PRUETT: Solving the Green Prix Champ Car mystery

I've spent far too many hours searching for the whereabouts of Ben Johnston's Green Prix USA fleet. My quest to find the cars from the stillborn series always ended in frustration, and as I learned during the process, I wasn't the only one who wondered how 20-plus Indy cars disappeared without a trace.

Johnston, a self-prescribed "media mogul," swept in after Champ Car collapsed in 2008, purchased a collection of the divine 2007 Panoz DP01s and older Reynards, and announced his intentions to repurpose the cars for a new kind of open-wheel series.

Through a Spartan, single-page web page, Johnston declared Green Prix USA's "ultimate goal is to bring back premiere open-wheel racing at all levels and that reflects the purest racing values that fans and drivers love, and at the same time provide a platform for all green initiatives involved in automotive performance."

It sounded interesting at the time – and rather far-fetched, but I figured that if the guy could afford to assemble a full grid of Champ Cars, going the rest of the distance to form an alternative to the IndyCar Series wasn't completely impossible.

To launch the series, Johnston would need to continue what had come to an end in Champ Car, and that meant using the same 2.65-liter Cosworth V8 turbos that fell silent at the end of 2007. His vision for the future, however, as the "Green Prix" name suggests, was a move to something similar to what's found in today's all-electric FIA Formula E cars.

According to Johnston's mission statement, "We will be environmentally focused through the development of new racing criteria coupled with green technology in the form of new, state of the art electric motors."

The series' planned debut on March 15, 2009 came and went as an engine supply contract failed to materialize. Despite Johnston's forward-minded all-electric ambitions, Green Prix USA was unable to get off the ground as Champ Car 2.0 before any thoughts of ditching combustion engines for electric motors could be realized. After missing its curtain call, Green Prix USA was quickly forgotten.

But, what about the cars? Although everything else related to the series fell through, Johnston did manage to pay for and receive a full fleet of Indy cars. I'd sent emails to Johnston inquiring about their whereabouts, and received zero replies. I'd asked friends in the IndyCar paddock who worked in Champ Car, and also had a variety of folks as me if I knew where the cars went.

Out of the blue on Dec. 6, RACER reader Buddy Campbell (LEFT) shared a gallery of images (BELOW) that not only revealed the lost Green Prix USA cars, but also offered an explanation behind their sudden appearance. In the midst of a divorce, representatives of Johnston's wife dispatched tow trucks to the Georgia warehouse that contained the cars where half of the Green Prix USA grid was loaded and removed from the premises.

Among the cars taken, an assortment of Patrick Racing Reynards, Pacific Coast Motorsports DP01s, and other dusty gems, including one bearing Alex Zanardi's name, were winched onto flatbed trucks and taken to a new location where a broker is expected to sell the cars on behalf of Johnston's former wife.

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ABOVE: Servia in a Forsythe DP01 in 2007 (Marshall Pruett photo).

Veteran CART and Champ Car driver Oriol Servia shared my interest in the missing fleet, and says their re-appearance – the Panoz DP01s in particular – is more than welcome.

"It almost feels like a hidden treasure that fell from a Spanish royal ship that was lost at the bottom of the ocean," he said. "I say a treasure because the Panoz was a fantastic car. Of all the cars I've driven in my life, it was the most balanced with power, downforce, and brakes. The whole package was perfectly balanced and way cheaper than what was done before and after. It was a fantastic package that only had one year of life. There's still something great that could be done with those cars. I only knew where a couple were located. I know KV had a couple, and they are still fantastic. It was a good domesticated monster.

Telling Servia the Green Prix USA DP01s resurfaced sent the Catalonian on a prolonged journey down memory lane.

"To me still to this day it's the absolute best-performing racecar I ever drove on a road course," he continued. "I do think we lost a little of the 'soul' of CART, however, visually compared with the short front/long rear of the Reynards and Lolas. On road courses the grip levels were completely insane but they struggled a little on street courses and were tougher to drive physically. But it's a huge shame that those amazing machines went to waste after only a season and a bit.

"Although results sucked for me in 2007, I still reflect on the fact that I got to where I wanted to be, led some laps and moved on before the ship sank. It would be great to see some racing at vintage events and hear the screaming Cosworth engines again."

LEFT: Vasser in a KV DP01 at Long Beach in 2008. (LAT photo)

KVSH Racing co-owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser held onto their DP01s, which were restored and tested earlier this year. Like Servia, who raced for the KV team at the end of 2007, Vasser believes the Green Prix USA DP01s would make perfect, affordable cars for those who wanted an amazing driving experience.

"We just sold our last one, the old HVM team just had an auction selling their Champ Cars, and I know Dale Coyne has one that's a runner," he said. "There's some in the BOSS series in Europe, and I did know Johnston had a lot of them but he couldn't get any engines so it never went anywhere. 80 or so engines are sitting in Jerry Forsythe's barn in Illinois, plus all his cars, and he never sells anything. He has all the engines, and the ECUs, so without them, Johnston was stuck.

"If Jerry was cheeky enough to put those engines in the DP01s, it would be a hell of a track-day car for $140-$150K for a runner. It's pretty incredible at that price. If you've got money, you have the best thing out there for a hundred-and-a-half."

It turns out a few people I know, including Vasser, knew where the Green Prix USA cars were being stored the entire time, which came to light after Campbell sent his photos. Had I asked the right people, the disappearance of Johnston's cars would have been a short-lived mystery, but I'm still thankful to know so many great cars from the end of the CART/Champ Car era are intact and going up for sale in the near future.

All I need is $150 grand to fall from the sky and a plan to sneak into Forsythe's barn. Do you think he'd notice if the pool of 80 engines was short by one or two?