2004 OWRS Schedule ?!?!

[zerO]

OK, here comes the nitty-gritty... on February 12th we are going to hear the announcement of the schedule - not just the race schedule, but the TV schedule as well... the screwy part is that the 8 races that will be televised on CBS will be live and the other 8 races on SPIKE-TV will be tape delayed ?!... anyhow, here's how the schedule is going to look:

1. LONG BEACH - Apr 16-18
2. ST.PETERSBURG - May 14-16 ?
3. MONTERREY, Mex - May 21-23
4. MILWAUKEE - Jun 3-5 (night race)
5. PORTLAND - Jun 18-20
6. CLEVELAND - Jul 1-3 (night race)
7. TORONTO, Can - Jul 9-11
8. VANCOUVER, Can - Jul 23-25
9. ROAD AMERICA - Aug 6-8
10. DENVER - Aug 13-15
11. MONTREAL, Can - Aug 27-29
12. LAGUNA SECA - Sep 10-12
13. SOUTH KOREA - Oct 15-17
14. AUSTRALIA - Oct 22-24
15. MEXICO CITY - Oct.31-Nov.1 ?
16. LAS VEGAS - Nov 5-7

Note the question marks: St.Petersburg - should they not be able to stage the event on such a short notice it may be moved to fall, and Mexico City is questionable due to being stuck in the middle of four races that are back-to-back between three continents and four countries - logistics may alter that date and MC will go back to its originally scheduled date at Sep.3-5 ?!

zerO

[SurfaceUnits]

Cleveland may not be a night race, there is a scheduling conflict with the lighting company. in that case, it would be run on the 4th

[f1manoz]

IMO they should have a race every fortnight. That would make a much more sensible calendar.

[Hazza]

Didn't the Fonatan company drop all the beef with OWRS, which could suggest a Fontana/Phoenix race if we are lucky - all thought i'd assume this would be unlikely

Allthough if you want to get desperate the CART site displays "Fontana TBD" allong with Seol and Mehhico.

And, have they decided where to run Las Vegas - i'm asumg that the owners of CART now arn't about to ******* (pollock?) about like one of their forebears - We Want Ovals! (Real Oval Racing!)

[The Snout]

Hazza , PG says we won't be going to Fontana this year. No certain word on the Las Vegas venue either.

[Omega99]

Cleveland has always been a great race, with or without the artificial lighting at night. But lighting it at night seems just like the kind of unneccessary expense OWRS intends to avoid. And hopefully Milwaukee is a little bit warmer this year, especially seeing as how it's the only oval race on the calender (unless Las Vegas speedway works out, though I sort of doubt it now)

[f1manoz]

As far as I'm concerned, Fontana can go screw themselves. CART cancelled the race for a bloody good reason - forest fires right around the circuit. IMO getting people to safety is far more important than a car race.

I hope the Las Vegas deal eventually works out, as long as it's on a good track. Oval would be fine.

[corkholio]

Originally posted by f1manoz
As far as I'm concerned, Fontana can go screw themselves. CART cancelled the race for a bloody good reason - forest fires right around the circuit. IMO getting people to safety is far more important than a car race.

I hope the Las Vegas deal eventually works out, as long as it's on a good track. Oval would be fine.

Except that isn't what happened. ISC actually postponed the race when CART basically wanted the race to go on regardless of the fact that people's houses were burning down within site, just so CART wouldn't have to return the sanctioning fee. While I don't doubt that ISC wasn't playing nice when it came to rescheduling the race, which eventually led to CART cancelling the race, which by then had nothing to do with the fires themselves, but that rescheduling the race would have cost even more. There are many reasons to hate ISC but yours wasn't even close.

The original Vegas date is now the St. Pete date.

[macdaddy]

The original Vegas date is now the St. Pete date.

You forgot to add "tentative". We should know more really soon...

[zerO]

The schedule I put in the original post is what OWRS submitted to Judge Otte ?!

Now, that really means "didley": Mexico City date is not final and quite dumb if one asks me - ie: 4 races back-to-back, 3 continents, 4 countries - give me a break, will ya ?! also, Vegas is far from being a done deal (most likely, otherwise I'd hear from M.Hilderbrand of Las Vegas Sun) and there still is a chance that we will see DUNBAR, South Africa and/or HANNOVER, Germany pop on the schedule when it will be announced on February 12th ?!?! btw, RSA is celebrating their 10th Anniversary of Democracy ?!

zerO

[Dov]

Hi zerO,
I've never heard of Dunbar, but I have heard of Durban, South Africa. Is there really a Dunbar, S.A. or did you mean to say Durban?

[Hazza]

And...Hannover Germany, i'm obviously mistaken - but arn't they both out of use? Or do you mean Laustitz?

[zerO]

Originally posted by Dov
Hi zerO,
I've never heard of Dunbar, but I have heard of Durban, South Africa. Is there really a Dunbar, S.A. or did you mean to say Durban?

Sorry, Dov... I meant DURBAN... this silly BB won't let me edit after I blink a couple times and I do tend to "blink" when posting while downing Kamikazees... btw, "CART Brickheads" has a the Durban street circuit lay-out in their "2004 Schedule" post...

zerO

[zerO]

Originally posted by Hazza
And...Hannover Germany, i'm obviously mistaken - but arn't they both out of use? Or do you mean Laustitz?

Nope, HANNOVER is right - take a look at www.seventhgear.com in the "Rumors" section ?!

btw, S.Korea has shelled out $5mil to OWRS for the race and in all likelyhood the same holds true for DURBAN - this year RSA is celebrating their "10th Anniversary of Democracy" and they are "dying" to get Champ Cars there - the only problem will be logistics from the OWRS' standpoint - should it not materialize this year then the next it will be on for sure ?!

zerO

[The Snout]

South Korea will be big, very big.

As long as South Africa, Korea, Australia etc are paying the way then that's ok.

[Dov]

From Crash.net:

Sunday February 1, 02:02 PM

Portland poised to drop off Champ Car radar?


Laguna Seca may have inked a deal to remain on the Champ Car World Series calendar, but another of America's foremost road courses appears poised to defect to the rival Indy Racing League schedule.

According to the local Portland Tribune newspaper, Portland International Raceway is considering withdrawing its 18-20 June Champ Car event from the World Series schedule, despite Open Wheel Racing Series victory in the bidding war for the series last week.

Whether or not the Champ Car event goes ahead, however, the newspaper reports that the IRL is likely to be the race organiser in 2005.

The main sticking point in a deal with the OWRS is series 'owner' Paul Gentilozzi's demands for a sanctioning fee from the circuit, believed to be more than $1million, on threat of losing the race altogether. Faced with that choice - and knowing that the IRL is waiting in the wings to add road courses to its oval-only schedule - the decision could be an easy one for Portland promoter Mike Nealy.

Nealy's Global Events Group has yet to attract the sponsorship it needs to cover the fee and PIR circuit Mark Wigginton has said that a decision will be made one way or the other by Monday.

[Snrub]

Darn Mid-Ohio is off the calender. Wonder if we'll have some passing instead.

[Snrub]

I ment to mention before - Why are Milwaukee and Cleveland still at night? That cost a bundle before.

[Flatspot]

Maybe TV ? Larger home audience at night I do beleive.

[jjspierx]

I think idea is that they will greater attendance to make up for it. Also, I don't think it costs them THAT much more. Musco got a lot of publicity from CART for those events, and I'm sure they worked out some sort of deal where the price was reduced due to CART's advertising of Musco. I think thats what the light company was called, right?

[Omega99]

Originally posted by Snrub
I ment to mention before - Why are Milwaukee and Cleveland still at night? That cost a bundle before.

Yeah, good question. But it seems to me that the lights at Milwaukee are permanent, so I don't think there's much additional cost there, it was just cold. And as awesome as Cleveland was under the lights, I say save the money and run it in the day, I think I prefer it.

[SurfaceUnits]

I was searching the Milwaukee Mile website the other day and couldn't find any mention of permanent lighting, because they are also running nascar trucks and busch series at night this season. The only picture of lights is last year's champcar race.

[zerO]

Originally posted by Dov
From Crash.net:

Sunday February 1, 02:02 PM

Portland poised to drop off Champ Car radar?

Hey Dov,
Paul Gentilozzi has ust finished talking with the Portland race organizers and te end result is: PORTLAND is ON !!! - this should be hitting the press as I'm typing it ?!

zerO

[Dov]

Originally posted by zerO
Hey Dov,
Paul Gentilozzi has ust finished talking with the Portland race organizers and te end result is: PORTLAND is ON !!! - this should be hitting the press as I'm typing it ?!

zerO

Hi zerO.
Yeah, I read the same thing on a racing website last night, but they said the deal wasn't 100% complete!?

[zerO]

Originally posted by Dov
Hi zerO.
Yeah, I read the same thing on a racing website last night, but they said the deal wasn't 100% complete!?

Hey Dov,
swig down a bottle of Molson's and hold your breath ?!

zerO