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. The season saw the Lola B02/00 (which debuted in 2002) become the sole chassis for the series.
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. TeamNoDriversRacesPrimary Sponsors Newman/Haas Racing1 Sébastien BourdaisAllMcDonald's2 Bruno Junqueira1–2PacifiCare Oriol Servià3–13 Forsythe Championship Racing3 Paul TracyAllIndeck Mountain Grand Lodge 7 Mario DomínguezAllIndeck Roshfrans CTE Racing-HVM4 Björn Wirdheim1–11Eurosport Liqui Moly Fabrizio del Monte12CTE Racing50 Homero Richards13Nextel55 Ronnie Bremer1–5Ansan, Korea Alex Sperafico6–7 Rodolfo Lavín8–13Corona Team Australia5 Marcus Marshall1–12Aussie Vineyards Will Power132512 Charles Zwolsman Jr.1315 Alex TaglianiAll Rocketsports Racing8 Timo GlockAllDeutsche Post31 Ryan Hunter-Reay1–11Autobytel.com Briggs & Stratton Cytomax Rocketsports Racing Red Paw Systems Commercial Defeasance The Westin Michael McDowell12–13 RuSPORT9 Justin WilsonAllSanDisk Champ Car Intel RuSPORT CDW 10 A. J. AllmendingerAllBeijing '06 Western Union CDW Intel Dale Coyne Racing11 Ricardo SperaficoAllDale Coyne Racing American Medical Response Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q 19 Oriol Servià1–2American Medical Response Michael Valiante4 Tarso Marques5 Ryan Dalziel6 Ronnie Bremer7–13 PKV Racing12 Jimmy VasserAllGulfstream21 Cristiano da MattaAllBell Micro52 Jorge Goeters2Team Mexico Mi-Jack Conquest Racing27 Andrew RangerAllMi-Jack Tide 34 Nelson PhilippeAllWellbox Body Optimizer Jensen MotorSport41 Fabrizio del Monte1Konica Minolta
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 The Jensen MotorSport team only appeared at the opening race of the season with Fabrizio del Monte at the wheel of the #41 car. PKV Racing gave Mexican driver Jorge Goeters a one-off drive at the Monterrey race. Bruno Junqueira was injured in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and was replaced in the Newman/Haas team by Oriol Servià who departed Dale Coyne Racing. Servià was replaced by various drivers at Dale Coyne during the season - Michael Valiante in Portland, Tarso Marques in Cleveland, Ryan Dalziel in Toronto and Ronnie Bremer for the remainder of the season. Coyne ran one car at Milwaukee, where Ricardo Sperafico drove the #19 car instead of his usual #11 car for that race. Alex Sperafico replaced Ronnie Bremer at HVM Racing for the races in Toronto and Edmonton, with Rodolfo Lavín taking over for the rest of the season. Björn Wirdheim did not complete the season with HVM Racing. Fabrizio del Monte 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 and was not medically cleared to race. Team Australia fielded a third car in Surfers Paradise and Mexico City. Will Power made his Champ Car debut with the team at Surfers Paradise. After Marcus Marshall 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. 2004 Star Mazda champion Michael McDowell replaced Ryan Hunter-Reay in the Rocketsports team for the final two races of the season. Cedric the Entertainer 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 a one-off drive at the race in Mexico City.
Schedule Icon Legend Oval/Speedway Road course Street circuit
Rnd Date Race Name Circuit City/Location 1 April 10 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California 2 May 22 Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix of Monterrey Fundidora Park Monterrey, Mexico 3 June 4 Time Warner Cable Road Runner 225 Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wisconsin 4 June 19 Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon 5 June 26 Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, Ohio 6 July 10 Molson Indy Toronto Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario 7 July 17 West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix of Edmonton Edmonton City Centre Airport Edmonton, Alberta 8 July 31 Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San Jose Streets of San Jose San Jose, California 9 August 14 Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver Denver Civic Center Denver, Colorado 10 August 28 Molson Indy Montreal Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Montreal, Quebec 11 September 24 Champ Car Hurricane Relief 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nevada 12 October 23 Lexmark Indy 300 Surfers Paradise Street Circuit Surfers Paradise, Australia 13 November 6 Gran Premio Telmex-Tecate Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Mexico City, Mexico
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.
Results
Rnd Race Name Pole positionFastest lapLed most laps Winning driver Winning team Report1 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Paul TracyNewman/Haas RacingReport2 Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix of Monterrey Timo Glock Nelson Philippe Bruno JunqueiraNewman/Haas RacingReport3 Time Warner Cable Road Runner 225 Presented by US Bank Jimmy Vasser Paul Tracy Paul Tracy Paul TracyReport4 G.I. Joe's Presents the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland Justin Wilson Sébastien Bourdais Cristiano da Matta Cristiano da MattaPKV RacingReport5 Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by U.S. Bank Paul Tracy Oriol Servià Paul Tracy Paul TracyForsythe Championship RacingReport6 Molson Indy Toronto Sébastien Bourdais Justin Wilson Sébastien Bourdais Justin WilsonRuSPORTReport7 West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix of Edmonton A. J. Allmendinger A. J. Allmendinger A. J. Allmendinger Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport8 Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San Jose Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport9 Paul Tracy Sébastien Bourdais Paul Tracy Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport10 Molson Indy Montreal Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Oriol ServiàNewman/Haas RacingReport11 Champ Car Hurricane Relief 400 Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Paul Tracy Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport12 Lexmark Indy 300 Oriol Servià Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien BourdaisNewman/Haas RacingReport13 Gran Premio Telmex-Tecate Presented by Banamex Justin Wilson Justin Wilson Justin Wilson Justin WilsonRuSPORTReport
Final driver standings
PosDriverLBH FUN MIL POR CLE TOR EDM SJO DEN CGV LVS SRF MXC Pts1 Sébastien Bourdais1*56255*11*14*11*173482 Oriol Servià1193163223412542883 Justin Wilson4441771441731171*2654 Paul Tracy2151*31*163216*817*1732465 A. J. Allmendinger8102521214*173913222276 Jimmy Vasser914566411111573362177 Alex Tagliani153101843791457482078 Timo Glock 6119101071361328652029 Mario Domínguez513741713552104181219810 Andrew Ranger 172167811181610111410914011 Cristiano da Matta106111*1617171018612191413912 Ronnie Bremer 7198814677171881913913 Nelson Philippe1812*121213109159151614711714 Björn Wirdheim 12815915151581113611515 Ryan Hunter-Reay137171518616146121011016 Marcus Marshall 141613141214812121691110417 Ricardo Sperafico 191714139181018818159189218 Rodolfo Lavín13514513157219 Bruno Junqueira315920 Alex Sperafico8122421 Michael McDowell 12111922 Will Power 15101723 Ryan Dalziel 91324 Tarso Marques111025 Michael Valiante 11102616161027 Charles Zwolsman Jr. 13828 Homero Richards 16529 Jorge Goeters 183PosDriverLBH FUN MIL POR CLE TOR EDM SJO DEN CGV LVS SRF MXC PtsColorResultGoldWinnerSilver2nd placeBronze3rd placeGreen4th & 5th placeLight Blue6th-10th placeDark BlueFinished(Outside Top 10)PurpleDid not finishRedDid not qualify(DNQ)BrownWithdrawn(Wth)BlackDisqualified(DSQ)WhiteDid not start(DNS)BlankDid notparticipate(DNP)Not competingIn-line notationBoldPole positionItalicsRan fastest race lap*Led most race laps Rookie of the Year Rookie
Nations' Cup Top result per race counts towards the Nations' Cup
PosCountryLBH FUN MIL POR CLE TOR EDM SJO DEN CGV LVS SRF MXC Pts1 France15625511141173462 Canada221313321057433223 Spain1193163223412542834 United States8725241111373222745 England44417714417311712576 Brazil3111198101086129142117 Mexico51374171355210413122018 Germany6119101071361328651989 Denmark7198814677171881913310 Australia14161314121481212169111011511 Sweden12815915151581113611312 Scotland91313 Italy16161014 Netherlands138PosCountryLBH FUN MIL POR CLE TOR EDM SJO DEN CGV LVS SRF MXC Pts
Driver breakdown