Sorry, but I have 5-bucks that says Champ Car does not answer the bell in 2008...

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbyars

in the position CCWS is in right now, in mid October, with no more than 2 or 3 races/venues having announced firm dates for the 2008 season which begins in just a few months.

actually my count is 7, or 8 with the vegas date originally on their website which has since been removed.

06-Apr-2008 Las Vegas *
20-Apr-2008 Long Beach
27-Apr-2008 Houston
18-May-2008 Laguna Seca
22-June-2008 Cleveland
06-Jul-2008 Toronto
20-Jul-2008 Edmonton
10-Aug-2008 Road America

All confirmed either by the venue, with ticket renew notices or, in the case of a couple, confirmed when the ALMS schedule was announced with double header weekends with Champ Car.

* Vegas date was originally on their website but is no longer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tamburello

Another time....can't remember the race but it was on late over here (about 10pm GMT)....I switched on at the correct time, to discover that because the WTCC coverage had over-run, they went to the live coverage of the CC race half-way through.

that was san jose in 2006. i agree with you that eurosport's coverage is *****

Sanguin:

Oh.

Quote:

The Champ Car World Series officials have confirmed to PaddockTalk that their calendar will be released within the next few weeks.

The 2008 Champ Car calendar is currently being reviewed by the FIA, who are due to meet to ratify the schedule.

It would be reasonable to expect that Champ Car are double and triple checking their events to avoid race cancellations that have plagued the series over the last couple of seasons.

Champ Car staff were cagy about the details, but they were confident that they will have enough cars on the grid next year.

http://www.paddocktalk.com/news/html...icle&sid=69619

Next few weeks.....that's really nailing it down. I can't see any more than Bob Garage has that are relatively secure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobGarage

actually my count is 7, or 8 with the vegas date originally on their website which has since been removed.

06-Apr-2008 Las Vegas *
20-Apr-2008 Long Beach
27-Apr-2008 Houston
18-May-2008 Laguna Seca
22-June-2008 Cleveland
06-Jul-2008 Toronto
20-Jul-2008 Edmonton
10-Aug-2008 Road America

Aargh! Want to work the Toronto race, but it's same weekend as F1 at Silverstone. Anyone want to pursuade me which would be better/more enjoyable?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentJackson

Tell that to Allmendinger. CCWS got lots more media attention when AJ started winning. Even when he didn't win at Edmonton and San Jose the media was quite quick to say that he would be back to win again.

You just made my point.
The American media only notices an American driver when they win. Look at the excitement foreign drivers get in their homeland even if they are low in the standings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentJackson

Zolder's attendance numbers were no better than Road America or Mont-Tremblant, so toss that one.

Surfers Paradise it seems is looked at as being a V8 race first CC second, and the V8s are as popular in Australia as NASCAR is in the US. What else is there, Mike? Mexico City? Sinking fast, has been since the Mexicans in both drivers and sponsors went away.

Is it CC's fault that RA and M-T only got 25-30K? No. The promoter is responsible for his attendance. But he cannot promote easily if CCWS' product sucks. That isn't rocket science.

.

Zolder definitely had better attendance than RA and Mont-Tremblant even with the high ticket prices. With all the publicity Road America has received being the great American road race venue the attendance was disappointing. Your constantly developing schedules with venues that fail in attracting attendance.

Why you constantly say the series sucks is beyond me. The entire year track records have been broken with the DP01 but you like to ignore those facts. The racing has been great both up front and back in the field. New drivers and teams have been competitive with the series top teams. So in your opinion the racing suck? I guess ignorance is bliss to make your point.

Australia will have a huge Champ Car race day attendance unlike Road America that brought in another high profile series.

Champ Car needs 4 Mexican drivers. That will bring back the Mexican attendance and sponsors. Notice I did not say 4 top Mexican drivers. Mexicans support their drivers as do other countries.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentJackson

Nice. You've just proven to me you are an elitist, and those people tick me off. What happened to CART, anyways? .

CART did well even without the I500. It was a conspiracy between IMS and Honda that forced CART to use there own funds to race their final year. Until that point the IMS series was floundering and even with the switch of those CART teams to the IMS series attendance did not follow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentJackson

They weren't as you put it "big shiny billboards with huge numbers that go round and round". They got famous because the bast drivers in America were there. Star power is what draws fans, and that can be either in machinery or drivers.

One correction CART had the best drivers in the WORLD. CART from 1983 to 1991 was dominated by American drivers in the top 10 but from 1992 through 2004, foreign drivers started to dominate the top 10 positions in the series. It was names like Fittipaldi, Mansell, Villeneuve, Zanardi, Montoya, deFerran, daMatta, Tracy and Bourdais that were on top of the series and brought world attention to CART. That opened the eyes of a man named Bernie.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentJackson

ALMS and to a lesser extent Grand-Am works off the machinery aspect and quite successfully. CC is a spec series, which means the path to success goes through the drivers - who are roated around frequently for the next sucker with a bank account.

Two point ALMS and Grand Am are not the big draw in attendance that you claim but then again you are happy with pooly attended races.

The biggest bank account in AOWR is at IMS. If it were not for IMS there would not be an IMS series.

The once great race in America, the I500 in case you forgot, was sold out from one year to the next. Now they promote the race 365 days a year and still need gimmicks to entice people to the race.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentJackson

Combine that with an arrogant attitude, jerkoff fans, a bad reputation as a business and virtually no promotion whatsoever and you go from CART in 2001 to where we are now.

An arrogant attitude? Every OWRS owner will talk to their fans at every venue. That cant be said about any other series.
Those jerkoff fans you talk about are at their venues the first day the track is opens through race day. Unlike other seres who's fans just attend race day.
A bad reputation as a business? Name another series that has stabilized their series with the main components that make up the product, like an engine and electronics and key venues etc.

No promotion? I guess you did not get your complimintary subscription to AutoWeek. CC has explored different avinues of promotion every year including the latest TV package and marketing companies. Have they work out NOT as expected but they are constantly looking for improvements. What do you do when you hire the best marketing firm in the business and it does not meet expectations? You move on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentJackson

Champ Car is responsible for its own success, or lack thereof. That hasn't sunk in yet to you, sanguin and the other Kalkhoven apologists. Think about this, Mike. Is CC better than it was four years ago? No, it isn't. And don't give me the victim BS either, because if you think F1 or NASCAR give a rats behind about Champ Car you are royally, badly delusional.
.

Is CC better than it was four years ago? Talk about the blind leading the blind. With all the investments that OWRS has made is securing both Champ Car and the Atlantics series along with attempts to improve TV packages how can you suggest that the series is not better than four years ago.

F1 and NASCAR are huge series on their own turf. F1 is not that popular in America as NASCAR is not that popular in the world. Champ Car is carving it's own way in the WORLD. Unlike the other AOW series, Champ Car is not NASCAR without fenders and thank god Champ Car is not the elitist F1.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentJackson

Mike, you seem to me like a reasonable, intelligent person. So, why in the heck are you stumping for the morons at CC HQ instead of standing up and barking like most of us here for them to get off their arses and fix this series? That goes to sanguin and the other Kalkhoven apologists too.

Why are we having to debate the problems? Any idiot can see them.

Because you are one of the little people that believes that management and the rich are automaticlly the cause of all problems you can't see the good that has been done. When changes are made in a company they are made with the intent that it will make the company better. Changes have been made year after year in Champ Car, some have worked and some have not.

Low level people have solutions to every problem but when it comes to implementing their plans they always fall short mainly because their plans was not though out
completely or they never had the funds to act.

Shooting from the hip is always easy, hitting the target is the hard part.

My guess is, you are one that prefers instant oatmeal over the process of cooking a great oatmeal. The longer cooked oatmeal not only tastes better but it satisifies for a much longer time. The Champ Car process is like cooking a great oatmeal. Once you have all the ingrediants in place there will be nothing better. It's not there yet because they have not put together all the right ingrediants but it will come together.

So when was the last time you talked to Kevin?
Every year at Cleveland he has taken time to talk to me. It may be for only 5 minutes but he does communicate to the fans of Champ Car. To me that is important.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadsquirrel

Aargh! Want to work the Toronto race, but it's same weekend as F1 at Silverstone. Anyone want to pursuade me which would be better/more enjoyable?

july in northamptonshire: wet, windy, miserable
july in toronto: warm, sunny, enjoyable

;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike15

You just made my point.
The American media only notices an American driver when they win. Look at the excitement foreign drivers get in their homeland even if they are low in the standings.

Really? When has Danica won a race? Marco got alot of press finishing 2nd at Indy. M. Waltrip is having a stellar season (not), yet I see his name in the media all the time. In other sports, the Cubs get alot of play in the media for finding ways to lose.

Keep trying. You haven't made your point yet.

Since it's directed at Brent, I'll leave it to him for long-form answer.

"A CONSPIRACY between IMS and Honda that forced CART to use its (sic) own funds to race its (sic) final year."

Just what would that be? Honda wasn't running in CART. Honda was running in the IRL. IMS was not running in CART. IMS conducted an IRL race.