Champ Car's direction

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by indycool

Well, since mountainstar asked, I'll "weigh in:"

1. How many of the street races are financially stable? (Remember, Johnson said in an interview in Montreal that Montreal paid no sanction fee....that oughta get the attention of promoters in places like Las Vegas and San Jose.)
2. How many people are going to say, "Oh, they've got the DP-01, so I'll attend."
3. How many sponsors will say, "Oh. look, they're racing in Zhuhai. that really meets the marketing strategy for our product to sell more to Sadie in Omaha?"
4. SMI let CC run at Las Vegas on a track rental basis. You tickee, you washee.

Long time no see

1. Says in the latest speed article $1.5 million was paid for the sanctioning fee for this race and Labrosse assumed rights to the race. If you have other information please post it. I haven't heard Johnson say that.

Right now it sounds like the street races are doing pretty good. In fact, new ones are being added for next year.

2. I will attend more races because of the new car. I think it will change the series on many levels.

3. Zhuhai race? That's complete rumor. I'm not aware of any signed deal. IF they did race there, so what? China has grown quite a lot and has strong economic ties to the USA. Wal Mart is a good start. Not only does walmart buy billions of dollars of goods from china, but the WalMart and Sam's Club chain has shown phenominal growth in the chinese retail market. Just read an article on it in "The Economist" weekly magazine.

4. Yep we did run at Las Vegas on a track rental basis. Cool. Can't wait for the new street circuit.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

Indeed, but do we know if KK & Co. have even bothered to try and get a dialogue going with SMI and ISC to patch things up? Just because Champ Car happens to be under new ownership it in no way means the old sins are magically and automatically forgotten (as far as SMI and ISC are concerned anyway, I'm sure).

Personally I hope things get sorted out, somehow, in the future. I'd love to see Champ Car race at, for example, Watkins Glen.

I don't think that should be a priority right now. They are doing their thing and we are doing ours.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

I hope you don't think SMI and ISC are in bed together. Bruton Smith, owner of SMI, is almost an arch-enemy of ISC, and has even used a lawsuit to force NASCAR to hand his Texas Motor Speedway a second race on the NASCAR schedule. So it sure isn't NASCAR standing in the way of SMI and Champ Car doing business together.

Not to mention there are several independently owned ovals, such as Nashville Superspeedway, New Hampshire Int'l Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Kentucky Raceway. Or how about Texas World Speedway? Sure, it would need an upgrade of the facilities, but it's a proper superspeedway nonetheless that would be available and race-ready with a bit of effort.

I'm well aware of all that. But like any good mob family, they have their little disputes over territory, but ultimately they are all in cohoots together.

I would certainly agree that the independent speedways are an option. Probably the only realistic option as I believe the nascar oriented track congolmerates would never have champcars interests at heart. Much like the situation in Montreal.

Mr. Kalkoven said earlier this year that when the fans wanted ovals back, they would be back. We wanted Road America and we got it.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

I'm well aware of all that. But like any good mob family, they have their little disputes over territory, but ultimately they are all in cohoots together.

As pointed out above there's no real point in discussing SMI since they obviously will do business with Champ Car, given the recent races at LVMS (which had completely slipped my mind), and in all fairness SMI doesn't have that many tracks suitable for Champ Car - Las Vegas (especially after the rebuild that's being done right now) and Infineon are the only two I can think of - anyway.

And yes, I'm extremely happy Road America made it back onto the schedule - let's hope Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca make it back as well to make it a hat trick.

[StuiE]

Originally Posted by norman-normal

Well, sadly enough, it looks like Keven and CC, et,al have failed.

Indy, Rusty, you too gtr69 if you don't attend a single CC race we will understand, sniff, sniff.

Surfers is on the other side of the country, one day I want to go, but not for a while, if there was a ChampCar race in my city I'd go for sure.

The IRL have a similar sized grid and their whole schedule are all ovals bar three.

Sorry, the only IRL races I've watched this year is Indy and St Petersburg, I imagine the IRL races are a bit closer? CC currently has a little too much difference between each car, so the races havn't been that good. Maybe it's me watching NASCAR has made an 18 car field look so small on an oval, a Nascar field is more than double the size...


Anyone know what Chris Pook is doing and his relationship with CC at the moment?

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by gtr69

Anyone know what Chris Pook is doing and his relationship with CC at the moment?

Yes he is working on the San Antonio race for champcar.

[racinthestreets]

Last I heard was Pook was in San Antonio tyring to get a downtown street race there for ChampCar.