Sorta OT, Sorta not: Chicago Speedway in T-R-O-U-B-L-E

[cmjc80]

http://www.racingone.com/article.asp?artnum=11742

I say give the race a chance with a good short-oval package(IRL) andd see what happens. But what do I know?

[ January 14, 2002: Message edited by: cmjc80 ]

[debdrake]

If the track folds - at least in part because of CART's high sanctioning fee - will Chip bail out of CART sooner than we expect?

[Defender]

This is a perfect example of karma. What goes around comes around, and the postive pendulum has now come to rest at 16th and Georgetown.

[TrackGoddess]

That neighborhood has a bad case of the NIMBY's. The neighbors have been complaining about the noise since the very first race.

[slinger]

This would be too bad in my view,if it's true.When the track opened,Ganassi left open the possibility of even having the IRL run there.The track was to be a an actual racing facility,not just some pawn in a war of sanctioning bodies.It looked like a nice place.

The article talks about a $5 million sanctioning fee which I find hard to believe.I thought that sort of robbery was reserved for the non US CART venues.

[IndyRob]

wow, the article speculated once again that Ganassi may be following Penske to the IRL this season.

[IndyRob]

wow, the article speculated once again that Ganassi may be following Penske to the IRL this season.

[Peter Olivola]

There are enough contributory factors to raise the question, what's gone right for this track? I'm sure, though, that the IRL faithful will blame it all on CART. Convenient, but it doesn't have much to do with the reality of a series of bad choices, most of which don't involve CART at all.

[Heath Hamilton]

I say run the IRL in Chicago on Saturday night, and follow it with Joliet the next day!!!!

[Jim Wilke]

Peter, the track was built by the owner of CART's (now) top team and was designed with CART in mind. The CART race was to be the cornerstone of the facility and the first year Chip, Target, and Mercedes promoted like heck. The first year was a success but it has been downhill since then. For whatever reason, poeple stayed away. Vini, vidi, vamoose; they came, they saw, they left. Chicago failed miserably and it has to be seen as a failure for CART, much like Vegas has to be a failure for the IRL.

[THIRD TURN]

The sooner this track fails the better. This area already has Chicagoland Speedway, we don't need two tracks diluting the market and hurting the IRL. I hope this is all a sign that Gannassi and Target are letting this track go because they are coming to the IRL!

[LorenzoBandini]

Originally posted by slinger:
<STRONG>It looked like a nice place.</STRONG>

It is really awful.

Having said that, I'm sure Target already has the cost for it's race sponsorship in it's budget. With that in mind, perhaps Chip will convince them to simply slide it over to the side of his IRL car.

Actually, I think a better option would be for the IRL to contract with CMS to hold a Copper World Classic, with USAC sprints, midgets and silver crown cars along with the IRL and the Infinity Pro series. "The Target Prarie World Classic" sounds good to me.

Having another IRL race in Chicago will not affect ticket sales at Joliet one bit.

[mbilek]

A year ago I posted on the CART forum that this track was in real financial trouble. Most of the CART-only fans bashed me and a few too a wait-and-see attitude. Well we have now seen.

[indyracer56]

This is more a case of way too many race tracks being built in the last few years.

I am sure that the Chicago track won't be the last one to fall by the wayside.

[Peter Olivola]

Did the IRL's failure at Las Vegas jeapordize that tracks existence? Any track owner who puts his eggs in one basket is making a bad decision. That has nothing to do with the basket he chooses, however.

Ganassi has proven that he isn't a track owner/promoter with anything more than a short attention span. How is that CART's fault?

Racewriter accuses me of being obsessed with Indy. I'd say you, and the rest of the folks blaming Chicago's problems exclusively on CART are obsessed with CART.

Originally posted by Jim Wilke:
<STRONG>Peter, the track was built by the owner of CART's (now) top team and was designed with CART in mind. The CART race was to be the cornerstone of the facility and the first year Chip, Target, and Mercedes promoted like heck. The first year was a success but it has been downhill since then. For whatever reason, poeple stayed away. Vini, vidi, vamoose; they came, they saw, they left. Chicago failed miserably and it has to be seen as a failure for CART, much like Vegas has to be a failure for the IRL.</STRONG>