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CONSPIRACY THEORY
Tongues have been wagging -- and cyber space sizzling -- with rumors of a Montreal-like conspiracy here at the Autodromo Hermano Rodriguez. At issue is the mystery of the disappearing grandstands. You'll recall that upwards of 35,000 bleacher seats were missing from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for this summer's Champ Car race, prompting all manner of speculation regarding devious plots by promoter Normand Legault to sabotage the Champ Car event in order to replace it with a NASCAR Busch and/or Craftsman Truck Series and/or Indy Racing League IndyCar Series event.
The Champ Car World Series arrived in Mexico City this week to find that tickets were not on sale for several large bleacher sections, while other bleachers had been removed. At issue were the empty bleachers in and around the Turns Six-Seven "stadium" section, as well as the missing bleachers overlooking the twisting Esses.
What's up with that?
"CIE (race promoter) and I don't own the property," said Gerald Forsythe, who together with CIE spent upwards of $60M renovating the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in time for the 2002 Champ Car race here. "The city does. And they tell us what we can and can't do with the property. (But) we own the rights to stage races here for seven years, beginning in ‘02.
"The city decided they want to use the property at that end of the circuit for new construction. So they wouldn't give us permission to utilize that area for grandstands this year. So some of those grandstands have been taken down, the rest will be taken down and we did not sell tickets for them.
"We are currently negotiating with the city to move some of the grandstands to the front straightaway for 2006. And we are also currently negotiating for the rights to stage races here for an additional seven years after the current agreement expires."
Tongues have been wagging -- and cyber space sizzling -- with rumors of a Montreal-like conspiracy here at the Autodromo Hermano Rodriguez. At issue is the mystery of the disappearing grandstands. You'll recall that upwards of 35,000 bleacher seats were missing from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for this summer's Champ Car race, prompting all manner of speculation regarding devious plots by promoter Normand Legault to sabotage the Champ Car event in order to replace it with a NASCAR Busch and/or Craftsman Truck Series and/or Indy Racing League IndyCar Series event.
The Champ Car World Series arrived in Mexico City this week to find that tickets were not on sale for several large bleacher sections, while other bleachers had been removed. At issue were the empty bleachers in and around the Turns Six-Seven "stadium" section, as well as the missing bleachers overlooking the twisting Esses.
What's up with that?
"CIE (race promoter) and I don't own the property," said Gerald Forsythe, who together with CIE spent upwards of $60M renovating the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in time for the 2002 Champ Car race here. "The city does. And they tell us what we can and can't do with the property. (But) we own the rights to stage races here for seven years, beginning in ‘02.
"The city decided they want to use the property at that end of the circuit for new construction. So they wouldn't give us permission to utilize that area for grandstands this year. So some of those grandstands have been taken down, the rest will be taken down and we did not sell tickets for them.
"We are currently negotiating with the city to move some of the grandstands to the front straightaway for 2006. And we are also currently negotiating for the rights to stage races here for an additional seven years after the current agreement expires."
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