1997 North American Touring Car Championship

The 1997 North American Touring Car Championship was the second and final season of the North American Touring Car Championship. The series was organized by CART, and ran to Super Touring regulations. 18 rounds at 9 race meetings were organized, all but one (in Savannah, Georgia) supporting the CART World Series.

1997 NATCC season

Previous

1996

Next

none

Teams and drivers

Team	Car	No.	Drivers	Rounds
TC Kline Racing	BMW 320i	1	Randy Pobst	All
		12	Brian Battaglia	1–3
			Tom Finnelly Jr.	4–5
			Doug Beatty	6
			Paul Charsley	9
Rod Millen Motorsports	Toyota Camry	2	Rod Millen	4
Tasman Motorsports	Honda Accord	4	Neil Crompton	1–3, 5–9
Schader Motorsports	Mazda Xedos 6	5	Bob Schader	1–4, 6–9
			Walter Puckett	5
		6	Desiré Wilson	1–2, 6
			Walter Puckett	3
			Bob Schader	5
			Paul Charsley	8
			Ron Emmick	9
PacWest Touring Car Group	Dodge Stratus	7	Dominic Dobson	All
		8	David Donohue	All
Hartong Motorsports	BMW 318is	18	Darren Law	All
Fastech Group	Ford Mondeo	27	David Welch	All
Honda American Racing Team	Honda Accord	42	Peter Cunningham	All
		62	Forrest Granlund	1–3, 5, 7–9
Metalcraft	Pontiac Sunfire	80	Dave Jolly	9
		81	Ron Emmick	8
Jonak Brothers Racing	BMW 320i	99	Mark Jonak	1–2
Hertfelder Motorsports	Honda Accord	64	Roberto Quintanilla	5–8

Calendar

The initial calendar was released with sixteen races, all supporting CART events.^[1] A doubleheader at the Savannah, Georgia Indy Lights' Dixie Crystals Grand Prix was added later.^[2]

Round		Date	Circuit	Location	Pole position	Winning driver	Winning team
1	1	April 17	Long Beach Street Circuit	Long Beach, California	Peter Cunningham	Neil Crompton	Tasman Motorsports
	2				Peter Cunningham	Neil Crompton	Tasman Motorsports
2	3	May 17	Hutchinson Island	Savannah, Georgia	Peter Cunningham	Peter Cunningham	Honda American Racing Team
	4	May 18			Peter Cunningham	Peter Cunningham	Honda American Racing Team
3	5	June 8	Detroit Indy Grand Prix	Detroit, Michigan	David Donohue	David Donohue	PacWest Touring Car Group
	6				David Donohue	Dominic Dobson	PacWest Touring Car Group
4	7	June 21	Portland International Raceway	Portland, Oregon	David Donohue	Peter Cunningham	Honda American Racing Team
	8				David Donohue	Randy Pobst	TC Kline Racing
5	9	July 13	Burke Lakefront Airport	Cleveland, Ohio	Dominic Dobson	David Donohue	PacWest Touring Car Group
	10				Dominic Dobson	Peter Cunningham	Honda American Racing Team
6	11	July 19	Exhibition Place	Toronto, Ontario	Dominic Dobson	Dominic Dobson	PacWest Touring Car Group
	12				Neil Crompton	Neil Crompton	Tasman Motorsports
7	13	August 9	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio	David Donohue	David Donohue	PacWest Touring Car Group
	14				David Donohue	David Donohue	PacWest Touring Car Group
8	15	August 31	Concord Pacific Place	Vancouver, British Columbia	David Donohue	Neil Crompton	Tasman Motorsports
	16				David Donohue	Neil Crompton	Tasman Motorsports
9	17	September 7	Laguna Seca Raceway	Monterey, California	David Donohue	Neil Crompton	Tasman Motorsports
	18				David Donohue	Neil Crompton	Tasman Motorsports

Championship standings

Drivers Championship

Pos Driver LBH SAV DET POR CLE TOR MDO VAN LAG Pts 1 David Donohue 4 4 2 3 1 5 1 7 1 3 4 4 1 1 2 5 3 3 304 2 Peter Cunningham 10 8 1 1 4 6 2 1 3 1 3 3 3 2 4 3 2 2 282 3 Neil Crompton 1 1 3 2 3 DSQ 5 2 2 1 2 3 1 1 1 1 280 4 Dominic Dobson 2 3 4 4 2 1 6 9 9 7 1 2 4 8 3 9 4 6 230 5 Randy Pobst 3 2 6 9 9 DNS 3 6 2 4 7 7 8 9 6 2 5 4 188 6 Bob Schader 5 7 7 7 7 3 7 4 6 8 8 9 9 7 8 6 7 8 185 7 David Welch 8 5 9 10 5 2 9 8 10 9 6 5 7 5 5 4 6 5 159 8 Darren Law 9 6 5 5 10 DNS 4 3 8 5 5 6 5 6 7 8 DNS DNS 157 9 Forrest Granlund 11 DNS 10 6 8 4 4 6 6 4 DNS DNS DNS DNS 88 10 Ron Emmick 9 7 8 7 37 11 Mark Jonak 7 9 8 8 36 12 Rod Millen 8 2 26 13 Tom Finnelly 5 5 DNS DNS 24 14 Walter Puckett 6 7 7 DNS 21 15 Desiré Wilson 6 10 DNS DNS 11 DNS 18 16 Roberto Quintanilla DNS DNS 9 8 DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS 17 17 Dave Jolly 9 9 16 18 Paul Charsley DNS DNS 10 10 7 NC Doug Beatty 10 10 0 NC Brian Battaglia DNS DNS DNS DNS 0 NC Tommy Constantine DNS DNS 0 Pos Driver LBH SAV DET POR CLE TOR MDO VAN LAG Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th-10th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10) 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

Manufacturers Championship

Pos Manufacturer LBH SAV DET POR CLE TOR MDO VAN LAG Pts 1 Honda 1 1 1 1 3 4 2 1 3 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 298 2 Dodge 2 3 2 3 1 1 1 7 1 3 1 2 1 1 2 5 3 3 271 3 Toyota 8 2 26 Pos Manufacturer LBH SAV DET POR CLE TOR MDO VAN LAG Pts

See also

• 1997 CART season
• 1997 Indy Lights season
• 1997 Formula Atlantic season