HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Tony George and Kevin Kalkhoven together addressed this past weekend’s agreement that officially put an end to the 13-year civil war that has divided American open-wheel racing during a Wednesday afternoon press conference at Miami-Homestead Speedway.
“It’s been a long and hard road to get here, but we are here,” said Kalkhoven, former co-owner of the now defunct Champ Car World Series. “I’m not sure that this is a magic bullet. To get this done, it’s going to take a lot of hard work, but the long-term potential is really exciting for everyone involved.”
George and his Indy Racing League completed Friday an agreement that will see several former Champ Car teams, including Kalkhoven’s, and drivers be absorbed into the IndyCar Series. Now, the IRL is involved in a frenetic attempt to get those teams outfitted with equipment prior to the beginning of the season, which begins March 29 at Homestead-Miami with the Gainsco Auto Insurance Indy 300, the first of 16 races on the 2008 schedule.
Under the agreement, each qualifying Champ Car team will receive an allotted budget of about $1.2 million, which includes two Dallara chassis and an engine lease with Honda.
George, who lauded IRL teams such as Penske Racing and Target Chip Ganassi Racing for their help in providing equipment for the incoming teams, said the reunification of the sport made Wednesday one of the best days of his “48 years.”
“Our job now is to make those teams feel warm and welcome,” George said. “We want it to be as if we’d never raced a season apart.”
The two series will technically race apart one final time during mid-April, when the stalwart IRL teams will head to Japan and Twin Rings Motegi, while the Champ Car teams will dust off their Cosworth-powered Panoz DP01s for one last go at the Grand Prix of Long Beach street course.
However, both races will be IRL-sanctioned and receive championship points and prize money according to IRL rules.

CHAMP CAR FAREWELL: The Champ Car Cosworth-Panoz's will race one final time at Long Beach as the IRL holds the Long Beach Grand Prix and its race at Twin Rings Motegi in Japan.

“Fans can see the DP01s for the last time,” said Kalkhoven. “And you never know, you might see a couple of IRL drivers jump in a DP01.”
The 2008 IndyCar schedule will also include Champ Car dates from Edmonton, Alberta as well as Surfer’s Paradise, Australia. The 2009 schedule has yet to be negotiated, but George said he would like to see the series grow to 20 races with about half of those being on ovals.
“We want to try and optimize the series as best we can,” George said. “We need to build the value of this sport. We’ve got a lot of building blocks that will go into next season.”
Like the sport itself, fans from each faction have often feverishly supported their chosen side, but both George and Kalkhoven said there is mending to be done with the fans — past and present — of open-wheel racing.
“If you have happy fans, then you have a lot of happy teams and sponsors,” George said.
Kalkhoven said, “the real winners today are the fans.”
While George and Kalkhoven, who purchased assets of CART during bankruptcy proceedings in 2004 to extend the split, looked ahead to what they hope will be a happy union in 2008 and beyond, both preferred not to look back at the chasm that alienated and confused fans, sponsors, lost the attention of the media and helped the explosive growth of NASCAR across North America.
“This is not the time at this moment to look back,” Kalkhoven said. “This is really about looking forward.”