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 Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...

era of American

open-wheel racing Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single-s ...

. It began on April 10, 2005 in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

and ended on November 6 in

Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of Mex ...

after 13 races. The Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford Drivers' Champion was

Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (born 28 February 1979) is a French professional racing driver. He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, having won 37 races. He won four successive championships ...

, his second consecutive championship. The Rookie of the Year was

Timo Glock Timo Glock (born 18 March 1982) is a German professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He raced in Formula One for the Jordan, Toyota, Virgin Racing and Marussia F1 teams. He finished 10th in the Drivers' Championship in both ...

Drivers and teams

The 2.65 liter

turbo In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

XFE engine continued to be the exclusive power plant for the series.

Bridgestone is a Japanese multinational tire manufacturer founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi (1889–1976) in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a calque translation and transposition of , meaning 'stone bridge' in Japan ...

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 Lola may refer to: Places * Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama * Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States * Lola Prefecture, Guinea * Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture * Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands People * Lola (fo ...

B02/00 chassis after the 2002 bankruptcy of

Reynard Motorsport Reynard Motorsport was the world's largest racing car manufacturer in the 1980s. Initially based at Bicester and latterly at Reynard Park, Brackley, England the company built successful cars in Formula Ford 1600, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Vaux ...

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 Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ( ...

season.

Team and driver changes

Similar to the

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

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 Anthony James "A. J." Allmendinger (born December 16, 1981) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Kaulig Racing. Allmendinger's professi ...

RuSPORT RuSPORT was an auto racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series. It was founded in September 2002 by Carl Russo. Team history Russo drove for the team then known as Performance Development and Racing (PDR) based in Fort Collins, Colo ...

. *

PKV Racing Padayatt Kesavapillai Vasudevan Nair (2 March 1926 – 12 July 2005), popularly known as PKV, was the 9th Chief Minister of Kerala and a senior leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI). He was elected to the Lok Sabha four times, in 1957, ...

brought 2002 CART champion

Cristiano da Matta Cristiano Monteiro da Matta (born 19 September 1973) is a Brazilian former professional racing driver. He won the CART Championship in 2002, and drove in Formula One with the Toyota team from 2003 to 2004. Career biography Origins and early car ...

back to the Champ Car series after he spent two years driving for

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

. *

Rocketsports Racing Rocketsports Racing was a motor racing team based in East Lansing, Michigan in the United States. Team history Rocketsports was founded in 1985 by racing driver Paul Gentilozzi to compete in the Trans-Am series. It competed in Trans-Am until 200 ...

began the year with Formula One driver

and

Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Christopher Hunter-Reay (born December 17, 1980) is a professional American racing driver best known as a winner of both the Indianapolis 500 (2014) and the IndyCar Series championship in 2012. In each accomplishment, Hunter-Reay became th ...

. *

Mi-Jack Conquest Racing Conquest Racing is an auto racing team that competed in the IndyCar Series and the Atlantic Championship. Formerly it competed in the Champ Car World Series. History It is owned by former series competitor Éric Bachelart. The team ran in Indy Li ...

signed 2004 Toyota Atlantic rookie of the year

Andrew Ranger Andrew Ranger (born November 20, 1986) is a Canadian professional racing driver who competes full-time in the NASCAR Pinty's Series, driving the No. 27 for Paillé Course//Racing. Ranger is a veteran of the Pinty's Series, having claimed 28 wins ...

. *

Mario Domínguez Mario Domínguez (born December 1, 1975, in Mexico City) is a Mexican racing driver. He has competed in the CART and CCWS Champ Car series and later the IndyCar Series. Early career Domínguez first began racing in 1987 driving go-karts. H ...

moved to

Forsythe Championship Racing Forsythe/Pettit Racing was an American racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series owned by Gerald Forsythe and Dan Pettit. The Champ Car effort ceased operations after the 2008 unification of North American open wheel racing. Histor ...

after 3 seasons with

HVM Racing HVM Racing was an auto racing team owned by Keith Wiggins that competed in the IndyCar Series. It competed in the Champ Car World Series in 2007 as Minardi Team USA when it was co-owned by Paul Stoddart. It has a long history of changes of ownersh ...

. * Domínguez replaced

Patrick Carpentier Patrick Carpentier (born August 13, 1971) is a retired Canadian professional auto racing driver. In the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series, he achieved five wins and 24 podiums, as well as two third place championship finishes in 2002 ...

who moved over to the

IRL IRL may refer to: Places * Republic of Ireland (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code) * Irlam railway station (National Rail station code IRL), England Organizations * International Rugby League, the governing body for the sport of rugby league * I ...

with

Cheever Racing Cheever Racing was an auto racing team founded in 1996 by Eddie Cheever as Team Cheever in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series. They fielded a car for Cheever for much of its existence, but occasionally ran two cars, almost always for the Indianap ...

. * Forsythe's third driver in 2004,

Rodolfo Lavín Rodolfo Lavín Martínez (born July 30, 1977) is a Mexican racing driver from San Luis Potosí. He most notably raced in the Champ Car World Series. In Mexico, Lavín raced in Formula Azteca and Formula 3. With funding in the form of sponsorsh ...

, began the 2005 season on the sidelines. * Walker Racing became

Team Australia Team Australia was an auto racing team competing in the V8 Supercars and Champ Car World Series. It was created in early 2005 when two Australian businessmen Craig Gore and John Fish bought into Derrick Walker's Walker Racing operation. After ...

after a sponsor partnership was formed with Australian businessman

Craig Gore Craig Gore is an entrepreneur from Sydney, Australia. Biography Craig Kirrin Gore was born in Fairfield, New South Wales on 7 January 1967. He is the son of Sanctuary Cove Developer Mike Gore. Gore spent his early life in the western suburbs o ...

. They ran Champ Car veteran

Alex Tagliani Alexandre Tagliani (; born October 18, 1973), nicknamed "Tag", is a Canadian professional racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, driving the No. 18 Chevrolet Camaro for 22 Racing. Tagliani has competed in a variety ...

and a rookie from Australia,

Marcus Marshall Marcus Marshall (born 25 November 1978) is a former Champ Car driver from Australia. Biography He began racing in British Formula Three, where he was generally a running outside the top ten, but took a hard-fought win in a wet race. He contest ...

. * 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 Björn Karl Michael Wirdheim (born 4 April 1980) is a Swedish professional racing driver. He is the son of Örnulf Wirdheim, also a racing driver. Björn began racing karts, competing in his first race, at the age of 10. His main achievement to ...

and Toyota Atlantic driver

Ronnie Bremer Ronnie Bremer (born 14 October 1978) is a Danish racecar driver who has driven in the Champ Car World Series. Bremer won three consecutive Danish Formula A karting championships from 1998 to 2000, before racing in British Formula Ford and Formula ...

Mid-season changes

* The Jensen MotorSport team only appeared at the opening race of the season with

Fabrizio del Monte Fabrizio del Monte (born 5 December 1980 in Latina, Lazio) is an Italian racing driver. He drove for three seasons in European Formula 3000 before driving three Champ Car events in 2005, often on the strength of sponsorship. He said he had secur ...

at the wheel of the #41 car. *

gave Mexican driver

Jorge Goeters Jorge Goeters (born June 26, 1970) is a Mexican racecar driver. At the present time, Goeters competes full-time in the NASCAR Mexico Series in Mexico. In the past few years he also competed at the international level on a limited basis, running ...

a one-off drive at the Monterrey race. *

Bruno Junqueira Bruno Junqueira (born November 4, 1976) is a Brazilian race car driver who most recently competed in the IRL IndyCar Series. He is a former Formula 3000 champion and three-time runner-up in the Champ Car World Series. Racing career Early c ...

was injured in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and was replaced in the Newman/Haas team by

Oriol Servià Oriol Servià i Imbers (born 13 July 1974) is a Spanish racing driver who competes part-time in the IndyCar Series. He raced for Dragon Racing in the 2014–15 Formula E season, and left the series prior to the 2015 Miami ePrix to become man ...

who departed

Dale Coyne Racing Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) is an American professional open-wheel racing team that currently competes in the IndyCar Series. The team was founded in 1984 and is owned by former driver Dale Coyne. From 1995 to 2000, the team was known as Payton-Coyn ...

. Servià was replaced by various drivers at Dale Coyne during the season -

Michael Valiante Michael Valiante (born November 11, 1979, in New Westminster, British Columbia) is a Canadian racing driver. Formula racing Valiante began racing in karting where his success earned him a full-season scholarship in the Skip Barber 2.0 Series. ...

in Portland,

Tarso Marques Tarso Anibal Santanna Marques (born 19 January 1976) is a Brazilian racing driver who competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 79 Ford Mustang for Team Stange Racing in both series. He previously ...

in Cleveland,

Ryan Dalziel Ryan Dalziel ( ; born 12 April 1982), is a Scottish professional racing driver. Dalziel has seen the most success in his career in the United States, racing in the American Le Mans Series GT1 class and the Champ Car World Series, and winning t ...

in Toronto and

for the remainder of the season. Coyne ran one car at Milwaukee, where

Ricardo Sperafico Ricardo Sperafico (born 23 July 1979) is a Brazilian professional racing driver. Career Born in Toledo, he resides in a family of racers, twin brother of Rodrigo, and with two cousins, Alexandre and the late Rafael. He began his career in Euro ...

drove the #19 car instead of his usual #11 car for that race. *

Alex Sperafico Alexandre Sperafico (born January 21, 1974 in Toledo, Paraná) is a Brazilian racing driver. He is the oldest of the four racing Speraficos. From 2000 to 2001, and for one start in 2003, Alexandre competed in the Barber Dodge Pro Series and won a ...

replaced

for the races in Toronto and Edmonton, with

taking over for the rest of the season. *

did not complete the season with HVM Racing.

joined the team for the Surfers Paradise round and was slated to drive at the finale in Mexico City but suffered a concussion in a crash in practice at the

Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a motorsport race track in Mexico City, Mexico, named after the racing drivers Ricardo (1942–1962) and Pedro Rodríguez (1940–1971). The circuit got its name shortly after it opened when Ricardo Rodr ...

and was not medically cleared to race. *

fielded a third car in Surfers Paradise and Mexico City.

Will Power William "Will" Steven Power (born 1 March 1981) is an Australian motorsports driver who currently competes in the IndyCar Series, driving for Team Penske. He is the 2014 and 2022 IndyCar Series champion and the 2018 Indianapolis 500 champion. ...

made his Champ Car debut with the team at Surfers Paradise. After

was released from the team after the race at Surfers Paradise, Power took over his car. In Mexico the team's third car was driven by 2005 Toyota Atlantic champion

Charles Zwolsman Jr. __NOTOC__ Charles Zwolsman Jr. (born June 15, 1979, in Lelystad, Netherlands) is a race car driver who formerly competed in the Champ Car World Series. He is the son of former sports car racing driver Charles Zwolsman Sr., who competed in th ...

* 2004

Star Mazda The USF Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, formerly known as the Star Mazda Championship, Pro Mazda Championship, and later Indy Pro 2000 Championship, is an open-wheel racing series serving as the third step on the Road to Indy l ...

champion Michael McDowell replaced

in the

Rocketsports Rocketsports Racing was a motor racing team based in East Lansing, Michigan in the United States. Team history Rocketsports was founded in 1985 by racing driver Paul Gentilozzi to compete in the Trans-Am series. It competed in Trans-Am until 2004 ...

team for the final two races of the season. *

Cedric the Entertainer Cedric Antonio Kyles (born April 24, 1964), better known by his stage name Cedric the Entertainer, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He hosted BET's ''ComicView'' during the 1993–1994 season and ''Def Comedy Jam'' in 1995. He is bes ...

entered into a partnership with HVM Racing in October 2005. The race team was rebranded CTE Racing-HVM from that point forward. * CTE Racing-HVM gave Mexican driver

Homero Richards Homero Richards (born June 8, 1976) is a Mexican race car driver from Mexico City. Richards won back-to-back championships in the Panam GP Series (Latin American Formula Renault championship), in 2004 and 2005. He made his first and only Champ C ...

a one-off drive at the race in Mexico City.

Season summary

Schedule

Oval/Speedway
Dedicated road course
Temporary street circuit 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 Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

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.

Drivers and teams

Team and driver changes

Mid-season changes

Season summary

Schedule

Race results

Final driver standings

Nation's Cup

Driver breakdown

References

See also