was announced that Atlantic Series team Gelles Racing would run a two-car operation in next years Champ Car World Series. Paul Tracy was penalized 7 points and fined an undisclosed amount for causing avoidable contact and bringing the sport into disrepute for his part in the accident and shoving match with Alex Tagliani. He was also placed on probation for 3 races. Tagliani was also fined an undisclosed amount. Round 10 Cristiano da Matta was in a medically induced coma after a testing accident at Road America between San Jose & Denver in which he hit a deer on track. As a result, RuSPORT only run the car of Justin Wilson for the Denver round. Paul Tracy was penalised 3 points and fined US$25,000 for causing avoidable contact for his part in the accident with Sébastien Bourdais. His probation was also extended to include Surfer's Paradise. Bourdais was not assessed a penalty.