a 16 race schedule. However, just two days later on March 11, Adrián Fernández threw the plans for the season into serious doubt by announcing the one car team he had presented at Long Beach would not compete in the Champ Car series. He instead expanded his Indy Racing League team to two cars (even though the IRL season had already seen its first race). Another blow came a week later on March 18 when Bobby Rahal, onetime CEO of CART and 3 time series champion and who also presented a one car team in Long Beach, announced he would not compete in CART and would also run a two car IRL team like Fernández. Champ Car makes it to Long Beach Momentum for Champ Car began to turn in the aftermath of Rahal's exit when his driver, Michel Jourdain Jr., announced that he and his sponsor, the Mexican supermarket Gigante would not follow Rahal to the IRL. Jourdain ended up driving for the new RuSPORT team, partnering with rookie A. J. Allmendinger. On March 20, Herdez Competition announced that Ryan Hunter-Reay would race a 2nd car for them. On March 24 Gerald Forsythe expanded his team from two cars to three, providing a seat for Patrick Carpentier. Conquest Racing announced a two car team featuring ex-Formula One driver Justin Wilson on March 25, with Alex Sperafico filling the second seat two days later. Walker Racing's one car team announced on April 8 proved to be the final piece of the puzzle to get to the 18 car field promised by the Champ Car partners in January. Although his participation with two cars was already known, Dale Coyne waited until just before practice began for the Grand Prix of Long Beach to announce that his drivers would be Champ Car veterans Oriol Servià and Tarso Marques. Mid-season changes F1 veteran Gastón Mazzacane replaced Tarso Marques at Dale Coyne Racing beginning with the race in Milwaukee. Rocketsports Racing swapped out rookie driver Nelson Philippe for Champ Car veteran Memo Gidley after "contractual issues" at Toronto. Rocketsports changed drivers again for the Road America round, bringing in Indy Lights and sports car veteran Guy Smith to replace Memo Gidley. Mi-Jack Conquest Racing brought in Nelson Philippe to take the place of Alex Sperafico beginning with the Denver round. Mi-Jack Conquest's #14 team began racing a Lola chassis beginning in Montreal. Walker Racing