What Happens Next?

The scramble to piece together a Champ Car World Series schedule must be no fun at the moment. On the subject of "what happens next", I have put together the following potential schedule from what I am hearing. The races that are uncertain are in bold and potential new events are in italics:

Race 1: Las Vegas - I keep hearing that this race is being "shopped" in search of a new promoter (from either series) and it may be "moved" to the end of the season to buy time. My guess is it will be "postponed" like Denver, China and Korea if no one new can be found to cover the very significant losses.

Race 2: Long Beach - No dramas there, thankfully.

Race 3: Houston - Ditto but losses are still significant.

Race 4: Portland - This race has been a money loser for ChampCar since they have guaranteed the shortfalls to the promoter. My guess is that it will stay on the schedule and ChampCar will take the hit again because they are short on races in the USA. If it happens the date will move to accommodate more races in Europe or elsewhere. Here is more on the subject:

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/ore...540.xml&coll=7

Race 5: China - Legal woes, promoter issues and sponsorship shortfalls will cause this race to be "postponed" again if listed.

Race 6: St. Jovite - This race will happen again but it will still lose money for Champ Car and the promoter.

Race 7: Edmonton - The promoters have to be asking themselves how will this event ever work financially given last year's visible decline in attendance and Champ Car's unstable state? My hunch is it will continue but only with the significant shortfall being covered by the OWRS owners.

Race 8: Cleveland - Although things looked better last year, this event cannot be close to making a profit. It looked like attendance has improved to somewhere in the mid 20,000 range on race day but I don't think that is nearly enough to make it a financial winner.

Race 9: San Jose - I think this race is a long shot due to the serious losses I hear were suffered by the promoter and Champ Car's currently awful image can't inspire confidence in trend savvy Silicon Valley. As covered in an earlier post, Laguna Seca will be where Champ Car races if they race in Northern California in 2008. If they do, it will be a track rental or with the OWRS owners covering the probable losses for the promoter.

Race 10: Road America - I believe that this was a Champ Car subsidized event in 2007 to nolster the number of US races and I think it will happen again with the OWRS owners covering the loss for the promoter simply because there are no real takers elsewhere.

Race 11: Zolder - This event did not look like a money maker so it could be replaced with another European venue or my guess is that the OWRS owners will be asked to cut the sanction fee to give it time to grow and keep Assen viable.

Race 12: Assen - This event is the bright sport of Champ Car's 2007 season and will be back. The promoter must certainly have hope that this event will continue to grow and that it will turn a profit soon.

Race 13: Surfers - This event is stable and thriving regardless of Champ Car's woes.

Race 14: Mexico City - All does not appear to be bueno in the relationship with Carlos Slim, Gerry Forsythe and Champ Car. Significant numbers of grandstand seats have been cut and there is no longer a front running Mexican driver in the series. It looks to me like this race is losing energy and some say it is only a matter of time until it is gone. What a pity if true.

Races 16 and 17: Europe - I hear of a half dozen European race possibilities for Brands Hatch to Imola. It seems like the OWRS owners are focused on this as the series near term salvation strategy so I imagine two new races will be added with promoters paying decent sanction fees.

Race 18: Orlando - Don't bet on it.

My guess is that the 2008 Champ Car World Series Schedule will be either 11-13 races if in survival mode, or 14-15 announced races if in "making a statement" mode. One thing seems clear to me though: The OWRS owners will have to subsidize many of the events in North America if they are to continue.

The IRL is easier to see in that it will have the same schedule as 2007, less the MIS event, which brings the schedule down to 16 events. I also keep hearing that the rumored race in Southern California is a long shot for 2008.

Zolder is a difinite go.

China waits for FIA approval.

San Jose needs the city to get behind their race or lose it.
I would like to see both SJ and LS on the schedule.

Look for more new races.

Not bad for 4 years.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David St. Hubbins

[OT]Tap had a song called "Back from the Dead"[/OT]

The last bit in Kirby's article only painted what we knew has been going on for the last decade: the France family planned a monopoly of American racing. Possibly (cue B-movie-type mad scientist) the world! But I don't see nascar knocking F1 out of the way....

Still and all, they've done a good job of exploiting the split (and putting on my tinfoil hat, causing it so they could exploit it), and it's nearly certain that they won't let the irl get too big.

What happens next? irl completes its morph into CART II, and the France family buys TG out so they can be the Vince McMahon of the racing world. nascar becomes WWRE, Inc. (World Wide Racing Entertainment).

After that, they go after that punk, Rupert Murdoch.

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If baby France--( Big Bill, like him or hate him, he was a gear-head, is long gone, leaving the greedy )--wants to become a Mince VcVahhon of racing-he will first have to aborb drag racing which is doing incredibly well and has GENUINE CAR RELATED companies putting SPONSOR money in it.
IT may not happen tomorrow but baby France found out with his generic engine that when Detroit says no, it means no, so it is only time before greed takes its deserved toll.

Bob

Okay, I will make it simple. What happens next has a lot to do with what Champ Car really has in terms of viable North American races going forward:

Las Vegas - Right. I'll buy some more Enron shares please with a steaming side order of Fueled by Visa.

Long Beach - The original and still the best in class but a long way from what it was in a decade ago. Grandstands are smaller and fewer and sponsorship looks down. Ratings are also poor which can't help matters.

Houston - A semi-lousy track in the middle of a bumpy parking lot. A money loser because there is not enough sponsorship or attendance. Rumors suggest that Mike Lanigan along with at least one partner at N/H/L are actively looking at jumping to the dark side. If true, who can blame them given the state of things. What happens next is beginning to look like a game of musical chairs for open wheel promoters.

Portland - A money loser with attendance far below the claimed "30,000." If ChampCar isn't supporting teams, why then would they prop up promoters now that they are operating "in the black"?

Cleveland - See Houston comments about Lanigan. Same financial concerns exist.

San Jose - From what I hear those foolish city fathers of San Jose won't be getting behind the event so a track rental or co-promoted race at Laguna is in the cards. It doesn't really qualify as viable in my book so see my Portland comments.

Road America - Only viable in terms of being on the same card with ALMS and from what I hear the terms are anti-lucrative for OWRS.

Other races - Pulllease don't start with that "Three Day Festivals of Speed" delusional rap again. You need to be drinking Kool Aid laced with speed or LSD to fall for the "new event" predictions in the USA after 2007. Orlando? Another Enron on wheels.

The bottom line is that Long Beach is really all there is.

How about Canada and Mexico?

Edmonton - We have seen it all before ... declining attendance, slipping sponsorship and losses that won't stop. This is also not a major market. Too bad since it is really a very nice event.

St. Jovite - As lovely as the track is, the race only happened out of ego and desperation. It does not represent a major market, nor does the attendance appear to be sufficient to justify the likely expense.

Toronto - Still a great event. The Long Beach of Canada. The same comments apply about recent attendance and ratings.

Mexico City - This just looks like an event that will soon run out of reasons to exist. The Pesos and the mojo are fading.

The bottom line: Toronto is all there really is.

So now, like Michael Jackson, ChampCar is off to new markets where people don't seem to care if it is cool or credible anymore at home. OWRS's owners seem to overlook that there will be plenty of competition from F1, GP2, A1GP, Renault World Series, F/ Nippon/Asia, etc. so I don't have a good feeling about how this will turn out.

What is to stop the Surfer's (ore any other international) promoter from replacing the near brandless spec car series called ChampCar with another similar open wheel series if OWRS dies? Will the casual fans and topless holiday party crowds really care - especially if a local hero is behind the wheel?

There you have it. Not bad for four years?

Not good would be a better way of saying it.

Nice rumors to try to denigrate the series.I don't think anyone believes half of that.

And yet the attendance and interest remains for CC events and other series can only pretend they are going to get them.

:laugh:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sanguin

Nice rumors to try to denigrate the series.I don't think anyone believes half of that.

And yet the attendance and interest remains for CC events and other series can only pretend they are going to get them.

:laugh:

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What's so funny? CC struggles to maintain a stable schedule year in and year out (not to mention teams, drivers, sponsors, etc.). Looks like yet ANOTHER supposed successful CC race (San Jose) will be cancelled. So much for a successful business plan. When does KK launch the "new" 5-year business plan? its obvious the current plan is failing miserably unless of course, the plan includes room for cancelling multiple races in a given season. In that case, the plan is working marvelously.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pvtjoker

What's so funny? CC struggles to maintain a stable schedule year in and year out. Looks like yet ANOTHER supposed successful CC race (San Jose) will be cancelled.

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4 years tweaking the schedule is okay with me as long they keep getting good events.

SJ will be replaced.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sanguin

4 years tweaking the schedule is okay with me as long they keep getting good events.

SJ will be replaced.

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With what? Laguna Seca? "Poor attendance" was a major factor in why they left there in the first place?

Let's just take a look at some recent comments about Laguna Seca from Kevin Kalkhoven from an interview in the March 12, 2007 edition of the Monterey Herald:

"There was 9,000 people the last time we raced (Laguna)," said Kalkhoven.

"I had 90,000 in San Jose. If I could race in front of 90,000 at Laguna I would come back in heartbeat. But people don't want to come to the race. They want the race to come to them."

Kalkhoven may have been over-inflating the attendance figures, but his point is well made. The No. 1 reason why Champ Car left Laguna Seca was because of poor attendance. It isn't just about revenues from the gate. Less people mean less sponsorship, which is where the real money in auto racing is found.

Part of the problem for Laguna was switching the dates of the race from late fall to early spring. The switch also occurred too closely to Champ Car's split with the Indy Racing League, a tumultuous period where some of the top drivers opted out of Champ Car.

"The race wasn't getting promoted enough," said Brazilian driver Bruno Junqueira, a three-time runner-up in the points standings. "I remember racing here and seeing the hills filled with fans. It was so packed that we had to wait three hours after the race before braving the traffic. It's not like that anymore."

Kalkhoven clearly remembers those days too, which is why he still holds the Spring Training event at Laguna. The drivers love Laguna, and if they had their druthers, they would race exclusively on road circuits.

"I'm saddened that we don't race here," said Jimmy Vasser, a former Champ Car champion who now is co-owner of PKV Racing. "This is truly among the greatest tracks in the world."

From owners to drivers, everybody involved realizes the state of auto racing in the United States. Outside of NASCAR, which is still king but has seen a decline the past few season, auto racing is mostly an afterthought.

Getting fans to pay attention is hard enough. Getting them to fork over hard earned money and fill the seats at a race track is darn near impossible.

"The economy has changed, and with it our market has too. There is a lot more competition for people's time," said Kalkhoven. "They don't want to drive down or stay at hotels just to watch a race. So we bring it to them. We make it a festival, where the wives and daughters have something else to do and the husbands and sons can still walk down pit row.

"It's a model that's proven to work."

Original link:

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mo...d/16881627.htm

Is it me or do the OWRS owners seem deceptive and delusional? I keep coming to this conclusion: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, and you join Jerkin' Joe and the Pookster on my permanent ignore list.

Okay, I know, the IRL is, um, as appealing to some of us as a pile day old dog food but this isn't about ChampCar or IRL any longer. It is about the survival of open wheel racing in North America. OWRS has had its chance and they have clearly failed unless we all somehow accept that having a tiny handful of shaky spec car races in the USA spaced months apart with anonymous drivers is okay, especially if the whole point is to give credibility to the majority of Champ Car races that aren't on American soil. Huh? How the hell does this all remotely make sense any more? It is clear that there is no real sponsor base here in America that will support this rich guy’s fantasy space camp that our once great series has sadly become and there is now precious little audience. The truth is that there are probably far more devoted Trekkies than committed Champ Car fans.

Earth to Kalkhoven. Earth to Kalkhoven. Come in Commander Kevster. Come back from Planet Penguin immediately. The inhabitants of Planet American Open Wheel are on to you just like they were with your sleepy alien skiing buddy Anton from Planet Vision. They are getting ugly just like those scary creatures that are after you from Planet JDS/Uniphase. Do you copy, Commander Kevster? Do you copy? Private Sanquin, are you there? Is anyone there who can hear me? Death Star Mindy is approaching. We have no more spinton torpedoes and our farce fields are down. Come in Commander Kevster! Come back to Earth!!!

Oh, the inhumanity!

Is what happens next about to happen? From Autoracing1.com:

"Champ Car might move SJ race to Laguna Seca UPDATE Champ Car World Series will announce Wednesday that the series is returning to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for a race the weekend of May 16-18 according to sources close to the negotiations.

The event will share the race weekend with the previously announced Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series.

Champ Car was a regular at Laguna Seca through 2004. San Jose hosted races from 2005 through this year. It appears that race will not return.

Champ Car held a "spring training" testing session at Laguna Seca last March which was attended by more than 3,000 fans. Spring training events elsewhere have drawn crowds in the hundreds at most.. The series announced last week it would once again hold its spring training at Laguna Seca in 2008. Monterey Herald

[Editor's Note: This does NOT yet mean the San Jose race is being cancelled, but it might]"