RA responds

indycool · 8 Apr 2003, 13:15 (Ref:562778)

Sheboygan Press article:

http://www.wisinfo.com/sheboyganpres..._9665777.shtml

macdaddy · 8 Apr 2003, 14:12 (Ref:562828)

That fat lady's not singing yet!

Lee Janotta · 8 Apr 2003, 15:38 (Ref:562894)

"And the father of the deciever shall rebuild the shards of the empire, and he shall lead us to the promised land."

-CART Sporting and Technical Regulations, section 24, article 8

double00 · 8 Apr 2003, 16:29 (Ref:562942)

Amen to that brother!!!!!!!!!

Jay · 8 Apr 2003, 16:48 (Ref:562962)

Yup, not over yet. Don't get too excited yet, but hopefully Cart will do the right thing both for it as a business and for its fans.

Snrub · 8 Apr 2003, 16:51 (Ref:562965)

Thank god for Mario.

billiaml · 8 Apr 2003, 20:35 (Ref:563214)

Got my fingers crossed!

jetsetter · 8 Apr 2003, 23:43 (Ref:563412)

Hopefully we'll see common sense prevail & the race reinstated back on the calendar where it belongs.

Omega99 · 9 Apr 2003, 03:48 (Ref:563492)

Finally, some good news. At least one of the Andretti's has his head on straight!

Tailwind · 9 Apr 2003, 05:22 (Ref:563517)

I do like the sound of that. It at least sounds like they are trying to work something out. I sure hate the thought of Champ Cars not racing there.

macdaddy · 9 Apr 2003, 18:19 (Ref:564246)

From the ChampWeb rumour mill...

We are told that April 30th is the drop dead date on a yes or no decision between Champ Car and Road America. We are told that a plan IS in place to have a current Champ Car team owner be the promoter of the event, along with a certain someone who ownes a winery...

Snrub · 9 Apr 2003, 18:30 (Ref:564257)

Great, things are sounding up for Elkhart. Who's the team owner? Emmo? Patrick? Rahal? Makes sense that Mario's there. He's the perfect guy to get some publicity for road racing. We need guys like Mario and Emmo reminding people what its all about.

macdaddy · 9 Apr 2003, 18:48 (Ref:564296)

I wonder, IF they do race there this year, what effect all of this negative publicity will ultimately have upon ticket sales.

Snrub · 9 Apr 2003, 18:51 (Ref:564310)

That's a good point macdaddy. If there are still hostilities things could break down again for next year.

The Snout · 9 Apr 2003, 21:47 (Ref:564541)

It may well be a positive on ticket sales. Think about it. Every fan has been p1ssing themselves because it's been dropped, if fans want to send a clear message to RA and Cart that this event needs to stay, they should and will turn up by the truckload. Frankly, if it gets put back on and fans don't turn up, I'll be disappointed with people.

Muzza · 10 Apr 2003, 02:52 (Ref:564726)

Quote:

Originally posted by Snrub
Great, things are sounding up for Elkhart. Who's the team owner? Emmo? Patrick? Rahal? Makes sense that Mario's there. He's the perfect guy to get some publicity for road racing. We need guys like Mario and Emmo reminding people what its all about.

Mario Andretti is the one hinted, as he owns Andretti Wineries.

Muzza · 10 Apr 2003, 03:26 (Ref:564731)

The whole thing between Road America and CART was caused by some guys in Elkhart Lake trying to be too "smart" (or so they thought).

The beautiful Road America - one of the top five road tracks in the world - is, believe me, one of the last independently owned circuits hosting races for major categories. It is not owned by corporations (ISC or Octagon), car manufacturers or impresari (Ecclestone and Pook himself - Pook, of course, is a major Dover shareholder). Most of Road America ownership is on the hands on local racing fans (a few wealthy ones).

I for one love that. Besides, the track has had a long-standing relationship with the local communities. Even during major events (CART and the inaugural ALMS race of last year, for example) the majority of the concession stands is run by or in favor of charity services. How many other tracks in the world do that?

Nevertheless, even nice guys have bills to pay. The much waited and equally praised improvements carry out years ago still weigh on Road America cash flow. On top of that, add track maintenance costs. In today's world you need lots of money to swim in the shark pool of motor racing, and Road America got to the point of not being able of paying CART's sanctioning fee.

Bruggenthies, who I believe is a decent man, approached Pook on that concern before last year's race. Road America's management was expecting to get a "break" from CART, and then re-directing sanctioning fee money to put to bed some bills instead (if you wondered why Road America is not promoting races as years ago, that's the answer - promotion costs upfront money, tough to do on a limited cash flow scenario).

The problem is that the negotiations dragged longer than Bruggentheis expected. Pook had much bigger problems to think about - including simply keeping CART afloat. At the same time, Road America need for cash tightened.

So some guys associated to the track had a "great idea": plant rumours in the press that IRL was going to pay Road America's debts to CART, so Tony George crapwagons would race in Wisconsin. This was supposed to work as a "scare tactic" and make CART pardon Road America's account.

The problem is that the world of motorsport is smaller than some people think. Pook found out about the "IRL intentions" (reported in the press, never denied by Road America) and, of course, went ballistic. I understand that at least one private apology was sent to CART since things got sour.

With this background, the news above regarding the arrival of a promoter to foot the bills makes even more sense. I don't think it would be Mario Andretti himself, tough. He may be the facade, but considering his character (very business savvy, and only getting into deals that he knows how much profit he will make) I cannot see him putting his own money into that.

Snrub · 10 Apr 2003, 15:50 (Ref:565218)

I thought I made it clear that Mario was the one hinted at?

I agree Mario wouldn't be pony up his own $$$, but he's a the sort of guy we want CART sending to negotiate.

That interesting stuff about RA.

indycool · 10 Apr 2003, 17:12 (Ref:565289)

Muzza, I agree with most of your post. But I don't think anyone from RA planted IRL rumors as a tactic. IRL rumors about road racing at ALL tracks have been going on for some time now. Bruggenthies hasn't been doing anything without the full knowledge of his BoD, of which Carl Haas is a director. RA has been upset with CART for some time, most of which has to do with its race date bouncing around on a yearly basis. Because there has been no firm date (in its history, it's gone everywhere from July to October) planted by CART, this has been a wayward deal throughout its history, a scheduling bi-product, an afterthought. When the date was switched this year to put CART opposite the EAA Fly-In at Oshkosh and the Brickyard 400 at Indy, it just made things more unworkable for RA, which, IMO, has never deserved the afterthought treatment from CART -- whoever's president.

indycool · 10 Apr 2003, 17:54 (Ref:565339)

From the Sheboygan Press Wednesday...story says a deal's pretty much done.

http://www.wisinfo.com/sheboyganpres..._9682487.shtml

macdaddy · 10 Apr 2003, 18:06 (Ref:565350)

At least it says that we'll know by tonight...

macdaddy · 10 Apr 2003, 18:30 (Ref:565385)

Meanwhile, Champweb says that there is no specific deadline...

Champweb's Dennis Boese caught up with Cheryl Barnes today (Apr.10), and had this to say:

Cheryl Barnes, Road America's communication director, said today that the racetrack had not yet heard back from CART on an agreement to bring Champ Car racing back to Road America that was negotiated last Friday between Mario Andretti and RA president and general manager George Bruggenthies. Barnes said, "the ball is CART's court now.

Barnes would not say if there was any specific deadline that CART had to respond by, except to note that time was running short to still have a race take place in 2003. Also, she said she didn't know anything about Carl Haas and Mario Andretti acting as promoters for the event. Barnes said, "We don't have a race yet."

While Barnes was not able to elaborate much on the subject at this time, she did say that CART and Road America would probably issue a joint news release when the time came.

Note: If CART is favorably disposed to the agreement, look for Chris Pook to scoop RA on the news and make some announcement at Long Beach this weekend."

evo · 10 Apr 2003, 20:52 (Ref:565540)

Right, so if the people who come from all over the place to go to Airventure get tired of looking at airplanes, they could spend the weekend on the other side of the lake and watch a fine motor race then. (Except the kind of people who go to Airventure don't get tired of looking at airplanes)

Tailwind · 10 Apr 2003, 23:02 (Ref:565669)

Quote:

. (Except the kind of people who go to Airventure don't get tired of looking at airplanes)

You've got that right!

Flatspot · 11 Apr 2003, 02:40 (Ref:565782)

Yes, but in general the kind of people whou enjoy looking at fine aircraft also tend to enjoy fine motorcars. I know I like them both.

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