2003 CART season
Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford
Season
Races	19 18
Start date	February 23
End date	October 26
Awards
Drivers' champion	Paul Tracy
Constructors' Cup	Lola
Nations' Cup	Canada
Rookie of the Year	Sébastien Bourdais
← 2002 2004 (CCWS) →

The 2003 Champ Car World Series, the twenty-fifth and final in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) era of American open-wheel car racing, consisted of 18 races, beginning in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States on February 23 and concluding in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia on October 26. For sponsorship purposes, it was branded as Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.

The intended final event, scheduled to be held in Fontana, California on November 9 was canceled due to wildfires, one of which was known as the "Grand Prix Fire", burning in and around San Bernardino County.

The Drivers' Champion was Paul Tracy. Rookie of the Year was Sébastien Bourdais. At the end of the season, the operations of a now bankrupt CART were assumed by Open-Wheel Racing Series, who continued to brand its top series as the Champ Car World Series.

The season was the first since 1993 not to feature Michael Andretti.

Drivers and teams

With the departure of Honda and Toyota to the Indy Racing League (IRL) for the 2003 season, Cosworth became the exclusive engine supplier for the CART series. Their turbocharged 2.65L XFE V8 engine continued to be badged by Ford. Bridgestone continued on as the exclusive tire supplier for the series. Starting in 2003, CART began branding itself as the Champ Car World Series, and a marketing agreement between CART and the two suppliers resulted in the full branding of "Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford."^[1]

The following teams and drivers competed in the 2003 Champ Car World Series season.

Team	Chassis	No	Drivers	Races	Primary Sponsors
Newman/Haas Racing	Lola B02/00	1	Bruno Junqueira	All	PacifiCare
		2	Sébastien Bourdais  R	All	Eli Lilly 13 McDonald's 3 Cialis 1 ConnectED 1
Team Player's	Lola B02/00	3	Paul Tracy	All	Player's 16 It's Your World 2 LastLap.ca16-18
		32	Patrick Carpentier	All
Herdez Competition	Lola B02/00	4	Roberto Moreno	1-16, 18	Herdez
			Roberto González  R	17
		55	Mario Domínguez	All
Walker Racing	Reynard 02I	5	Rodolfo Lavín  R	All	Corona
		15	Darren Manning  R	All	RAC AutoWindscreens 6 U.S. Air Force 1 Air China 6 Sportsbook.com 5
		25	Luis Díaz  R	17	Sun Microsystems
Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing	Reynard 02I	7	Tiago Monteiro  R	All	Laureus 2 World Childhood Foundation 8 O2 Diesel 7 AllSlots.com 1
Team Rahal	Lola B02/00	9	Michel Jourdain Jr.	All	Gigante 17 Office Depot 1
Dale Coyne Racing	Lola B02/00	11	Roberto González  R	1	Lotto Speed 2 Snap-On Tools 1 Malaysia Airlines 2
			Alex Yoong  R	2-5
			Gualter Salles	6	Alpina
			Geoff Boss  R	7-18	Lacoste
		19	Joël Camathias  R	1-7	City of Lugano
			Gualter Salles	8-9, 11-15, 17-18	Alpina
			Alex Sperafico  R	10, 16	Dale Coyne Racing
American Spirit Team Johansson	Reynard 02I	12	Jimmy Vasser	All	American Spirit Team Johansson 17 Gonher de Mexico 1
		31	Ryan Hunter-Reay  R	All
Patrick Racing	Lola B02/00	20	Oriol Servià	All	Visteon
PK Racing	Lola B02/00	27	Patrick Lemarié  R	1-6	Scientific Atlanta 17 Yalumba 1
			Bryan Herta	7
			Max Papis	8-14
			Mika Salo  R	15-18
Rocketsports Racing	Lola B02/00	33	Alex Tagliani	All	Johnson Controls
Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	Reynard 02I	34	Mario Haberfeld  R	All	Mi-Jack
Fernández Racing	Lola B02/00	51	Adrián Fernández	All	Tecate

Team changes

With the departure of Honda and Toyota to the IRL for the 2003 season, four CART teams joined them in the rival series as well. Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Green Racing (a merger of the former Team Green and Michael Andretti's Team Motorola) and Mo Nunn Racing became full-time IRL competitors for the 2003 season. Meanwhile, Mi-Jack Conquest Racing went against flow and jumped from the IRL to CART.^[2] Team Rahal and Fernández Racing split their efforts between the two series, each reducing their Champ Car teams to a single car. Dale Coyne Racing returned to full-time status after a partial season effort in 2002.

Four new teams joined the series. Businessman Kevin Kalkhoven and Craig Pollock, who previously managed the British American Racing team in Formula One, started the PK Racing team.^[3] Long-time Trans-Am competitor Paul Gentilozzi expanded his Rocketsports Racing team to include a Champ Car effort.^[4] Kalkhoven and Gentilozzi would go on to become two of the owners of the series in 2004 after the CART organization went bankrupt. Formula One and Champ Car champion Emerson Fittipaldi and businessman Jamie Dingman formed Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing^[5] while Formula One and Champ Car veteran Stefan Johansson formed American Spirit Team Johansson.^[6]

Driver changes

Along with the major changes to the team lineup to the series, a great many new faces made their debut in 2003. Of the nineteen drivers at the season opener in St. Petersburg, nine were rookies. Most notable was 2002 Formula 3000 champion Sébastien Bourdais who joined Newman/Haas Racing. Bourdais would impress immediately by taking pole in his first race, winning his fourth race, and finishing fourth in the season championship. Walker Racing had a lineup of two rookies, Rodolfo Lavín and Darren Manning, who actually debuted at the 2002 race at the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, England but was still considered a series rookie. Three rookie teams campaigned with rookie drivers. Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing ran Tiago Monteiro, Mi-Jack Conquest Racing chose Mario Haberfeld, while PK Racing began the year with Patrick Lemarié.

Familiar Champ Car drivers also found themselves in new surroundings for 2003. With Chip Ganassi Racing gone to the IRL, Bruno Junqueira took over the #1 car at Newman-Haas, replacing Cristiano da Matta who moved on to Formula One after winning the 2002 CART championship. With Team Green also gone to the IRL, Paul Tracy moved over to Team Player's. Tracy would reward his new team with the season championship. Alex Tagliani lost his Player's seat to Tracy but found a ride with the new Rocketsports Racing team. Champ Car's elder statesman Jimmy Vasser joined the new American Spirit Team Johansson team after Team Rahal downsized to a single car. His teammate there was series rookie Ryan Hunter-Reay. Herdez Competition tabbed veteran Roberto Moreno for their expanded two car team.

The list of drivers not changing teams was short. Patrick Carpentier at Player's, Mario Domínguez at Herdez, Michel Jourdain Jr. at Team Rahal, Oriol Servia at Patrick Racing, and Adrian Fernández continued to drive his own car.

Mid-season changes

• Alex Yoong, a former Formula One pay driver, took over the Dale Coyne Racing #11 car from Roberto González starting with the 2nd race of the season in Monterrey.^[7]
• Sponsorship problems caused Yoong to lose his race seat to Champ Car veteran Gualter Salles at Milwaukee.^[8] This marked Salles's first Champ Car start since Road America in August 2000.
• After a series of disappointing results to open the season, PK Racing replaced Patrick Lemarié with noted Laguna Seca expert Brian Herta for the race there.^[9] Herta's full-time job in 2003 was driving in the IRL for Andretti Green Racing so Max Papis took over the car starting with the following round at Portland.^[10]
• Also at Laguna, the revolving door at Coyne continued with Geoff Boss taking over the #11 from Salles.^[11]
• The shuffle at Coyne did not stop at Portland as Gualter Salles returned, taking over the #19 car from Joël Camathias. Salles remained in the #19 for the rest of the year with two exceptions: Alex Sperafico took over the car at Toronto and Miami because Salles had previous commitments those weekends.^[12]
• PK Racing brought in Formula One veteran Mika Salo for the final four races of the year starting with the race in Denver.^[13]
• Two extra Mexican drivers were brought in for the race in Mexico City. Herdez Competition gave away Roberto Moreno's car to Roberto González for the race, while Walker Racing ran a third car for Luis Díaz.^[14]

Season summary

Schedule

Rnd	Race Name	Circuit	City/Location	Date
1	Grand Prix of St. Petersburg	R  Albert Whitted Airport	St. Petersburg, Florida	February 23
2	Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix	R  Fundidora Park	Monterrey, Mexico	March 23
3	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach	R  Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California	April 13
4	The London Champ Car Trophy	R  Brands Hatch	Longfield, United Kingdom	May 5
5	German 500	O  EuroSpeedway Lausitz	Klettwitz, Germany	May 11
6	Milwaukee Mile Centennial 250 Presented by Miller Lite and Argent Mortgage	O  Milwaukee Mile	West Allis, Wisconsin	May 31
7	Grand Prix of Monterey	R  Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	June 15
8	G.I. Joe's 200	R  Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon	June 22
9	U.S. Bank presents the Cleveland Grand Prix	R  Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport	Cleveland, Ohio	July 5
10	Molson Indy Toronto	R  Exhibition Place	Toronto, Ontario	July 13
11	Molson Indy Vancouver	R  Concord Pacific Place	Vancouver, British Columbia	July 27
12	Mario Andretti Grand Prix at Road America Presented by Briggs & Stratton	R  Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	August 3
13	Champ Car Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio	R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio	August 10
14	Molson Indy Montreal	R  Circuit Gilles Villeneuve	Montreal, Quebec	August 24
15	Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver	R  Denver Civic Center	Denver, Colorado	August 31
16	Grand Prix Americas Presented by sportsbook.com	R  Miami Bayfront Park Street Circuit	Miami, Florida	September 28
17	Gran Premio Telmex-Gigante Presented by Banamex/VISA	R  Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	Mexico City, Mexico	October 12
18	Lexmark Indy 300	R  Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Australia	October 26
-	King Taco 500 (Cancelled)	O  California Speedway	Fontana, California	November 9

 O  Oval/Speedway
 R  Road/Street course

Race results

Rnd	Race Name	Pole position	Fastest lap	Lead most laps	Winning driver	Winning team	Report
1	St. Petersburg	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Team Player's	Report
2	Monterrey	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Bruno Junqueira	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Team Player's	Report
3	Long Beach	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Paul Tracy	Team Player's	Report
4	Brands Hatch	Paul Tracy	Adrián Fernández	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
5	EuroSpeedway	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
6	Milwaukee	Alex Tagliani	Patrick Carpentier	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Team Rahal	Report
7	Laguna Seca	Patrick Carpentier	Patrick Carpentier	Patrick Carpentier	Patrick Carpentier	Team Player's	Report
8	Portland	Paul Tracy	Alex Tagliani	Paul Tracy Michel Jourdain Jr.	Adrián Fernández	Fernández Racing	Report
9	Cleveland	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Paul Tracy	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
10	Toronto	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Team Player's	Report
11	Vancouver	Paul Tracy	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Team Player's	Report
12	Road America	Bruno Junqueira	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Bruno Junqueira	Bruno Junqueira	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
13	Mid-Ohio	Paul Tracy	Jimmy Vasser	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Team Player's	Report
14	Montreal	Alex Tagliani	Bruno Junqueira	Alex Tagliani	Michel Jourdain Jr.	Team Rahal	Report
15	Denver	Bruno Junqueira	Mario Haberfeld  R	Bruno Junqueira	Bruno Junqueira	Newman/Haas Racing	Report
16	Miami	Adrián Fernández	Adrián Fernández	Adrián Fernández	Mario Domínguez	Herdez Competition	Report
17	Mexico City	Paul Tracy	Ryan Hunter-Reay  R	Paul Tracy	Paul Tracy	Team Player's	Report
18	Surfers Paradise	Sébastien Bourdais  R	Roberto Moreno	Bruno Junqueira	Ryan Hunter-Reay  R	American Spirit Team Johansson	Report
19	Fontana						Report

Final driver standings

Pos Driver STP MTY LBH BRH LAU MIL LAG POR CLE TOR VAN ROA MDO MTL DEN MIA MEX SUR Pts 1 Paul Tracy 1* 1* 1 17 12 12 3 2* 2* 1* 1* 15 1* 6 4 16 1* 13 226 2 Bruno Junqueira 3 5 3 2 4 17 2 4 3 3 2 1* 13 13 1* 9 7 15* 199 3 Michel Jourdain Jr. 2 2 15* 6 3 1* 4 12 7 2 4 16 4 1 6 7 4 4 195 4 Sébastien Bourdais  RY  11 17 16 1* 1* 9 17 14 1 4 3 2 5 19 2 17 2 17 159 5 Patrick Carpentier 8 8 6 5 7 3 1* 16 4 7 13 5 2 3 17 6 14 5 146 6 Mario Domínguez 14 13 5 3 2 8 10 10 5 12 10 14 16 5 7 1 3 10 118 7 Oriol Servià 12 18 12 4 5 2 6 5 6 5 16 18 18 2 3 19 13 19 108 8 Adrián Fernández 15 4 2 12 15 6 7 1 11 9 12 12 7 8 5 8* 8 12 105 9 Darren Manning  R  13 7 8 10 6 4 18 6 10 8 5 6 8 10 8 11 9 2 103 10 Alex Tagliani 19 3 10 8 18 5 14 3 8 17 14 3 6 4* 9 13 16 7 97 11 Jimmy Vasser 6 14 4 19 8 11 8 7 13 13 11 9 15 16 11 4 17 3 72 12 Mario Haberfeld  R  4 16 9 9 14 7 5 8 15 19 7 8 10 11 10 5 12 14 71 13 Roberto Moreno 5 6 17 7 10 19 15 9 18 6 17 7 19 7 16 2 16 67 14 Ryan Hunter-Reay  R  16 12 7 16 11 16 12 17 9 11 6 10 3 17 15 12 11 1 64 15 Tiago Monteiro  R  7 19 11 14 13 10 9 19 Wth 10 15 17 11 18 13 15 6 18 29 16 Mika Salo  R  14 3 5 11 26 17 Max Papis 15 12 16 9 4 9 9 25 18 Rodolfo Lavín  R  18 15 18 15 9 14 19 11 14 15 8 19 12 15 19 18 18 8 17 19 Gualter Salles 13 18 17 18 11 17 12 18 15 6 11 20 Geoff Boss  R  16 13 16 14 19 13 14 14 12 10 20 9 8 21 Patrick Lemarié  R  10 10 13 11 19 18 8 22 Joël Camathias  R  9 11 14 13 16 15 13 6 23 Alex Yoong  R  9 19 18 17 4 24 Roberto González  R  17 10 3 25 Bryan Herta 11 2 26 Alex Sperafico  R  18 14 0 27 Luis Díaz  R  19 0 Pos Driver STP MTY LBH BRH LAU MIL LAG POR CLE TOR VAN ROA MDO MTL DEN MIA MEX SUR Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th-6th place Light Blue 7th-12th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 12) Purple Did not finish Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Not competing In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

Nations' Cup

• Top result per race counts towards Nations' Cup.

Pos	Country	STP	MTY	LBH	BRH	LAU	MIL	LAG	POR	CLE	TOR	VAN	ROA	MDO	MTL	DEN	MIA	MEX	SUR	Pts
1	Canada	1	1	1	5	7	3	1	2	2	1	1	3	1	3	4	6	1	5	298
2	Mexico	2	2	2	3	2	1	4	1	5	2	4	12	4	1	5	1	3	4	262
3	Brazil	3	5	3	2	4	7	2	4	3	3	2	1	10	7	1	2	7	6	228
4	France	10	10	13	1	1	9	17	14	1	4	3	2	5	19	2	17	2	17	161
5	United States	6	12	4	16	8	11	8	7	9	11	6	9	3	14	11	4	11	1	107
6	Spain	12	18	12	4	5	2	6	5	6	5	16	18	18	2	3	19	13	19	106
7	England	13	7	8	10	6	4	18	6	10	8	5	6	8	10	8	11	9	2	103
8	Portugal	7	19	11	14	13	10	9	19	Wth	10	15	17	11	18	13	15	6	18	28
9	Finland															14	3	5	11	26
10	Italy								15	12	16	9	4	9	9					25
11	Switzerland	9	11	14	13	16	15	13												6
12	Malaysia		9	19	18	17														4
Pos	Country	STP	MTY	LBH	BRH	LAU	MIL	LAG	POR	CLE	TOR	VAN	ROA	MDO	MTL	DEN	MIA	MEX	SUR	Pts

Chassis Constructors' Cup

Pos	Chassis	Pts
1	Lola	387
2	Reynard	161
Pos	Chassis	Pts

Driver breakdown

Pos	Driver	Team	Entries	Wins	Podiums	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles	Laps Lead	Points
1	Tracy	Team Player's	18	7	10	11	12	6	658	226
2	Junqueira	Newman-Haas Racing	18	2	9	12	14	2	184	199
3	Jourdain Jr.	Team Rahal	18	2	6	11	15	1	350	195
4	Bourdais  R	Newman-Haas Racing	18	3	7	9	10	5	254	159
5	Carpentier	Team Player's	18	1	4	8	14	1	107	146
6	Domínguez	Herdez Competition	18	1	4	7	13	--	76	118
7	Servià	Patrick Racing	18	--	3	7	9	--	37	108
8	Fernández	Fernández Racing	18	1	2	4	11	1	123	105
9	Manning  R	Walker Racing	18	--	1	3	15	--	4	103
10	Tagliani	Rocketsports Racing	18	--	3	5	11	1*	70	97
11	Vasser	American Spirit Team Johansson	18	--	1	3	8	--	18	72
12	Haberfeld  R	Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	18	--	--	3	11	--	--	71
13	Moreno	Herdez Competition	17	--	1	2	9	--	6	67
14	Hunter-Reay  R	American Spirit Team Johansson	18	1	2	2	6	--	15	64
15	Monteiro  R	Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing	18	--	--	--	5	--	14	29
16	Salo  R	PK Racing	4	--	1	2	2	--	6	26
17	Papis	PK Racing	7	--	--	1	4	--	--	25
18	Lavín  R	Walker Racing	18	--	--	--	3	--	--	17
19	Salles	Dale Coyne Racing	9	--	--	--	1	--	--	11
20	Boss  R	Dale Coyne Racing	11	--	--	--	2	--	--	8
21	Lemarié  R	PK Racing	6	--	--	--	2	--	--	8
22	Camathias  R	Dale Coyne Racing	7	--	--	--	1	--	--	6
23	Yoong  R	Dale Coyne Racing	4	--	--	--	1	--	--	4
24	Roberto González  R	Herdez Competition Dale Coyne Racing	2	--	--	--	1	--	--	3
25	Herta	PK Racing	1	--	--	--	--	--	--	2
26	Sperafico  R	Dale Coyne Racing	2	--	--	--	--	--	--	0
27	Díaz  R	Walker Racing	1	--	--	--	--	--	--	0

* Alex Tagliani started on pole at Milwaukee but was not awarded the bonus point for it when the qualification session was rained out. The grid was set by practice times. This result is not counted in Tagliani's season total in this table.