Power: "ChampCar" Teams Stronger at Long Beach

Long Beach will certainly bring some competitive racing from all former Champ Car teams this weekend. As the Californian venue was a common stop for the now-defunct CCWS, all teams used to running their cars on street circuits will have an undisputed advantage over the ones more used to oval racing.

The argument came from former Champ Car driver Will Power, now competing for Team Penske (meaning the second category of teams). As announced by Power, he expected to lap the Long Beach street course some 3-to-4 seconds slower than he did in 2008, when competing for KV Racing Technology.

Power won last year's event at Long Beach, only the race did not benefit from the presence of all IRL drivers. Being the last Champ Car-sanctioned event, the race was scheduled on the same weekend as the event at Twin Ring Motegi. Needless to say, all former IRL teams & drivers chose the Japanese track (oval) in favor of the one formerly used in Champ Car.

“I would expect us to be three to four seconds a lap slower this year, it might be a different story with these cars. With the push-to-pass feature in Champ Car, we had no problems getting a run on someone or passing. That might be a bit harder in the Indycar because down the front straight into Turn 1 is the only place you can pass, unless you take a big risk or the other guy makes a mistake,” argued Power ahead of the upcoming race at Long Beach.

“I've always found it's quite a tough track to get a good balance on because of the variance in corners and track surfaces and you have to have a good strategy in the race. I'm not sure how much of the Champ Car setup will carry over to IndyCar but some teams like Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing seem to have that place nailed,” added the Australian.