The past couple years, if you were to bet on a Champ Car race against Newman/Haas/Lannigan racing and their No. 1 driver, three-time champion Sebastian Bourdais, most would think you are afraid of money. This year, however, Will Power for Team Australia Walker Racing and Robert Doornbos for Mindari Team USA have shaken things up quite a bit in the Champ Car world and have made things just a little bit harder for the McDonald’s car.

The 2007 season has been a season of change for the Champ Car World Series. You can always count on a few new faces, and a few new places to race. This year, however, the big story was the debut of the Panoz DP-01 chassis. This new car replaced the Lola that had become a staple of the series the past couple years. The chassis itself is a hybrid of old and new. The raised nose gives it more of a European look, but the rest of the profile, including the classic roll hoop with no air box on top, is classic Turbo Charged Champ Car beauty.

There were a few things that I was very intrigued to see with the new car. First and foremost, I wanted to see if more cars would enter the series because of the supposed lower cost. Secondly, I wanted to see if new teams would begin to compete, considering this more or less evened the playing field. This was something I definitely wanted to happen, not just for myself being tired of the Sebastian Bourdais show, but also for fan interest to increase as well. It is no mystery that Champ Car was starting to reach F1 proportions as far as boredom with Bourdais’ dominance in the series the past few years. It was time to see if this year was any different.

Enter Las Vegas, the first race of the year. This was Will Power’s first day in the spotlight as he cruised to his first career victory and made a believer out of yours truly. Before that day, I thought Power was just going to be another Aussie racer signed for the fact that the team picked up major sponsorship from an Australian Wine Maker. From this day forward, Will Power was more than just a catchy name.

The next couple races, however, proved to be business as usual as Bourdais claimed victories at both Houston and Long Beach. It seemed that despite several major changes in Champ Car, N/H/L would continue to be the heavy favorite. This summer, however, has put a much different spin on things. First, Paul Tracy rode to his first victory since 2005 in Cleveland. Then Robert Doornbos, better known to the Champ Car faithful now as “Bobby D,” began to shine. First he had a strong second-place at Cleveland and then went on to get his first Champ Car victory at the inaugural Mount Tremblant Race in Quebec. Power then snatched a victory in Toronto before Bourdais had an important victory in Edmonton.

Sunday, Bobby D scored his second victory in San Jose, and his consistency this year has pulled him to within 10 points of the current leader, Bourdais. Power is also very much in the hunt. So yes, Bourdais is leading the points, but the battle is very close. Last year, Bourdais practically had the championship wrapped up; this year, however, the heat is on, and I welcome it.

Champ Car has created some great racing with its new chassis. The cars are running close, there is a lot of passing and there is also a lot of controversy. Now there is not any fighting this year like there was last year with Tracy, but on the track, the action is getting intense, shaping up for quite an interesting championship despite having only 17 cars in the field. The bottom line is, more talented teams like Walker and Minardi are needed in this series to really make it take off.

There needs to be more answers to the call of N/H/L dominance, Walker and Minardi have been able to do that and Forsythe and Rsports are also showing signs of life. Sadly teams like Dale Coyne Racing continue to feel the pain of the back of the pack despite the so-called equal playing field. Bruno Junqueira has not been the same since he had a ride at Newman/Haas. Katherine Legge, who won three races in her only season in Atlantics, has never truly been able show what she is made of, with her best performance last year coming to a disappointing end at Road America when the rear wing of her car failed catastrophically going into the fastest part of the course, making her famous for a crash that very well could have killed her. Perhaps she will be able to prove herself at the four-mile track once again in two weeks, which is when you will hear from me again.

Champ Car has a long uphill battle still, but the future is looking better for the series as the years go on. Exciting racing and better competition are the keys to making a marketable product. They certainly have the tools. It is just a matter of if they can use them properly.