Storm clouds are gathering on the horizon

[Chitownfan]

Trying to get caught up reading here, not sure if this was posted already.

Storm clouds are gathering on the horizon in Montreal, Monterrey and Mexico City. Last week, Molson announced its withdrawal as title sponsor of the Molson Indy Montreal, and while that may be part and parcel of the brewery's decision to get out of the sports event management business that led to the sale of the Toronto race, it is the latest in a series of troubling news surrounding the four-year-old event. The '05 Molson Indy Montreal, of course, took place amid an atmosphere of rumor that Champ Car was on the way out of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in order for promoter Normand Legault to stage a NASCAR Busch and/or Indy Racing League IndyCar Series event there. And though Legault later issued a public statement affirming that Champ Cars will race in Montreal next year, '06 is the final year of the current contract. I, for one, wouldn't book my hotel rooms for the '07 Montreal Champ Car race just yet.

Nor are Montreal, Mexico City and Monterrey the only trouble spots on the Champ Car calendar. Milwaukee is on a short leash, attendance-wise; playing second fiddle to the Craftsman Truck Series in front of acres of empty seats at Las Vegas can't be serving anybody's interest; the Korea race remains as enigmatic as ever and, while Champ Car is rightly excited about the prospects of returning to America's fourth-largest city (Houston), the deal to race in its fifth largest (Philadelphia) city in '06 or '07 has, evidently, not been closed.

Speed

[Ken]

I'd hate to CC not running at those tracks.....Montreal and monterrey are two of the best cities I have visited...

and my father went to Milwakee in the mid 90's and still taks about it......but it's also a tough one for me, If i take off the CC armor for a moment....History dictates that milwakee be run the week after Indy, by the cars that ran Indy....there was always that mystic about the winner of indy repeating the following week.....look no further than PT

in the end....all the more reasons for a 'Six Race Super Series'

[tripper]

No Need to worry

Why worry?!?!?

KK claims that there are many cities demanding ChampCar. For the tracks/cities that they might be losing, there must be 2 or 3 additional ones knocking on ChampCars door.

Of course, this is according to KK. Maybe a 20 race schedule in 2007?

[JoeBob]

You might want to add quotes for the rest of the article too.

There's far more good than bad.

[Ken]

Why worry?!?!?

KK claims that there are many cities demanding ChampCar. For the tracks/cities that they might be losing, there must be 2 or 3 additional ones knocking on ChampCars door.

Of course, this is according to KK. Maybe a 20 race schedule in 2007?

being the Biz/split board this requires a response.....the IRL just dropped three OVALS!

CC is openly exploring new venues, smart move all things considerd.....is the IRL exploring new oval races?

[Jim Wilke]

You might want to add quotes for the rest of the article too.

There's far more good than bad.

Who wrote the article? Who's still paying him?

[Kurt Cobain]

Well I guess this means Champ Car should stop racing in cities that start with an M.

[Chitownfan]

You might want to add quotes for the rest of the article too.

Actually I was going to combine it with this one.

Champcar, so easy to drive a 15 year old can do it.

the 15-year-old sampled his bigger brother’s Conquest Racing Lola-Ford.

Speed

[TU Homer]

Who wrote the article? Who's still paying him?

Racer Magazine and Speed Channel. cart.com didn't pay him for this article.


-TU

[tbyars]

You might want to add quotes for the rest of the article too.

There's far more good than bad.

You may not have noticed this, JB, but he did put the link in his post. I assume if you can get to this page, you can get to that one.

All in all, a pretty balanced article. I'm betting, though, it won't be popular with the CC fans. Phillips is probably about to get called some pretty dirty names, regardless of who pays him....

[Ken]

You may not have noticed this, JB, but he did put the link in his post. I assume if you can get to this page, you can get to that one.

All in all, a pretty balanced article. I'm betting, though, it won't be popular with the CC fans. Phillips is probably about to get called some pretty dirty names, regardless of who pays him....

who cares if it's popular....

[JoeBob]

All in all, a pretty balanced article. I'm betting, though, it won't be popular with the CC fans. Phillips is probably about to get called some pretty dirty names, regardless of who pays him....

Actually, the reaction I've seen from CC fans has been about the same as yours. It is a balanced article. Nobody hates fair journalism. Back up an opinion with facts, and there won't be criticism.

There's a lot of good, and there's things to be worried about on the horizon. Most would agree that the good outweighs the bad, and the bad can be dealt with.

Only on TF is the article being framed as negative.

[Doc Austin]

There's far more good than bad.

Oh, yeah. Like anyone around here would ever believe that about even a perfect racing series.

Of course, we all know there is no such thing because it all sucks!

[Turn13]

From the article: Together, Forsythe and Kalkhoven acquired key, no critical, assets for the series in the form of Cosworth, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and the Molson Indy Toronto. As well, Champ Car solidified its relationships with Bridgestone and Ford, breathed new life into the Formula Atlantic series, unveiled its new spec Champ Car chassis, regained its position on network television while retaining an attractive package on SPEED Channel and inaugurated two sensational events at Edmonton and San Jose with a new and improved Houston race on the '06 calendar.

Weren't all of these acquisitions simply secured by check-writing?

It would seem to me that these moves are based principally on the drive for control - self-funded, but also at the expense of the competition, diversity, and commercial support that were the now-bankrupt series' legacy.

[JoeBob]

Weren't all of these acquisitions simply secured by check-writing?

Other than being lucky enough to inherit something, is there another way to make acquisitions that I don't know about?

The most successful racing series in this country are all owned by people who control the key assets of the series. The France Family controls the tracks that host NASCAR and Grand Am's biggest races. (They also paid for their investments.)

Panoz owns the tracks that host ALMS's biggest races. (He paid for his investments.)

KK and GF own the tracks that host ChampCar's biggest races. (They paid for their investments)

TG owns the track that hosts the IRL's biggest race.

I guess I don't understand why you object to KK and GF controlling the destiny of their series. That seems to be the way that the racing business works.