Latest Site News

Updated 12/30/2006
I've made some changes to how points are displayed for early season drivers. Here's the writeup from the Page Keys section explaining it:

For the years 1909-15 and 1917-19 you will see the point totals followed by an asterisk. That is because those points should not be considered official. Points were retroactively assigned to those seasons years later, so they can't really be considered genuine. Also, in the career points spot you will sometimes see a total like this: 100/250*. The 100 represents the number of points scored in seasons where points were actually awarded (1916, 1920-2006). The second number is the total including the points later awarded for 1909-15 and 1917-19. A lot of times the first number will be a 0, because the driver only competed in seasons where points were awarded retroactively.

I've left the points totals in all of the rankings pages alone for the time being, although that may change.

Updated 12/19/2006
A new section has been added to the front page detailing the various points systems used throughout the years. Also, I'd like to thank a couple of the site's readers, James Coulter and Simmo Iskül, for their recent contributions.

Updated 11/21/2006
All done! The 2006 data is all uploaded and available. Now that there are no pressing matters for the site I can move onto some other things. The Atlantic section is coming along nicely, although it will be a while before it's ready to come online. I'll be happy if that's posted before the season opener in April. I'm going to put together a small section detailing the various points systems used throughout the years. And I'm going to go back through the stats of drivers from the early years and change how their points are listed, to deemphasize the points retroactively awarded during the early "championships". Drivers will now be listed with the number of points scored during actual (1905, 1916, 1920-present) championship seasons only as well as a total including the retroactive championships (1909-15, 1917-1919), which is how they're currently listed. And finally thanks to a pair of the site's readers, Rich Imlay and Jerry Entin, for their recent contributions.

Updated 11/14/2006
With the Champ Car season ending this past weekend, the 2006 data will start to come online. Below is a checklist of all the items to be updated, items will be crossed off here as they are put on the site.

~~2006 race pages~~
~~2006 season page~~
~~Chassis data & driver by driver~~
~~Country pages & records~~
~~Engine data & driver by driver~~
~~Individual driver pages & extended driver stats~~
~~Records and rankings~~
~~State/province pages~~
~~This day in history~~
~~Track pages & extended track stats~~

Updated 10/6/2006
Thanks again to Keith Johnson, who was able to provide a complete box score from the 1999 Charlotte race.

Updated 9/29/2006
All of the statistics from the 2006 IRL season have been added to the site, and all pages updated to include this information. Typically I wait until both series are done and update all of the info at once, but with a two month gap between each series' respective season finale there was plenty of time to to get this done. Judging by the length of time this took, I would guess the CCWS stats will come online around December 1st.

Also, I'd like to thank a few of the site's readers for their contributions recently. Michael Henry provided information about Alton and Charles Soules from his book Jedediah Riggs: Portraits & Legacy. Here's a full citation for his book and the portions on the racing Soules family:

Henry, M. W. (2006). Jedediah Riggs: Portraits & Legacy. Fife Lake, MI: Flinthead Productions
Page numbers: John Edward Soules (p. 221-223), William Henry Soules (p. 223-225),
George Washington Soules (p. 225-229), and Alton Soules (p. 344-347)

Also, Dave Wraight provided some DNQ information regarding the Indy Lights series, and Keith Johnson provided some info regarding the 1999 Charlotte race. Thanks everyone for your generous contributions. There are the normal miscellaneous updates also, plus a small section on riding mechanics added to Other Champions page.

Updated 9/12/2006
The IPS section is now finished and posted. Work on the Atlantic section is well under way.

Updated 8/19/2006
If you can read this, things are now working! Turns out there had been a problem with uploading files onto the host (OK it was a user problem!) and the site hadn't been updated at all since July 4. There were no big updates, but plenty of small updates and corrections, the kind of minor stuff that's always being done, that weren't showing up. Everything should be fixed soon.

Updated 8/17/2006
Another ladder series is complete as the IPS section is finished, or at least as finished as it can be with a couple races left this year. It won't go online until the end of the season, there's no point in posting it now and then changing it in a couple of weeks to get the last of the 2006 data up, but it will go online within a couple of days of the end of their season. In the meantime I can now start work on the Atlantic section.

The Atlantic section will be handled differently than I originally planned. It will go up for now in two sections, 1974-1990 and 1991-2006. The 1991-2006 section will be done first. There's still a lot of data missing from the early years. The later years are complete so it makes more sense to put together what I have now. I chose to split it between 1990 and 1991 for several reasons. It's right near the middle of the series' history, section 1 will cover 17 years and section 2 will cover 16. I have full results for every race from 1991 onwards (actually 1989 but 1991 was a better starting point) whereas prior to that there's a good number of gaps in my info. And 1991 was really the beginning of the modern era of the series.

Here's a brief overview: the series began in 1974 in Canada under the sanction of the CASC (Canadian Auto Sport Clubs). In 1976 a rival series sanctioned by IMSA started, but only lasted one season. In 1979 the SCCA joined CASC in a joint sanction of the series. That lasted until 1983, when the FIA decided to sanction the various Atlantic series worldwide under the name Formula Mondial. Amazingly enough the FIA was able to royally screw things up (notice the massive amounts of sarcasm) and the class nearly died in North America. A small group called WCAR (West Coast Atlantic Racing) was formed to keep the class alive for 1984. An eastern version, ECAR, was formed a year later. This led to split Atlantic series, one in each half of the country. SCCA took over the sanctioning duties of both series in 1989, and starting in 1991 they were merged back together to form one national series. That's the main point in favor of starting the modern era section with 1991. SCCA continued to run the series until 2000, when CART purchased the series, and the series has since passed to CCWS. So for those scoring at home, that's 8 sanctioning bodies over the course of 32 years!

One the modern era section is complete I'll put together what I have of the older seasons. At whatever point in time I'm able to fill in all of the gaps in the early years I'll merge the two sections together, but for now breaking them up seems to be the best way to handle things on the website.

Updated 7/1/2006
Big update today. You've probably noticed two new sections on the main page. The first, Climbing The Ladder, is dedicated to the top minor league series. The Indy Lights portion of the site is now complete and online. The other sections will come up eventually, though it's going to take some time. You'll be able to get to all of the Indy Lights data through that area, also any driver listed in the main Champ Car section that competed in Indy Lights will have a link to his Lights stats on his main page. The other new section, The Master List, is a complete listing of every driver page on the site, covering all series. That will provide easy access to every driver, instead of having to hunt through the individual sections.

Updated 5/25/2006
Just an update, the Indy Lights section is progressing well, a little quicker than expected. I'm expecting it to go online sometime around late July or early August.

Updated 4/6/2006
More driver updates for the 2006 season have been added. Also, I've determined the next phase for this site. There isn't a whole lot more to do with the data as is, there's only so many ways to cut it up. So next I'll be adding data for the top ladder series. Right now I'm planning on the two current main feeders, Champ Car Atlantic and Indy Pro, as well as the American Racing Series/Indy Lights. This won't be as detailed as the Champ Car data, but I do still plan on doing results, standings and individual driver stats. Indy Lights will come first, since the data is set, no new races are being added. IPS will follow, with its short history it shouldn't take long to do. Atlantic will be tougher. Right now I've got full results for 22 of the 32 years (1975, 77-78, 83-84, 89-2005). The rest is a patchwork, some seasons I've got most of the data, some it's partial, and there are a couple where I've got nothing more than a list of winners. I'm trying to complete things as best I can, but it's likely there will still be some holes when the Atlantic data comes online. I'm also considering doing Super Vee as well, it depends on how complete the info I can scrounge up is.

Updated 3/22/2006
Again, nothing big, just wanted to let you know I'm still here! Minor biographical info continues to be updated, as well as starting to add in new drivers for the 2006 season.

Updated 1/25/2006
Nothing too big, just some housekeeping - added DNQ info, biographical updates and the like.

Updated 1/13/2006
The updates for the 1905 season are now complete and posted.

Updated 1/3/2006
The corrections to the 1920 data are now complete throughout the site and uploaded. Next up will be an update and correction of the data for the 1905 season. Thanks to Don Capps for his help with this phase of the project.