Shell Oils to title sponsor Denver Grand Prix.

This season's return of the CART FedEx Championship Series to Denver received a boost on Thursday when long-time series partner Shell Oil announced that it would stand as the title sponsor of the 1 September event, to be known as the Shell Grand Prix of Denver.

The Champcars will be making their first visit to downtown Denver since 1991, as they will do battle on a new nine-turn, 1.65mile temporary street course. Shell, which has been a part of the sponsorship package at Team Rahal for the last ten seasons, has also served as the title sponsor of the CART event at Laguna Seca in recent seasons.

"The Shell Grand Prix of Denver is a great way for us to increase our presence in the Denver market," said Shell's manager of marketing strategy, Stu Crum, "The Denver area has always been a hotbed for racing and the Shell Grand Prix of Denver should be one of the premier racing events in the country."

This season, Shell is the primary sponsor for the Team Rahal Lola of 1996 series champion Jimmy Vasser, the team owned by three-time CART titlewinner Bobby Rahal as well as popular late-night talk show host David Letterman. Rahal himself competed in two Denver events during his career, finishing second to Al Unser Jr in the inaugural 1990 race.

"This partnership with Shell and the Grand Prix of Denver is a tremendous opportunity to make the race one of the premier racing events in North America," Rahal said, "The Long Beach race is a classic, and having the same people [Dover Downs Entertainment] behind the Shell Grand Prix of Denver means this new venue could become another racing spectacular."

The race will also be supported by the CART Toyota Atlantic Championship as well as the Trans-Am Series for the BFGoodrich Tires Cup, and will get underway with practice on Friday 30 August.