The 2006 season represents the beginning of a new era of Atlantic racing and series officials today proudly unveiled the schedule of events for next year's Champ Car Atlantic Championship.
Entering its 33rd season as North America's premier open-wheel racing development series in 2006, the Atlantic championship will feature a new name and a newly-designed racing formula next season. Now fully under the banner of the Champ Car World Series, the Champ Car Atlantic Championship will maintain its rich history of competitive racing with the future stars of motorsports driving a new Swift 016.a chassis design with a 2.3 liter Cosworth engine capable of producing 300 horsepower.
Atlantic officials today released the details of next season's 12-race schedule that will include events in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The '06 Atlantic calendar, in its current format, will offer up races on five road courses and five temporary street circuits and it will feature at least one doubleheader race weekend for the third consecutive season. A 12th event, to be held within the United States or Canada, will be added to the series schedule and announced in the coming weeks.
Continuing to serve as the training ground for the next generation of Champ Car racers, the Atlantic series will run all of its 2006 events in conjunction with the 750-horsepower machines of the Champ Car World Series. A full television broadcast schedule of all '06 Atlantic races will be announced at a later date.
"Even though we just completed another exciting season of Atlantic racing, we're already looking forward to 2006," said Vicki O'Connor, Managing Director of the Champ Car Atlantic Championship. "We're proud to begin a new era of Atlantic competition next season and we're happy to announce a very challenging and exciting schedule that features some of the best venues that racing has to offer. I want to thank all of the event promoters and everyone at Champ Car for working so hard to put together our race lineup for 2006. We've received so much interest in the series since we unveiled the new racing package in late July and we're happy to be able to announce the schedule for next season so that the series competitors and fans can begin making their plans for next year."
For the third consecutive season, the Atlantic series will open the year at the annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. When the green flag drops on the next generation of Atlantics on April 9 it will count the 23rd time that the series will compete at the premier street race in the United States and one of California's most popular sporting events.
From 1998-2001, the Atlantic Championship raced on the street circuit in downtown Houston, Texas. The series will return to Houston next spring, running on a newly-designed street course on Saturday, May 13. The Houston race represents the only new venue for the series in 2006.
For the fifth consecutive season, the Atlantic cars will race south of the border as they visit the Fundidora Park road course in Monterrey, Mexico for Round 3 on May 24.
After a short break, the series will kick into high gear in June, featuring three races to kick off the summer. The Atlantics will attack the Portland International Raceway road course in Oregon on June 18, before traveling to Ohio for a doubleheader race weekend. Celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, the Grand Prix of Cleveland will include a pair of Atlantic races for the second consecutive year as the series promises another weekend full of exciting racing on the wide-open Burke Lakefront Airport course, June 24-25.
The series will visit two popular Canadian venues in July as the Atlantics will compete for the 16th time on the downtown streets of Toronto around Exhibition Place on July 9. Two weeks later, the Atlantic Championship will return to Edmonton to race in front of an expected capacity crowd at the Finning International Speedway airport course. After a very successful series debut in San Jose in 2005, the new-breed Atlantic beasts will test the Silicon Valley street circuit again next season, with a race on July 30.
The street fight will continue in August when the series makes its fifth consecutive visit to Denver, battling wheel-to-wheel around the downtown Pepsi Center street circuit on August 13. Following a week off, the 2006 Atlantic calendar, in its current form, will conclude at the site of this season's grand finale - Montreal's Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Next season will mark the 26th Atlantic race run in Montreal, making it the longest-running venue on the series schedule.
Series officials expect larger fields and a very high level of competition on track in 2006 as an influx of new and returning teams and drivers enter the Atlantic Championship. Competitors will pursue the series title and the $2 million incentive bonus for the champion to use in helping to secure a full-time ride in the 2007 Champ Car World Series.
Please see the Champ Car Atlantic Championship 2006 season schedule detailed below.
The Champ Car Atlantic Championship continues to be the premier open-wheel development series in North America. The championship is noted for its long history of graduating its stars into Champ Car competition and has helped produce past Champ Car champions Paul Tracy, Jimmy Vasser, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Michael Andretti and Jacques Villeneuve. Current Champ Car competitors Alex Tagliani, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andrew Ranger and Ronnie Bremer are also established Toyota Atlantic graduates along with 2004 Champ Car Rookie of the Year and 2003 Atlantic champ A.J. Allmendinger. For more information on the Atlantic series, please visit www.champcaratlantic.com.
2006 Champ Car Atlantic Championship
Season Schedule
Date Venue
- April 9 Long Beach, California
- May 13 Houston, Texas
- May 21 Monterrey, Mexico
- June 18 Portland, Oregon
- June 24 Cleveland, Ohio
- June 25 Cleveland, Ohio
- July 9 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- July 23 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- July 30 San Jose, California
- Aug. 13 Denver, Colorado
- Aug. 27 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- 12th Race Date TBA
