2002 Schedule Released!

[domaza]

2002 CART FedEx CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES SCHEDULE

March 10 Fundidora Park Monterrey, Mexico
April 14 Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, Calif., USA
April 27 Twin Ring Motegi Motegi, Japan
June 2 The Milwaukee Mile West Allis, Wis., USA
June 9 Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca Monterey, Calif, USA
June 16 Portland International Raceway Portland, Ore., USA
June 30 Chicago Motor Speedway Cicero, Ill., USA
July 7 Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario, Canada
July 14 Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland, Ohio, USA
July 28 Concord Pacific Place Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
August 11 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio, USA
August 18 Road America Elkhart Lake, Wis., USA
August 25 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Montreal, Quebec, Canada
September 1 Streets of Denver Denver, Colo., USA
September 14 Rockingham Motor Speedway Corby, England
September 21 EuroSpeedway, Lausitz Lausitz, Germany
October 13 Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Mexico City, Mexico
October 27 Streets of Surfers Paradise Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia
November 3 California Speedway Fontana, Calif., USA


Note: Additional dates are being considered. TV broadcast information will be announced at a later date.

[macdaddy]

Thanks for that, Domaza.
I would certainly hope that one of the dates "being considered" is Belle Isle. I thought they had worked something out.

[wodonnell]

There was mention of the Gilles Villeneuve site being used about 6 month ago on this forum but the general consensus was that it wouldn't be used as F1 tends to get exclusive use.

It will be interesting to see how the champ cars compare to the F1 cars.

Montreal has produced some great races and it will be great to see another major event being held there.

[Jay]

I have to admit I'm still not 100% sure about the race in Mexico City and the one in Montreal...

I haven't heard a thing about the Mexico City race other than it was in the planning stages...I wonder if it was put on the calendar a little prematurely...

I also haven't heard a thing about the Montreal race... It's supposed to be on the circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and they are supposed to use a modified version of the F1 circuit... On an island as confined as Notre Dame, I'm not sure what changes they can make...unless they want to halve the length and have it cut through the roads around the casino..this seems unlikely though...

A number of dates were changed big time...such as Laguna, Vancouver and Toronto. I hope everyone can make plans accordingly.. I just changed my Toronto reservations and they gave me the nice message "That will be an extra $30/night!" crappy...

[domaza]

CART fans to think it is the best schedule ever (as far as I know)... Mexico races will both be total success - you will see that. The Montreal track will be the same as F1 one's, but they will build additional pitwall and do some security releated stuff... All the best to all CART fans and CART in 2002 and lets get back racing!

[paulzinho]

No Michigan...

[Knottsfreak]

I love CART. I have Long Beach just 10 min from my house and only 30 min from Fontana. 2 races, both different, and at different times on the year, ahh, fells good. Hopefully, we won't get rained on again next year in Fontana. Good grief.

[nkracing]

Surprise about German race. So late in autumn. It may bee good weather as it can be non stop rain for a week. Definetly it will be could. Let's hope on a best, and all race fans , also from Baltics will enjoy a beautiful sound of turbo engines , possibly for a last time.

[KC]

I know Houston is one of the races being considered. The George R. Brown Convention Center, which is the paddock and centerpiece for the street track, and the surrounding streets will be under scheduled construction during next year's race and an alternate circuit is being researched. I have no idea about Belle Isle however.

One thing I did notice was the amount of road/street races increasing over the number of oval events. Even after a great race yesterday at Fontana I prefer the road and street races. Thirteen of nineteen races will not be on ovals. Is this the future of the series?

[Jay]

While I applaud the new races (although I still question Montreal...) I must say it is very dissapointing to see Detroit and Michigan gone...

I'm not a big fan of ovals, but unlike the shortovals, the superspeedways actually produced some excitement...

and it does seem odd that Cart couldn't find the time to have at least one race in what could easily be North America's automotive capital. It was a good race too...I was even thinking of attending in the near future...oh well, hopefully it will be back the year after...if there is one.

[jetsetter]

I think the future of the CART Championship relies on street & road circuits as that is what sets it apart from IRL. I would like to see all the races on circuits so that way people that like ovals watch IRL & people that enjoy circuit racing watch CART.

[wodonnell]

In the UK we get (delayed) terestrial coverage of all CART races but nothing at all for the IRL.

I enjoy watching both types of races and having both types in the series means that the drivers have to be good on both types of circuits if they want to be champion.

[macdaddy]

I just noticed that there's not a single event throughout the entire month of May.

[f1manoz]

Originally posted by macdaddy
I just noticed that there's not a single event throughout the entire month of May.

That is done on purpose so the CART calender doesn't clash with the Indy 500, considering many CART teams may attend next years event.