Dale Coyne Withdraws Entries

[SevenGrain]

Well, it looks as if Dale Coyne Racing cannot hold on any longer without sponsorship. The cars of Luis Garcia and Mike Krumm have been pulled for Texas, and likely will not return unless some funding materalizes. Coyne is hoping to be back in time for Milwaukee.
This is indeed a sad state of affairs that so few companies consider CART a worthwhile vehicle for their marketing dollars. Dixon, Servia, Vasser, and Herta are all still running sponsorless cars and Marcel Tiemann, Alex Barron, Gualter Salles, Tarso Marques, and Memo Gidley are all on the sidelines this season due to lack of sponsorship funds.
CART has to become much more aggressive with their marketing in order to grow it's audience and attract more sponsors or the field will continue to shrink.

[bella]

tarso marques is in the second minardi seat..oh yeah. he's on the sidelines waiting for some funds...

shame. i like luis garcia. he seems to be a nice guy, even if he is slow.

[SevenGrain]

Did I say Tarso Marques? I think I meant Andre Couto, or Takuya Kurosawa. There were so many drivers mentioned in conjunction with the Coyne seat before the season began, please forgive my error...

[bella]

you're forgiven. he did drive for them last year, i do believe. and did reasonably well.

it's a loss for drivers who want to give cart a go. shame it all costs money now.

[marcus]

the Dayle Coyne team have given quite a few guys a go over the past few years ..some with money some without...from what I have read they are one of the most liked teams in the series (kinda like the Minardi of CART)..looks like they need a Paul Stoddart to come along and help them as well..

big shame and i hope they can get some funds and return to the series soon.

[SevenGrain]

Dale Coyne has been fielding CART entries since 1984 with various partners (among them the late Walter Payton). Even though he merged his team with the PRG Team owned by Andreas Leberle, the collective resourses of both teams come up empty handed when it comes to finding a sponsor. Pre- season there looked to have been as many as 32 entries, and now it's down to 26.
And Tarso did have a respectable season with Dale Coyne, considering he was the only driver in the Swift chassis.

[botsquad]

well....maybe tony will succeed in destroying cart.

he can hold the races on wednesdays...when the dental offices are closed.

[Old Clunker]

Originally posted by SevenGrain
Well, it looks as if Dale Coyne Racing cannot hold on any longer without sponsorship. The cars of Luis Garcia and Mike Krumm have been pulled for Texas, and likely will not return unless some funding materalizes. Coyne is hoping to be back in time for Milwaukee.
This is indeed a sad state of affairs that so few companies consider CART a worthwhile vehicle for their marketing dollars. Dixon, Servia, Vasser, and Herta are all still running sponsorless cars and Marcel Tiemann, Alex Barron, Gualter Salles, Tarso Marques, and Memo Gidley are all on the sidelines this season due to lack of sponsorship funds.
CART has to become much more aggressive with their marketing in order to grow it's audience and attract more sponsors or the field will continue to shrink.

CART seems to be doing quite well, thank you. The fact that some drivers/teams have to sit one out offers little tat is different from any business. Most of the drivers mentioned have not set the world on fire and could just as well be setting atound in some other series with about the same chance of being noticed. CART does have a much better record of obtaining sponsors than TG's goofy little ground hugger buggie series and maintains a fine season of great racing by soem very talented drivers.

As far as audiences go, 318 k for the three days at Monterey aren't to be sneezed at nor is the 90 k at Long Beach for race day. Uh, perhaps someone has figures on the IRL mini event crowds recently??? think it would barely top 40 k - 50 k max for the whole IRL shebang?? Maybe.

CART is doing a great job and is appreciated by fans throughout the world and growing every day.

Old Clunker

[SevenGrain]

IRL comparisons aside, because apples should not be compared to oranges, CART is having some difficulties. The field that was to be 31 cars is now 26. In fact the sanctioning body itself is in sponsor trouble

This from CART's statement to it's shareholders:

"Total revenues for the first quarter of 2001 were $6.4 million, a decrease of $1.4 million, or 18 percent, from the comparable quarter of 2000.
"While our revenue performance was hindered by the loss of guaranteed income from our former sponsor partner, we are building our infrastructure in order to produce additional sponsorship revenue," said Thomas L. Carter, CART CFO. "

Now I am a CART fan and I want more than anything to see the series succeed. Joe Heitzler sees CART's marketing as a problem, and I hope that his marketing initiavies will be able to attract more sponsors to the series and more fans to the sport.

In recent years big money sponsors Budweiser, Valvoline, Duracell, Pennzoil, and Alumax have all left the series. K-Mart is on thier way out, and Texaco has signifigantly reduced their financial commitment to Newman Haas. This trend needs to turn around, and eventually tobacco money may be legislated out of racing.

The size of the audience in Mexico was indeed great for CART and Long Beach is always strong, but tracks like Michigan, Milwaukee, Houston, and Nazareth have many empty seats, and from what I understand, Texas Motor Speedway ticket sales have been slow as well. Gateway and Homestead were dropped for attendance reasons and Nazareth is gone after this year.

But again, the good news here is that Heitzler, unlike Adndrew Craig, has the right ideas to grow CART and it's brand name, into what it could be. I wish him the best because CART indeed does have the most competitive racing series out there.

[domaza]

This is the best racing series out there. CART must start advertising - when i first saw the race in 98 i was addicted. People don't know CARt and that it is so good series. Cart CEO and other guys out there - market your product->get bigger growds->higher TV rates->more sponsors!!! Do It! CART is the BEST!