By Bruce Martin PA SportsTicker Contributing Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (Ticker) The long, bitter and divisive war between IndyCar Series and Champ Car that began in 1996 seems to have come to an end, PA SportsTicker has learned.

Gerry Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven of Champ Car are close to reaching an agreement with Indy Racing League founder Tony George to join forces.

The one hurdle that needs to be cleared is getting officials at Twin-Ring Motegi in Japan to move its race date from April to later in the season so that the Long Beach Grand Prix can be added to the IndyCar schedule.

George is expected to meet with officials in Japan on Monday to personally negotiate the move for the Japan race date, which is vital because that facility is owned by Honda, the sole engine supplier of IndyCar.

Reached for comment by PA SportsTicker, IndyCar vice president of public relations John Griffin remained hopeful a resolution could be reached.

"Meetings have and will continue to be ongoing but there are no set dates for a formal announcement," Griffin said from Indianapolis. "There's still some work to be done."

"It's as close as it's ever been to being together, but we don't know if we can get across the goal line," George told Robin Miller of SpeedTV.com on Thursday evening. "But no one is giving up yet."

Under terms of the agreement, any Champ Car team that agrees to compete on the full IndyCar schedule will get free Dallara chassis and Honda engines to assist in the transition from Champ Car, which uses a completely different engine/car formula.

All Champ Car teams that joined the IndyCar Series would also be eligible for the TEAMS program, which pays $1.2 million per car for full-time series participation in place of prize money.

The Champ Car circuit would cease to exist under the agreement.

In addition to adding the Long Beach Grand Prix to the schedule, IndyCar is expected add two more races off the Champ Car schedule - including Edmonton and Surfer's Paradise Australia.

The combined series could have as many as 24 cars participating for the full season. The IndyCar Series would be the sanctioning body for the combined series, with the 92nd Indianapolis 500 as the centerpiece event.

This ends one of the longest divisions in open wheel history.

When George announced plans on March 20, 1994, for a new IndyCar Series that would feature the Indianapolis 500 as its showcase event, it was met with bitter resistance from the CART series, which was the primary open-wheel racing series in North America.

Most of the cars that competed in the Indy 500 from 1979-1995 were CART teams but when the Indy Racing League opened for business in 1996, CART held steadfast to its opposition to the IRL and chose to hold its own race against the Indy 500.

That race was called the US500 and was held at Michigan International Speedway.

On that monumental day, only two CART teams decided to race at Indy Galles Racing and Walker Racing. The rest of that year's Indy field was comprised of teams that were part of the IRL.

A young driver named Tony Stewart started on the pole at Indy after his teammate, pole winner Scott Brayton, was killed in a crash in practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the week before the race.

Buddy Lazier won a dramatic Indy 500 that day while Jimmy Vasser captured the US500 at Michigan. A crowd estimated at 400,000 fans was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and another 110,000 fans filled Michigan International Speedway, meaning more than one-half million spectators attended an IndyCar race that day.

Since then, however, crowds dropped dramatically for virtually all open-wheel races involving the two series.

Stewart went on to win the IRL title in 1997 and eventually left the series after the 1998 season to compete full-time in NASCAR beginning in 1999. Stewart later won NASCAR Cup titles in 2002 and 2005.

CART became a public series and continued to survive while the IRL plodded along in the early years. CART eventually went bankrupt after the 2002 season.

George tried to purchase CART's assets in bankruptcy court but was thwarted when a U.S. District Court Judge in Indianapolis accepted a smaller offer from Kalkhoven, Forsythe and Paul Gentilozzi.

The three men created the Champ Car Series, which included many of the former CART teams. But some of the best teams from CART, including Team Penske, Target/Chip Ganassi and the old Team Green - which became Andretti Green Racing - left for the IRL. Other team owners such as Bobby Rahal and Adrian Fernandez would follow.

Kalkhoven, a wealthy Australian businessman, kept Champ Car afloat before he started talking to George about reconciliation in January 2006. Initial efforts for unification failed but George quietly worked behind the scenes to finally convince the Champ Car hierarchy to come to a resolution.

After many failed attempts, it appears perseverance has paid off.

Kalkhoven was optimistic in comments he made to Miller.

"Both sides want this to happen very much and we're working on it," Kalkhoven told Miller.

Mike Spinelli
IIRS founder

I go to off to Cologne for the weekend and this is what they pull on me ?

Let's just say I have mixed feelings about this. I truely feel one series would be better for the future of open wheel racing but... and that is a personal reason, I would not mind seeing them [CCWS] come to Assen again because I had a blast last year. I wonder though, only 24 cars in the field after the merge ?

Let's just wait and see how this all pans out.

Seems it stalls after media picked up on the story.

no, its not dead. it's very much alive and look for an announcement today or tomorrow that CCWS, LLC has filed for bankruptcy and anton is going to pick the parts he wants.

personally, i'm not happy. there are some people who don't know the history of the split. so i will say this and only this and nothing more about it. i don't think the person who killed a popular style of racing in this country should be rewarded by getting all of it.

CART's main problem was that its owners (who were essentially the organization itself) were too indycentric and completely dumped CART when CART's teams at indy went 1-6 and lapped the entire league field. CCWS's main problem was that it thought that it could throw money at its problems and make them go away instead of getting competant racing people to solve any of its problems. a few better decisions in the offseason of 2006 to 2007 and CCWS, LLC is still running today.

forgive me for bringing open wheel poltics in this, i just am very upset at kalkhoven and forsythe beyond points you can't imagine right now.

Ctkatz,

as long as you bring it in a civil manner (as you do), there is no problem.

If anyone is onto this story more then I can be at this moment [a bit short on time to go scouring the web for news and gossip] please post some links to articles/info/etc.

In some ways it's actually better if you don't read anything. It only furthers your bitterness and/or confusion on the whole affair.

When I first read the rumors I felt that pushing to get everyone back together for 08 was potentially going to be a bit slapdash.

In any case, I wasn't sure if I was going to have the time to do a 2008 CCWS carset this year with my upcoming wedding to plan. I guess now it looks like they've made the decision for me.

Champ Car owner making contingency plans for series to fold

By MICHAEL MAROT, AP Sports Writer
February 12, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Derrick Walker isn't buying Champ Car's company line.

He's parked his car, withdrawn from testing and focused his attention on running in the rival Indy Racing League this year even though Champ Car officials say they will race this season.

Walker, a Champ Car owner who has also competed in the IRL, told The Associated Press on Tuesday he believes Champ Car is finished.
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"It has all the makings of the end of Champ Car," he said in a telephone interview. "How it's going to be done, I don't know. But I think Champ Car is going to shut down."

Walker was so concerned about the series' future that he instructed the team to return to Indianapolis without ever testing his car in Sebring, Fla., earlier this month.

The comments come amid rampant speculation about what the future may hold for Champ Car, one of America's top two open-wheel series.

Over the past week, there has been talk of the rival series nearing agreement on unification. IRL founder Tony George, who started his series in 1996, returned Tuesday from a trip to Japan that many believe is a precursor to any possible merger.

"Discussions are ongoing, but the reality is that it's not helped by all these leaks and all these stories," said Kevin Kalkhoven, co-owner of the Champ Car series.

George has offered to make free Dallara chassis and Honda engines, along with the $1.2 million in incentives it is paying each of its own teams to race in the IndyCar Series in 2008, available to Champ Car teams that join his league.

Whether that will happen is still unclear.

"Our executive team got back from Japan earlier today and we continue to work and see what we can accomplish here in the immediate future," league spokesman John Griffin said Tuesday night.

The sticking point has been the head-to-head scheduling of the Long Beach race, Champ Car's season opener April 20, and the IRL's April 19 event at the Honda-owned Motegi track in Japan. Long Beach officials have said they cannot change their date because of contracts with the city's convention center, around which the street circuit is set up.

It wasn't immediately clear whether George had received permission from track officials to move the Japan race.

Another possible wrinkle emerged Tuesday when published reports said Champ Car may file for bankruptcy within days, something league executive vice president David Higdon discounted.

"We've been hearing those rumors since Friday, and as we've continued to say our doors are open and people are working," Higdon said. "We're proceeding with our plans and will keep operating as Champ Car."

Champ Car's predecessor, CART, also filed for bankruptcy before the three-man team of Kalkhoven, Paul Gentilozzi and Gerald Forsythe bought the defunct series' assets in 2004 and re-established it as Champ Car.

Walker, however, acknowledged he has had some sponsors default on payments from last season and that he had to contact the league office to get last year's prize money.

"That's news to me," Kalkhoven said.

But Walker said he's not alone.

"The only thing I know for sure is that about a month ago there were several teams that had never been paid prize money," he said. "Whether that was resolved, I don't know."

Plus, Walker said he's heard little from league officials and more about the departures of employees.

The combination was enough to make Walker reassess his team's plans, and refocus the team's efforts on racing in the IRL this season.

"We are working toward that 100 percent until someone can show me that Champ Car is really going," Walker said. "That's part of my frustration. My truck was on its way to the Sebring test and I turned it around and brought it back because we had not had anyone in Champ Car tell me what was going on. So we put it all in the corner, left it alone and put our energy in IRL 101."

A merger this close to the IRL's season-opener, March 29 in Homestead, Fla., may not be the saving grace many owners hope for, either.

Walker said that with less than two months to prepare, Champ Car teams would have to learn quickly about IRL cars and that some teams could suffer financial losses, too.

"They've been running these cars for five years and it costs about $1.3 million to show up with a driver, a spare car and show up for the races, so that's money we've got to find," Walker said. "I guess I'm praying there will be a merger, but sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for."

Whatever the potential stumbling blocks, Kalkhoven insists there is one certainty.

"There will still be racing this year," he said.

Confusion yes.

According champcar.nl it is actually Kalkhoven himself who plans to move PKV to IRL. Walker is mentioned there as well, but as doubtfull.

At this moment I am in "wait-and-see" mode.