Kalkhoven Adds Lease Option

[luke]

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/32370/

Either way, he's put together a pretty enticing package for any new team to come run a Champ Car in 2007.

"For one million dollars, a new team can lease a rolling chassis, a Cosworth engine for racing and testing and Bridgestone tires for racing and testing," said Kalkhoven, who co-owns Champ Car with Gerald Forsythe.

"It doesn't include electronics or equipment or salaries or crashes but it's a very practical way to go Champ Car racing for about $4 million a year. I think it's very attractive and I think some Grand Am and Atlantic teams are taking a serious look."

One already has. Pacific Coast Motorsports, the Atlantic champs in 2004 with Jon Fogarty and Grand Am regulars the past two seasons, signed up last week to run Alex Figge and Ryan Dalziel in '07.

"Kevin's incentive program is the reason my dad (Tom) decided to do it, unquestionably," said Figge, who competed in Atlantics in 2003-2004 and triumphed at Monterrey, Mexico.

"Not only can you come into Champ Car with the same chassis and engine as everyone else, it's affordable and reasonable."

Kalkhoven likes the choices it presents.

"It should appeal to people who aren't quite sure what they want to do in motorsports," he continued. "Let's say you're a Grand Am team that has a couple open wheel drivers and you want to try out Champ Car.

"So you lease two cars for a million each and go run. If you don't like it, you turn in your cars at the end of the year. If you enjoy it, you buy the cars and keep on going."

Buying the cars has also been addressed. Anyone can lease a car for three years through a conventional bank set up by Champ Car.

As for the established Champ Car teams that might want the same deal, Kalkhoven says: "They've already got agreements in place and this is simply a way to get new teams in and give them an easy route into Champ Car."

The plan is to reach a maximum number of cars.

"We want to cap the number of cars at 24 and I think by 2008 we'll be at capacity," said Kalkhoven, who currently campaigns two cars with Dan Pettit and Jimmy Vasser. "Then, the only way a new team can come in will be to buy the assets of an existing team.

"That creates value for our teams and it's all part of the rebuilding process."

[racinthestreets]

Hi Luke - I placed this in a thread "New Teams for 2007" earlier.

[luke]

So you have... Sorry guys, feel free to close it..

[Snrub]

Cool idea. I hope it works well.

Miller's mention of the teams revenue makes sense. Not even NH makes money right now.. Other than subsidization I don't think any of the non-series owner teams could survive.

[D70s]

Why cap it at 24 cars? Remember the days of 28 cars at every race... that's where we should be headed.

[Mystery]

Originally Posted by D70s

Why cap it at 24 cars? Remember the days of 28 cars at every race... that's where we should be headed.

I think there's a lot of circuits at which you'd wince at the thought of 28 of these cars going round together. 24 sounds about right to me.

[racinthestreets]

Hi again Luke. No reason to close I think the thread can take a life of it's own. So we need $4 mil US to put a team together and run the 2007 season. Let's assume that we can get Red Bull to sponsor us - damn sure seems like they have sponsorship $$$'s to throw around. Assuming the we have a lease with CCWS for $1 mil US which gives us the chasis, engine and tires for testing and races. We have $3 mil left of the budget - how do we spend it. Everything must be taken into consideration from engineers, emploeyees, transport and cooks to PR travel and lodging, etc... Now what do we need and where would we start. For the record "we" means the members of 10/10ths.

Does anyone have access or have knowledge of how this money would be spent, since it has been reported that it will take $3-$4 mil US additional to the lease to run the season?

[Amar7605]

How does this offer compare with running a full season in Nextel Cup? How about Busch or Trucks? If the offer is sweet, then hopefully the cost will entice more people to form Champ Car teams.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Amar7605

How does this offer compare with running a full season in Nextel Cup? How about Busch or Trucks? If the offer is sweet, then hopefully the cost will entice more people to form Champ Car teams.

Nextel Cup I think runs $15-$30 million a year. Busch and Trucks $6-$7 million.

[Tim Northcutt]

I think it is a steal and a deal!!!

This is a brilliant move....

Compared to the top teams, I think it may be dubious...but for about $4 million, if spent wisely, you could run OK...

Leasing in this fashion to boost car counts and competitors is brilliant.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Tim Northcutt

I think it is a steal and a deal!!!

This is a brilliant move....

Compared to the top teams, I think it may be dubious...but for about $4 million, if spent wisely, you could run OK...

Leasing in this fashion to boost car counts and competitors is brilliant.

I think so. You can't do any development to the car next year, so new teams will be on the same playing field as others.

Forsythe mentioned a new unheard of 2 car team on top of the others and he says they have a strong possibility of 26 cars next year.

[Snrub]

^ I suspect that it wouldn't really cost that to run the Busch or Nextel cars, but that's likely what it costs to be competitive. (I'm not sure if you would be allowed to compete if you weren't competitive enough either)

[kmchow]

It's impossible to predict b/c it obviously depends on so many factors, but how likely can a CCWS team avoid accidents that could necessitate add'l parts or even chassis replacement?

[Tim Northcutt]

Busch & Nextel Cup teams cost more to run because they built specific chassi for short tracks, the cookie-cutter ovals, road courses, long superspeedways, etc. It is even mose so true for Nextel Cup, and the Trucks (although they don't race road courses) still need the other packages.