Races 13 Nations' Cup France | End date November 6 Start date 2005 Race 13 | |
Similar 2004 Champ Car season, 2007 Champ Car season, 2002 CART season, 2001 CART season, 1997 CART season | ||
The 2005 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season was the 27th overall and the second season of the Champ Car World Series era of American open-wheel racing. It began on April 10, 2005 in Long Beach, California and ended on November 6 in Mexico City, Mexico after 13 races. The Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford Drivers' Champion was Sébastien Bourdais, his second consecutive championship. The Rookie of the Year was Timo Glock.
Contents
Drivers and Teams
The 2.65 liter turbo V8 Ford-Cosworth XFE engine continued to be the exclusive power plant for the series. Bridgestone continued on as the exclusive series tire supplier as well. The two companies continued the marketing agreement that branded the series Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. All teams ran the Lola B02/00 chassis after the 2002 bankruptcy of Reynard Motorsport prevented further development of their Reynard 02I, causing it to become uncompetitive against the Lola.
The following teams and drivers competed in the 2005 Champ Car season.
Team and driver changes
Similar to the 2003 and 2004 seasons, there were once again many changes for the 2005 season. Last season's rookie of the year runner-up Justin Wilson teamed up with the 2004 rookie of the year A. J. Allmendinger at RuSPORT. PKV Racing brought 2002 CART champion Cristiano da Matta back to the Champ Car series after he spent two years driving for Toyota in Formula One. Rocketsports Racing began the year with Formula One driver Timo Glock and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Mi-Jack Conquest Racing signed 2004 Toyota Atlantic rookie of the year Andrew Ranger. Mario Domínguez moved to Forsythe Championship Racing after 3 seasons with HVM Racing. Domínguez replaced Patrick Carpentier who moved over to the IRL with Cheever Racing. Forsythe's third driver in 2004, Rodolfo Lavín, began the 2005 season on the sidelines. Walker Racing became Team Australia after a sponsor partnership was formed with Australian businessman Craig Gore. They ran Champ Car veteran Alex Tagliani and a rookie from Australia, Marcus Marshall. Domínguez's former team, which renamed itself HVM Racing from Herdez Competition after the salsa company ended its title sponsorship, began the season with 2003 Formula 3000 champion Björn Wirdheim and Toyota Atlantic driver Ronnie Bremer.
Mid-season changes
Races
The initial 2005 schedule announced by Champ Car included 14 races, but only 13 races actually took place during the season. The 14th race was scheduled to take place at a newly constructed permanent road circuit in the city of Ansan, South Korea on October 16, the week before the race at Surfers Paradise. The race was canceled in September when it was determined that the circuit was not ready to host the race. It was the second year in a row that a race in Korea was canceled, as a street circuit race in the capital of Seoul was removed from the 2004 schedule. A date at the Ansan circuit was placed on Champ Car's initial 2006 schedule but that race would never take place either.