(pictured in 2011) earned his third consecutive
Drivers' Championship, becoming the first driver to do so in
American open-wheel car racing since
Ted Horn in
1948. The following teams and drivers competed in the 2006 Champ Car World Series. All teams competed with the
Lola B02/00 chassis, the
Ford-Cosworth XFE engine, and tires supplied by
Bridgestone.
Team changes Every team that fielded cars on a full-time basis in
2005 returned for the new season. In early 2005, two-time
Formula One World Champion
Emerson Fittipaldi began reorganizing his
Fittipaldi Racing team after it was temporarily shut down at the end of the
2003 season. The team was rumored to debut in 2006, but seemingly ceased operations sometime in 2005. After a
twelve-year absence from the series,
EuroInternational announced their intentions to enter at least ten races in 2006 before fielding two full-time entries in
2007, when the series was set to introduce their new
Panoz DP01 chassis. The announcement was met with uncertainty from fans, which was only heightened by its lack of confirmation by the series. Eventually, EuroInternational revealed they would not compete in the Champ Car World Series in 2006 because of how hard it was for them to acquire a Lola chassis, though they did race in the second-tier
Atlantic Championship Series. Several teams from the
Indy Racing League (IRL), including
Panther Racing, were reportedly planning to enter the Champ Car World Series in 2006, but ultimately never did.
Driver changes (pictured in 2009) was the first female driver to race full-time in the
Champ Car World Series. After spending six months recovering from injuries sustained in a crash during the
2005 Indianapolis 500,
Bruno Junqueira completed over 200 laps during a three-day testing session at
Sebring International Raceway in December 2005 and announced his return to
Newman/Haas Racing for 2006. Junqueira's teammate, two-time and defending series champion
Sébastien Bourdais, signed a one-year contract extension with Newman/Haas Racing which included an
exit clause if an opportunity arose to compete in Formula One. Bourdais admitted that he initially held off on extending his contract because he had attempted to secure a seat with Formula One's
BMW Sauber team, though the costs of terminating
Jacques Villeneuve's contract were too expensive for the team. Newman/Haas Racing failed to gain enough funding to field a third entry for
Oriol Servià, who substituted for Junqueira for the last eleven races of the 2005 season and finished second in the Drivers' Championship standings. Meanwhile,
Jimmy Vasser opted to solely compete in the season-opening
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach before retiring from
American open-wheel car racing, forcing
PKV Racing to find a replacement driver. The team tested with
Ryan Briscoe,
Franck Montagny,
Giorgio Pantano, and
Ryan Dalziel, but ultimately chose Servià as he had more experience in the series. Servià was teamed with
Katherine Legge, a three-time winner in the Atlantic Championship who became the first female driver to compete in the Champ Car World Series since
Lyn St. James in the
1995 Marlboro 500 and the first female driver in history to race full-time in the series. Legge and Servià's hirings at PKV Racing left
Cristiano da Matta without a ride for 2006, as he had already fell out with the team's management following a string of poor results towards the latter half of the 2005 season. Da Matta later joined
Dale Coyne Racing, though he was essentially forced to drive for the team without a salary. Reigning
Eurocup Mégane Trophy champion
Jan Heylen initially sought an opportunity to race for
Conquest Racing, but the team's seats were occupied by
2005 Atlantic Championship Series champion
Charles Zwolsman Jr. and
Andrew Ranger, the latter of whom intended only to compete at Long Beach and the three races in
Canada before obtaining enough sponsorship to complete the entire season in May. After partaking in a test session with Dale Coyne Racing along with
Nicky Pastorelli at
California Speedway, Heylen was selected as da Matta's teammate for 2006. Dale Coyne Racing announced Heylen's hiring only hours prior to the first practice session for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. As his contract with
Forsythe Racing was set to expire at the end of the 2005 season, series veteran
Paul Tracy expressed interest in competing in
NASCAR. In August 2005, he tested an
ARCA car owned by
Richard Childress at
Michigan International Speedway, and later declared his intentions to drive part-time in the second-tier
Busch Series in 2006 before fully switching to NASCAR in 2007. Despite doubts that Tracy would return to the Champ Car World Series in 2006, he opted to continue racing in the series that year alongside teammate
Mario Domínguez. By April 2006, Tracy spoke to the media about talks for an extension of his current contract with Forsythe Racing, and a new five-year deal with the team was announced the next month. Ahead of the previous season's
Lexmark Indy 300,
Will Power signed a three-year contract with
Team Australia and subsequently replaced the outgoing
Marcus Marshall, as he was let go by the team near the end of the 2005 season because of their straining relationship with him, while
Alex Tagliani remained with the team. Rumors circulated that Team Australia planned on running a third car for Australian driver Ryan Briscoe; however, Briscoe only wound up competing with the team in the final three races of the
2005–06 A1 Grand Prix season. After 2005
Rookie of the Year Timo Glock left the Champ Car World Series to race in the
GP2 Series,
DHL pulled their sponsorship of
Rocketsports Racing and the team was left scrambling to find another driver. They planned to hire Franck Montagny before being approached with a sponsorship effort headed by four Brazilian businessmen, which called for Brazilian drivers
Antônio Pizzonia and
Enrique Bernoldi to race under the name of Team Brazil. The two drivers completed a testing session at
Houston Motorsports Ranch in March, but a deal was not reached in time for the start of the season, forcing Rocketsports Racing to field a single entry for Pizzonia at Long Beach. Negotiations continued throughout the season, although nothing ever materialized. Comedian and actor
Cedric the Entertainer joined the Champ Car World Series as a co-owner of
HVM Racing, which had been renamed to CTE-HVM Racing to commemorate his partnership with the team. Although
Ronnie Bremer had signed a contract to remain with the team for 2006, a lack of sponsorship led to the deal being voided less than two weeks before the start of the season. CTE-HVM Racing's two seats were taken by
Nelson Philippe, who spent the last two seasons racing for Conquest Racing, and
rookie Dan Clarke, who finished fifth in the
2005 British Formula 3 International Series.
Mid-season changes • On April 28,
Nicky Pastorelli was announced as
Rocketsports Racing's "full-time" driver, after two testing appearances with the team during the month. Pastorelli had won the
Euro Formula 3000 series in 2004, was a
Formula One test driver for
Jordan Grand Prix in
2005, and was scheduled to remain as such with the renamed
Midland F1 Racing, but that opportunity fell through in December when one of Pastorelli's investors backed out of the deal. • On May 25,
Rocketsports Racing announced it would field a second car for rookie
Tõnis Kasemets in six unspecified races, beginning with the fifth round of the season at
Portland. After four races in a row, Kasemets would only race again at
Road America in September, competing in five events instead. Kasemets became the first
Estonian to drive in Champ Car, after finishing second in the
Atlantic Championship with three wins against the also promoted
Charles Zwolsman Jr. and
Katherine Legge. The change came as a total surprise, as Allmendinger had been the cornerstone of the team since its founding in 2002. The move was caused by profound differences between both parties over RuSPORT and Allmendinger's joint potential to overcome Bourdais' early domination. • On June 12
Forsythe Racing announced they were parting company with
Mario Domínguez over "changes in the engineering structure of the team (that) no longer suit both parties". Domínguez had clashed twice with his teammate
Paul Tracy and
Bruno Junqueira in the first four races. On June 14, the open seat was filled, as
A. J. Allmendinger was announced as Domínguez's replacement, just five days after being fired himself. • On June 16,
Mario Domínguez took over as the driver of the No. 19 car for
Dale Coyne Racing, vacated a week before by
Cristiano da Matta. Domínguez claimed to have been fired from
Forsythe in order to keep
A. J. Allmendinger in the series, as the only American driver in the field. • Since July, the line-up at
Rocketsports Racing underwent a number of changes: • On July 5, it was announced that the No. 8 car driven by
Nicky Pastorelli would not compete at the
Toronto event, after one of Pastorelli's sponsors had defaulted. The sponsorship problem was solved in time for the next round in
Edmonton, as announced on July 18. • On August 23,
Antônio Pizzonia was announced to return in a one-race deal at
Montréal, this time on the No. 18 car. After
Tõnis Kasemets raced at
Road America, Pizzonia finished the season in the car, being announced for the
Surfers Paradise race, and then for the
Mexico City finale. • On September 18,
Mario Domínguez was signed to complete the season in the No. 8 car for the final three races, switching from
Dale Coyne Racing.
Nicky Pastorelli was out again due to his continuing financial issues, and while the team hoped to have him in the No. 18 for the final two races, it went with Pizzonia instead. Da Matta was transferred out of intensive care unit later that month and left the hospital on September 23, but the crash sidelined him for the rest of the season, and it eventually ended his open-wheel racing career. In response to the crash,
RuSPORT withdrew the No. 10 car for the
Denver event, and no replacement driver was announced for
Montréal or
Road America, despite rumours of
Dario Franchitti finishing the season in the car. • After
Mario Domínguez's departure,
Dale Coyne Racing filled the No. 19 on a race-by-race basis. On September 19, it announced rookie
Juan Cáceres for the race at
Road America. Cáceres, who had already tested with the team earlier that month, was fifth in points in
Euroseries 3000 at the time. On October 12,
Andreas Wirth was announced for
Surfers Paradise on the heels of his third place finish in
Champ Car Atlantic, and he remained in the No. 19 for the season finale with no formal announcement. • On October 9,
RuSPORT announced
Ryan Briscoe would take over the No. 10 for the final two races of the season. Briscoe was a former
Formula 3 Euro Series champion and
Formula One test driver for
Toyota, who looked all year for opportunities in Champ Car after a difficult 2005 season in the
IndyCar Series with
Chip Ganassi Racing. • On October 24, following the race in Surfers Paradise,
A. J. Allmendinger announced that he would drive for
Team Red Bull in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2007. On October 27,
Forsythe Racing team announced that Allmendinger would be replaced immediately by
2004 Indianapolis 500 winner
Buddy Rice for the final race of the season in Mexico City. Rice was looking for a permantent switch to Champ Car after losing his IndyCar ride with
Rahal Letterman Racing, but he would not compete in any other race in the series. • On October 31,
Forsythe Racing announced a deal to run a third car in Mexico City for rookie
David Martínez, who finished fifth in
Champ Car Atlantic. However, on November 6, it was announced that
Paul Tracy would miss the Mexico race after breaking his right scapula in an alcohol-fueled accident that was alternately reported as happening on either an
ATV or a
golf cart. As a result, David Martínez ended up making his Champ Car debut driving Tracy's No. 3 car, instead of the No. 33 he was originally slated to drive. == Schedule ==