2004 Schedule

[macdaddy]

April 18- Long Beach
May 23- Monterrey, Mexico
June 5- Milwaukee
June 20- Portland
July 3- Cleveland
July 11- Toronto
July 25- Vancouver
August 8- Road America
August 15- Denver
August 29- Montreal
Sept. 12- Laguna Seca
Sept. XX- TBA (South Africa?)
Oct. 17- South Korea (confirmed)
Oct. 24- Surfers Paradise
Nov. 7- Mexico City
Nov. xx- TBA (Vegas?)

[Amar7605]

It's a good schedule. I hope that South Africa will get confirmed pretty soon. That will be a great race with a lot of fan support. But isn't the potential Vegas race a little late? Still, that should be fun.

Go Champ Car!

[codename_47]

That's a giant gap between round 1 and round 2....yet three races in a month in July...

Weird, but still, If I remember back to the days when we worried if there was to be a calender this year...I'll endure!

[Dov]

It's a good schedule, but I was hoping for at least 1 more oval race in 2004. I'll have to be happy with Milwaukee for this season and maybe OWRS will add a few more ovals in '05 and '06?!

[Amar7605]

Yeah lets hope so that more ovals are going to be added next year. According to today's press conference Fontana is officially out for this year. Maybe Vegas will be an oval race, but the rumors have it pegged as a street race near the Belliagio.

[extreme]

Where did this schedule come from Macdaddy. If it came from the CC press confrence then its kind of intresting that it still has a couple of TBD dates. I thought the house was supposed to be mostly in order by now.

[macdaddy]

I was in love with a lady.
And I loved her older sister, too. Perhaps even more.
They were both pretty big, but had curves in all the right places.

Goodbye, Fontana. I'll miss you dearly.

[macdaddy]

extreme... I thought the house would be in order by now too.
The schedule as I've quoted came from ChampWeb, where I believe our good friend Muzza is reporting.

[indycool]

Schedule's peculiar for two reasons:
1. There is absolutely no buzz at all around Las Vegas about any whisper about an OWRS race.
2. The schedule shows the final two races on Thursdays, the last on Thanksgiving Day. (?????????)

[macdaddy]

Cleveland's a daytime race.

[Amar7605]

Good points. The schedule should be concrete by now, and Thursday race dates? Okay, I can understand Thanksgiving, but not Mexico City. Does anyone know if there is a Mexican holiday on Nov 11?

[macdaddy]

Isn't "Cinqo da Mayo" on November 11?
(Just kidding)

[indycool]

AR! is reporting that Champw3b had it wrong. They posted it as official that Mexico City was on Nov. 7, not 11th. Cleveland is a daytime Saturday now.

But there's absolutely nothing going on in Vegas. Not a buzz in the media, not a buzz on The Strip, not even a whisper of anything going on. There's speculation that Gentilozzi fashions himself as an insider with the Mandalay Bay, but if there's anything going on out there, nobody has a clue what it is and there'd be no point at keeping any concrete plans a secret right now. IMO, Vegas is a vapordate.

[Adam43]

That is a decent calendar of high quality venues IMHO. It is a little shame that there is a lack of ovals (and variety of), but everything else is there and this is the situation we have. I'm happy about that. (I'm disappointed about Brands - not that an English race has been a serious prospect for months!).

I have itchy feet for the season to start now. Long Beach as well. It couldn't really start anywhere better!

[Hazza]

I'll just reafirm my support for more ovals and say, read it and weap, www.cart.com

We're going racing

[macdaddy]

CART's website has finally updated, and given a different date for Mexico City. In my original post I gave Nov.11, but I've editted it since the "official" word has come out.

And said "official" calendar gives a less-specific date in November for LV, so I've editted out the "25th" part...

[evo]

Any chance the South African race will be an oval?

[Tenoch]

There's no holiday that weekend, maybe you got confused witk the 16th of September Mexican Independence day.

[Amar7605]

The South African raced is supposedly going to be a street race in the city of Durban.
Hmm... I wonder what it would be like to race at Kylami? :-)

[Adam43]

Old Kylami, would be great, a perfect place for these cars. However it is quite a bit smaller now and there are quite a few houses in the way There are also contined threats about the circuit that does remain too.

[indycool]

Another site is now saying South Africa is out for '04.

[Muzza]

Hello, Fellows,

This is what was officially said at the press conference:

1.) The Seoul race will be held in a street course build in a park, pretty much like Montreal (Gentilozzi himself made the comparison, spontaneously). It will be a semi-permanent venue, build besides (or around) Seoul "soccer stadium (quoting Gentilozzi verbatim, unclear if it is the Olympic Stadium - Seoul has several soccer stadiums). This location is served by several means of mass transport. This race is being planned since early last year, and Champ Car personnel are particularly excited about it; it looks like they are putting quite some chips in this bet, aiming to make it another "jewel" as Surfer's Paradise. Being South Korea a key market - large population with a relatively high purchasing power, mostly unexploited from motorsport point of view, home of major corporations (LG, Samsung) and significant automotive industries (KIA, Hyundai, Daewoo) - this is understandable.

2.) The venue for the final race is going to be "geographically close" (again quoting Gentilozzi verbatim) to Mexico City. Once this was said we all thought about Vegas - Vegas is the most logical choice for a "grand finale", plus it is not that far from Mexico City -, but Champ Car officials refused to comment on that. The preferred (but not definite) date for this final race is two weeks after the previous event.

3.) Yes, Fontana is definitely out - as Gentilozzi said "we are not going back there even if there is never another fire in Southern California again"

4.) When asked about more ovals, Gentilozzi said, in a rather evasive way (my impression) "we want more ovals". In my opinion ovals do not seem to be a priority to Champ Cars.

5.) When asked about South Africa Gentilozzi spoke enthusiastically about this opportunity, but said that there was logistic concerns from both sides (Champ Cars and the local organizers). Quite some time was spent on both of these two aspects (the opportunities and the concerns for a race in 2004), what leads me to believe that this is another spot that Champ Cars is looking at quite keenly.

6.) No, no plans for an oval in South Africa - at least not for the time being (evo, did you have Welkom in your mind?). Nobody will say anything officially, but the subject is the (new) Durban street track.

7.) The fourteen dates above are "cast in stone, with contracts signed" (this great - but then again, please remember that contracts mean little in motorsports)

8.) Yes, Cleveland will be the only race promoted by Champ Car as the local partner has no motorsport experience/capabilities, as explained by Gentilozzi. Cleveland will be a daytime race in 2004 - the night event was called a success but it is believed that a day race can attract a larger local crowd. Portland will be co-promoted by Champ Car for next year, but in my opinion the series organizers are looking to changing that too.

9.) Key markets considered for expansion: United States Southeast and Northeast

10. According to Gentilozzi "with the three very successful events in Canada the border between United States and that country is well covered, as there is significant bleed over" (sic).

Cheers, time to get ready for Long Beach!


Muzza

[indycool]

Muzza, did they say who the local partner is in Cleveland? my impression has always been that IMG was out completely. IMG was under hire from CART last year to promote it without the risk involved. The "no experience" line indicates that somebody else is going to do it.

[evo]

Yeah Muzza, I was thinking Phakisa Freeway in Welkom. Oh well...

[Hazza]

In motorsport news, they said the places under consideration were "South Africa", "Fontana(?)" and "A race in Miami"*





* - I don't care what you say, but please, lord, let it be Homestead.


edit: Come to think of it, is Rio close enough to Mexico City for them?