Long Beach objections removed....

[MolsonBoy]

From champweb.net.....

--------------------
OWRS Rejection Retracted from Long Beach posted on 01-26 19:29

“As we’ve said before, our preference would be to continue on with our existing relationship and run the Champ Car race as the headline event.

“The objection placed by Dover Motorsports Inc. and the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach was done as a procedural move necessary to protect our rights and obtain certain basic information and ‘adequate assurances’ from OWRS in the bankruptcy proceeding. As a public company, Dover Motorsports and GPALB have a responsibility to seek information regarding the ongoing viability of the series. We have now received a response to the questions we were asking and, as a result, have withdrawn our objection to OWRS’ bid.

“We await the judge’s decision on this matter.”

[gttouring]

phew-
*wipes sweat off brow*
This is getting crazier and crazier- at least we know there is someone in the Champcar corner-for now.

[Snrub]

As I said in another thread, getting the tracks/promoters on board with OWRS can make a big difference. This is good news.

From the track's perspective:
Who's going to put on the better show for fans? IRL: IRL has more American drivers. That said I'm not sure that either series has an edge on driver recognition. CART: Has done road street racing and proven they can do it. CART has the car combonation, while the IRL has an unknown road setup and an engine that will be substantially less effective on a street course.

[macdaddy]

"We have now received a response to the questions we were asking..."

To me, this sounds like OWRS has been able to secure 18 cars! Obviously, they must have some of their major affairs in order!

[sgw2]

I doubt it macdaddy. Probably they had a meeting and showed where they were. They may also have shown some bank statements.

But the objection is not one that is simply withdrawen. Their filing will be brought forth and OWRS will have to demonstrate the resources to carry out their plans. That should be interesting. I think it all comes down to whether or not Forsythe, Gentilozzi, and Kalkhoeven (I have no doubts about KK) have signed over significant moneis to OWRS LLC. My BOE WAG is about $10 M each will be required to show funds for the acuisition, and to satisfy the judge that the business plan can be fulfilled. (Watching Gentilozzi part with money will cause a facial expression I woudl pay to see.)

This is going to be one fascinating Wednesday.

[indycool]

Agree, sgw2.

Somehow, in a flick of the adding machine, OWRS was able to satisfy Long Beach. Who got to who is anyone's guess. But 18 race cars didn't just materialize.

[Testure]

Originally posted by indycool
Who got to who is anyone's guess.

Cynic

Dover wanted assurances that the series could be run and the fact is that OWRS has now given them that assurance. So, they've dropped their objection and it seems reasonable to speculate that they believe that OWRS can give them 18 cars. I see no reason to doubt Dover, since it's their livelihood at risk. It's difficult to see where those cars are coming from right now, I agree. From what we've heard over the past couple of months, though, some announcements are due shortly after a successful OWRS bid. Patience...

[Ac.]

The voices of doom! sgw2, indycool, have you read the original court filing made by Dover in regards to Long Beach? It contained a long list of information that Dover wanted...in writing.

OWRS provided far more than "a flick of the adding machine" in order for Dover to remove their objections. They showed hard facts including:
1. A business plan for 2004-2006
2. Letters of credit or cash deposits in escrow sufficient to provide the funds necessary to operate the 2004 and 2005 racingseries
3. Legally enforceable commitments from the racing teams to provide
cars and drivers for the 2004 and 2005 series
4. A broadcast television contract for the 2004 (and later 2005)
racing series
5. Necessary sponsors for the 2004 (and later 2005) racing series
6. All necessary authorization and approval for Open Wheel to
operate the 2004 and 2005 series (including FIA).
(analysis source - RaceFax)

Why don't you two just give OWRS some credit for clearing this obstacle instead of trying to think up some crazy conspiracy theory as to how they "got to someone".

[indycool]

Ac., Long Beach just withdrew its objection and said it was satisfied. It didn't say that all that stuff was dumped in their lap. How they became satisfied is anyone's guess.

[Testure]

To be fair (and why shouldn't we be?), the quotes above say more than that Dover "just withdrew its objection and said it was satisfied".

... ‘adequate assurances’ ... Dover Motorsports and GPALB have a responsibility to seek information regarding the ongoing viability of the series. We have now received a response to the questions we were asking and, as a result, have withdrawn our objection to OWRS’ bid.

Where "the questions" are presumably as quoted by Ac. Lets try and apply the same level of reasonable criticism to each bid...

[Ac.]

Thanks for the support Testure. While I appreciate your appeal for others to be reasonable, it doesn't appear likely that they will be.

[indycool]

Hey, "adequate assurances" and "satisfied" mean the same thing to me.

[Ac.]

Originally posted by indycool
Ac., Long Beach just withdrew its objection and said it was satisfied. It didn't say that all that stuff was dumped in their lap. How they became satisfied is anyone's guess.

First you say that, then this.

Originally posted by indycool
Hey, "adequate assurances" and "satisfied" mean the same thing to me.

You continue to ride the fence with your ambiguous statements. Come on...just admit the OWRS provided Long Beach with exactly what they were asking for in their original objection filing...

[Testure]

Originally posted by indycool
Hey, "adequate assurances" and "satisfied" mean the same thing to me.

Sorry if I'm being fussy My point was that they indicated/implied what they had actually been assured of (the list Ac posted). I had the impression that you were implying that OWRS had somehow "taken care of" Dover, whereas I'm basically taking those quotes from Dover at face value. OWRS told them what their plans are, Dover believed them and dropped their objection.

Good grief, Thursday morning can't come soon enough!

[Fogelhund]

I posted about half an hour, but had a Iexplore.exe error, and the post crashed.

Basically I address Ac.'s post.

In a shopping list protest, some of the items are gratuitious in nature, and in reality LBGP would have really been looking for certain items of assurance.

It is my opinion that LBGP was looking to ensure that the OWRS has the committed capital and people resources to get this job done.

To request "Legally enforceable commitments from the racing teams to provide
cars and drivers for the 2004 and 2005 series" is unreasonable. I doubt a single team, including PG, or GF or KK would even agree to such a deal. I would suggest that LBGP was shown more then 18 car commitments to run, with some details for sponsorship and financing of these teams.

[indycool]

Well, OF COURSE they took care of Dover's objection in some way. Otherwise, Dover wouldn't have withdrawn its objection. But no, I don't believe 18 cars just materialized overnight out of the blue. I don't think that happened. "Adequate assurances" and "satisfied" mean what they say. Long Beach DIDN'T say OWRS dumped all that stuff in our lap. It just said, "Okay, we're fine." In any case, we're arguing about nothing. Long Beach's objection came on Friday and went away on Monday. It's as if it never happened.

[indycool]

Thanx, Fogelhund....you said it better.

[jjspierx]

I can't wait till till the start of the 2004 OWRS season, to see what you cynics will say when at least 18 cars are on the grid. "Well this won't last more than 2 races?" Why can't you just accept that it might be possible that OWRS is actually telling the truth, that they have commitments from the teams to provide at least 18 cars? Just because Champweb, or whatever else website you visit, doesn't confirm 18 cars yet, doesn't mean that OWRS hasn't gotten confirmation from teams that they will be running however many cars they've committed too. For whatever reason, a few of you refuse to believe, as if you WANT to see Open-Wheel Road racing in America disappear. Which makes me ask, why?

[Fogelhund]

jj - it would appear as though you are reacting on the discussion of 18 cars. I believe this is a semantics discussion, and nothing more.

There are some who are talking about teams with drivers, and signed and announced sponsors... those are few, certainly less then 18.

There are those that are going by the LBGP filing. "Legally enforceable commitments from the racing teams to provide
cars and drivers for the 2004 and 2005 series." Of those, there are likely ZERO.

There are those going by "commitments". That is certainly 18 or more. "Commitments", is nothing more then an intent to run. It doesn't mean that there is the financing to actually race. This process has unquestionable impaired the ability and timeliness of some teams to procure signed sponsors. Once this is wound up, it could happen very quickly though.

Let's not make this a debate on motivations, as you can be assured there are those who wish to have just IRL, there are those who believe that a Unified Balanced series would be best, there are those who just want OWRS and there are those that don't care for any of this, but just want to see some good road racing no matter who is in charge.

It will be good to have this over and done with, so everybody can get down to discussing what racing will occur in 04', and the details associated with that.

[indycool]

Well said, Fogel......

[Snrub]

I think it's quiet plausable that 18 cars might not show up. Perhaps 16. The only way this would happen is if tracks are willing to let go of the minimum 18 and take it more at the sprit of the contract.

[indycool]

Some CART contracts provide different variables on the number of cars and penalties for fewer, but most read something like this. 18 is a full field. If there are fewer, the promoter gets to deduct $200,000 per car down to 15. At 15, the promoter can decide to cancel the race and get all his money back. It still puts the promoter in a hole for a representative show because he'd hafta cancel late after tickets were sold, etc.

Right now, I count 10 pretty firm, 11 if you count the Kalkhoven-Fittipaldi-Patrick deal.

[Tim Northcutt]

NOTE:

Last year at this time CART talked about 18 cars via the "Letters of Intent," too....

and they ran 18 cars at all stops, and even 19 at a few...

However, we now know that there were many, many Millions of $$$ shelled out by CART to "help" teams that otherwise would not have had the capital to race... does Derrick Walker ring a bell?? or Johannson's team possibly????

OWRS already has said that this practice cannot continue if the series is to survive and that they will not do that....

With everything STILL up in the air, how much NEW money and how many NEW teams do you truly believe have come on board with their "Intent" to race...

and how many really have the $$$ to make it to the starting line for the season...or finish it for that matter???

I'll believe it when I see it....

[Snrub]

We're hearing very little right now about cars, owners, drivers, etc. Heck very little about CART. Given what happened last year I'm not worried that they will be able get more than 11 cars on the grid.

I think it's silly not to take everything OWRS says with a grain of salt, especially given the current circumstances. They're going to be helping teams, there's no way around it. I think it's safe to assume they will be helping the teams less than 2003. Take Conquest, a team that everyone though was dead. They just tested a driver. That doesn't seem like the actions of a team that won't be in CART for 2004. They had zero sponsorship last year, so who's paying the bills for them? Maybe they'll land some sponsorship, but there is no little chance they can handle more than 60% real cost.

[indycool]

If, as one report suggests, Kalkhoven bought Patrick Racing for $1.5 million to give to Fittipaldi to run, that's already started. I agree, snrub. There's no way around it.