2003 CART season

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]

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.

• 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]

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

• 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

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.