San Jose Grand Prix
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The Canary Foundation Grand Prix of San José presented by Taylor Woodrow is an annual circuit in the Champ Car World Series in San Jose, California, and is an open-wheel race on a temporary road course.
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[edit] The Track
Initially the track was designed to run near Downtown San Jose, California, circling around the HP Pavilion. However, due to higher than expected costs for street repairs and improvements, among other concerns, race organizers moved to a course running directly through downtown.
[edit] Event History
[edit] Inaugural Event
The inaugural event was held July 29 through July 31 in 2005. As the newest addition to the world series, the San Jose race was expected to raise interest in racing in Northern California. Although the Champ Car World Series was the main event, a number of other races were also held. Additionally, a week of fairs, music, charity events and promotional activities also supported the Grand Prix.
The title event of the inaugural Grand Prix was held at 2:00 pm PST on July 31, 2005. It was race #8 of the 2005 Champ Car World Series. Other races included the Trans-Am Road Racing Series, the Toyota Atlantic Championship, The United States Touring Car Championship, and The Historic Stock Car Racing Series. The weekend also featured the Formula D Drift racing competition, in which participants engage in controlled slides, moving their cars sideways across the track.
On race weekend, many critics, including several drivers, criticized the track for being too narrow, too bumpy and dangerous. Some drivers even jokingly compared the track to a motocross track, and somewhat-seriously complained of headaches after several laps. Several modifications were made to the track following initial practice and qualifying sessions, including adding a chicane to the front stretch and moving a grandstand to make room for a bigger run-off area. Still, the crossing of the VTA's light rail tracks on the course actually caused the Champ Cars to bounce and become slightly airborne in a high speed area of the track.
On race day, the Champ Car race was largely a battle of survival, as half the starting field failed to finish the race, most due to crashing on narrow portions of the track, or mechanical problems caused by the bumpy rail crossings. There was also little on-track passing in the Champ Car race, although many of the support races did see quite a bit of on track passing.
In the end, the event was still considered a success, as official attendance reports showed over 60,000 fans on race day, and total 3-day attendance exceeded 150,000.
[edit] 2006 Changes
As a result of the poor quality of racing in 2005, organizers of the San Jose Grand Prix promised that the track would be improved in the future in order to keep the race. For the 2006 event, there were several changes made to the Downtown San Jose Circuit. The biggest change was a pit road/frontstretch swap which put the start finish line closer to the premium Gold seating section, which was obstructed in 2005 by the palm trees on the Almaden Boulevard median. The swap also removed the chicane placed just before the rail crossing, making the stretch from Balbach to the Toyota Hairpin a straight shot. The proceeding left turn onto Park Avenue was widened to allow for more passing. The track at the second rail crossing along Market Avenue was leveled so that there would be no issue of cars 'taking off' again. The right turn from Market onto Balbach was also widened to create another passing opportunity.
The San Jose Grand Prix organizers also had to deal with the decision of the owners of the CCWS to not renew their marketing agreement with the Trans-Am Series and the failure to attract the return of the United States Touring Car Championship. Once the Grand Prix had secured an appearance by the Formula BMW USA series, organizers focused the rest of their budget on off-course attractions to further increase attendance.
[edit] Attendance
| Year | Race Day | 3-Day Total |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 (est.) | 60,000 | 150,000 |
| 2006 | 67,128 | 155,934 |
[edit] Past winners
| Season | Winning Driver | Chassis | Engine | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 |  Sébastien Bourdais |
Lola | Ford-Cosworth | Newman-Haas |
| 2006 | Sébastien Bourdais |
Lola | Ford-Cosworth | Newman-Haas |
[edit] External links
| 2007 Champ Car World Series | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newman/Haas | Forsythe | Minardi | Australia | PKV | RSPORTS | Coyne | Conquest | PCM | |
| 1 Bourdais 2 Rahal |
3 Tracy 7 Dominguez |
4 Clarke 14 Doornbos |
5 Power 15 Pagenaud |
6 Gommendy 21 Jani |
8 Tagliani 9 Wilson |
11 TBA 19 TBA |
27 TBA | 28 Dalziel 29 Figge |
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| Las Vegas - Long Beach - Houston - Portland - Cleveland - Mont-Tremblant - Toronto - Edmonton - San Jose - Road America - Assen - Zolder - Surfers Paradise - Zhuhai - Mexico City - Phoenix | |||||||||
| Tracks of the Champ Car World Series |
|---|
| Current Tracks (2007)
Assen • Cleveland • Edmonton • Houston • Las Vegas • Long Beach • Mexico City • Mont-Tremblant • Phoenix • Portland • Road America • San Jose • Surfers Paradise • Toronto • Zhuhai • Zolder Former Tracks (Ovals) Former Tracks (Road Courses) Former Tracks (International) |
