Johannson makes it official: A two car Champ car team in 2003

Jay · 20 Dec 2002, 14:28 (Ref:454243)

I copied this press release from Champweb, but they ubndoubtably copied it from somewhere else....

Quote:

American Spirit Team Johannson announced

INDIANAPOLIS (December 20, 2002) - Former Champ Car driver Stefan Johansson announced today the formation of American Spirit Team Johansson, a complete two-car effort that will campaign the 2003 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.

"I've always been a great believer in CART ever since I competed in the series," said Johansson. "The Champ Car series has great racing at awesome venues and a proven fan base with more than two-and-a-half million people attending races last year and we hope to help grow that fan base even further. We're very excited about the team's debut in 2003 and we're looking forward to competing in CART for many years to come."

Details on sponsorship and driver lineup for the two American Spirit Team Johansson Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone Champ Cars will be announced in early January at the team's Indianapolis-based headquarters.

"We're in the final stages of securing two American drivers for our 2003 effort and we'll be prepared to fully unveil all of the details about the team shortly after the first of the year," said Johansson. "I am certain we'll have a very competitive lineup and our sponsor partners will receive excellent value as we move forward to ensure that we will have a successful first season in the highly-competitive Champ Car Series."

A native of Vaxjo, Sweden, Johansson began his CART career in 1992 and won Rookie of the Year honors with Bettenhausen Racing, which still competes in CART under the Herdez Competition banner. Johansson contested the Champ Car series until 1996 and tallied four podium finishes with a best result of third.

Johansson also amassed 79 starts in his eight-year Formula One racing career competing for such teams as Ferrari and McLaren. Johansson also enjoyed success in endurance racing, having posted an overall win at LeMans, three overall wins in the 12 Hours of Sebring and most recently he was crowned champion of the European Le Mans Series LMP900 class in 2001.

The announcement adds to a growing list of teams including Newman/Haas Racing, Player's/Forsythe Racing, Walker Racing, Patrick Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Fernández Racing, Team Rahal and Rocketsports Racing to compete in the 2003 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford, which officially kicks off February 21-23 in Florida with the inaugural Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Liz · 20 Dec 2002, 14:37 (Ref:454253)

AT LAST! Thank you Stefan for a great Christmas gift to CWS.

Now who will be the second driver?

Brian W Keske · 20 Dec 2002, 16:21 (Ref:454303)

very good news for CART, to say the least. Stefan has ran a quality team in IMSA/ALMS, and will be a real asset to CART. Getting American butts in the seats is also a big bonus IMO.

He will certainly have his hands full next year, as he is to run the full year in IMSA also w/his Champion Audi R8 team.

sgw2 · 20 Dec 2002, 17:42 (Ref:454367)

CART will have a grid. This is largely a CART funded operation. We'll see another one soon from Eric Bachelart. I make 15 probable cars now, 6 with significant CART-aid.

Good move for CART to require young American drivers to get CART-aid. Johansson never before had any such bias, so this must be from CART. Thumbs up from me.

BTW Brian, Johansson's Audi UK effort is long dead. Even so, Stefan would only have been the front man for the operation. A very good shop in England was tagged to prepare the car for the European ALMS rounds (not happenning in 2003).

Jordi · 20 Dec 2002, 18:31 (Ref:454400)

Good news!

Plus, the PR says he'll be running Reynards... so maybe Reynard's not dead yet...

tanalised · 20 Dec 2002, 18:39 (Ref:454408)

Alright !

There was a rumour that he was going to run Vasser as well

camcartfan · 20 Dec 2002, 18:59 (Ref:454419)

Robin Miller said Vasser and Hunter-Reay will be the drivers. Also, Autosport is reporting that G-Force Panoz is trying to buy the Reynard rights from Walker.

jetsetter · 20 Dec 2002, 19:07 (Ref:454425)

This is great news, the grid is starting to take shape for next year.

Brian W Keske · 20 Dec 2002, 19:55 (Ref:454460)

Quote:

Originally posted by sgw2
BTW Brian, Johansson's Audi UK effort is long dead. Even so, Stefan would only have been the front man for the operation. A very good shop in England was tagged to prepare the car for the European ALMS rounds (not happenning in 2003).

Stuart, are you saying the Champion/ADT (whatever you want to call it) entry will not be around next year? I thought they were going to run. This is news to me, but as is the world of ALMS I could have very well missed this announcement, but don't remember this on either the IMSA boards or DSC.

sgw2 · 20 Dec 2002, 20:48 (Ref:454488)

Brian,

Sorry, I got confused. Stefan as a driver for Champion looks likely. I meant the Audi UK deal -Under Johansson Motorsports banner- is dead.

Brian W Keske · 20 Dec 2002, 21:35 (Ref:454512)

Quote:

Originally posted by sgw2
Brian,

Sorry, I got confused. Stefan as a driver for Champion looks likely. I meant the Audi UK deal -Under Johansson Motorsports banner- is dead.

Not hard to do in the 'land of IMSA'

greg.n · 20 Dec 2002, 22:37 (Ref:454544)

The Audi-UK deal is very much alive with the car procured by Audi UK and run at Sebring and Le Mans by Arena Motoorsports who ran johanssons operation in 2001. This time Stefan may not be involved with this effort. That much is true.

f1manoz · 20 Dec 2002, 23:30 (Ref:454556)

Great news and thankyou Stefan for your unwavering belief and commitment to CART.

CART funding or not, Stefan sounds as if he only needed it to get the operation off the ground.

jondownunder · 21 Dec 2002, 00:15 (Ref:454589)

Brillian news! More positive developments for CART. Thanks Stefan!

DNQ · 21 Dec 2002, 00:39 (Ref:454605)

Fantastic, great news to see another two cars confirmed for 2003. I must admit, for a short while I was a bit worried about next year, but now I'm convinced we'll have a strong field. I predict 20 cars.

Lee Janotta · 21 Dec 2002, 01:31 (Ref:454640)

American drivers? Who could he be talking about?

Townsend Bell?
John Fogarty?
Ryan Hunter-Raey?
Phil Giebler?
Memo Gidley?

Aside from Paul Edwards, who's signed with Red Bull, the _really_ hot American drivers are all at least a year off from being qualified for a Champcar ride.

The top candidates I can think of.

Liz · 21 Dec 2002, 01:36 (Ref:454641)

RHR is one of them, and I'm going to bet that John Fogarty is the other. He was quite impressive at the NH test although he was not being considered for that seat (according to the NH press notes). If he hadn't said American drivers I'd have guessed Bourdais.

BootsOntheSide · 21 Dec 2002, 11:01 (Ref:454789)

I think he'll try to sign Vasser to lead the team, or Gidley, 2 rookies doesn't make sense, we saw how wrong it was for Ganassi in 2001. Ironically, that year he passed up Vasser to sign Minassian and Junquiera, and hired Memo so as to have an experienced guy to help Bruno learn. Now look where Bruno is - title favourite and dreaming of F1.

Nicke · 23 Dec 2002, 08:38 (Ref:455994)

Yeah now i have a new favourite in CART since Kenny Bräck went over to IRL.

Raven · 23 Dec 2002, 16:29 (Ref:456231)

I've heard a lot of talk that the drivers will be Hunter-Raey and Vasser.

enemy-ace · 23 Dec 2002, 17:55 (Ref:456271)

Bryan Herta would be a good veteran addition, though personally i would like to see Gidley get the seat.

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