Russian CART race....

[kimi020]

"Champ Car World Series team owner and ambassador Emerson Fittipaldi went from the EuroSpeedway to St Petersburg in western Russia, where he discussed the possibility of a new race with civic officials. “It would be wonderful to organise a race around the city streets,” he told Russian journalists. “It would be a great advertisement for the city and bring many tourists from Europe and America.” St Petersburg is also the site of the US$60m Pulkovoring circuit project [Aug 2]."
They will be having things like night races next!

[Lee Janotta]

Hmm... Would the Russian people even care? They don't have any circuits, any drivers, they've never had a Grand Prix, as far as I know they don't even have much rally involvement... At least Estonia has that.

I'm just wondering if there's enough market demand to warrant a race.

[kimi020]

I think CART need to be focusing there efforts on the American market before they plan any more fly away races.

[carsten66]

St. Petersburg has 5 mio residents and it's the hometown from Russia's President Mr. Putin. – Since the economic break down you will find many poor people but on the other side there are living enough people who are spending their money in the new and high exclusive shopping centers downtown...!?

[Jay]

I don't think it'll happen before 2005, likely 2006. Cart's still in survival mode, and I'd be very surprised to see the series travel to anywhere new outside of North America or Europe before 2005, maybe 2006.

[Flatspot]

This is in fact a global economy and American sponsors are just not considering open wheel racing as an option these days. This includes both CART and the IRL. As far as they are concerned NASCAR and even the NHRA are where they are placing there money first.

Whether we (Americans) like it or not we are seeing an evolution, the new face of CART. CART will be North American based (do not read this USA) with the majority of its races on the continent but will be run as a global series.

It's a matter of survival. If CART doesn't make the change it will in all likelyhood die. We can all sit here whining, blaming the state of open wheel racing on TG, and crying in our soup but that doesn't solve a damn thing.

Adding St. Petersburg has merit. As carsten66 notes, there are 5MM people ripe for the picking. Lee, you point out that there are no circuits, no drivers, never had a Grand Prix, in other words, no competition. Hmmm, let's see, 5MM potential consumers, government backing, rising local economy, no competition...I see the potential to make something really good happen.

I would like nothing more than a 30+ car field of red, white and blue, fully funded, Mario Andretti's but it ain't gonna be. This being the case, I say good on Emmo for making the effort to move CART forward.

[carsten66]

I agree with Flatspot. When somthing doesn't work, you have to find a new way. – Interesting point , yes, it‘s a global economy but most of these global transactions at least earns the american economy and what are the big US companies are doing? Are they invest the money back into a worldwide working company like CART? Look at the sidepots of the cars!

CART is a North American based world series – As a huge fan I would say: it's okay, where is the problem? We have a great motorracing worldseries starting from Europe in F1, we have annother great worldseries starting from the US in CART and we a great only american based series in NASAR. And I don't remember, but is there somthing else...?

[corkholio]

If CART wants Russian legends Sergey Zslowbin and Viktor Maslow, and sponsors like Gazprom that doesn't pay up, then Russia is the way to go.

[Lee Janotta]

Uhm, Flatspot, one point that I do have to harp on. It's our effing series! We nutured it for 24 years! It belongs to us!

Now, that being said, I don't think most of us mind sharing it with anyone when there's sufficient demand.

But you point out how many people there are, and what sort of affluence there is... But I have the ask the tough question: Do they like auto racing?

Corkholio's got a good point too. When one of their big oil companies welches on a contract, you have to wonder if doing business there is a good idea. I have to wonder if CART could even afford the inevitable payoffs to the Russian Mafia.

WRC's the only other one I can think of that spans so much of the globe, Carsten.

Now a major problem for racing in this so-called global economy is the search sponsors. Most companies still break up their advertising departments between continent, region, or country. That means that finding a sponsor who'll pay for you to race in the states probably doesn't give a flying f**k if you race in Germany, England, Australia, or even Mexico or Canada. And vise-versa. Even if those two sponsors are from the same company!! Because they're two different departments, and corporate beaurocracy prevents them from collaborating on an international marketing plan. Because it'd make too much sense.

[Jay]

Don't worry, it's not going to happen any sooner than 2005, probably never.

And I'm 100% sure they'd like autoracing. In many ways, I think Russia would be a much easier market to crack than the UK. A place that only has one major event per year would probably be much easier than one that has one every second weekend.

[Tailwind]

I agree. I think the russians would like Champ Car racing or any racing for that matter. From what I understand, they like anything they can get from the West. By that I mean North America, the UK, the EU, and Down Under. I think they would eat it up if they could afford the tickets.

[Omega99]

I'm going to have to agree with Kimi. CART doesn't really have the money to be travelling around the world for now, so an attempt should be made to build it up where it is now, and expand later. But to do this, IT IS NECESSARY TO USE SOME LEVEL OF MARKETTING!!! Come on CART! Get a couple commercials out there. Create some hype!

I also agree that a race in Russia has potential, and Flatspot made an excellent point of this. But two races in "St. Petersburg" would be just too confusing...

What about Trois-Riviers? There's a beautiful course there and for many French Canadians, racing is a part of the culture. If you ran the whole series in Quebec you'd sell out every race, I guarantee it.

[Lee Janotta]

Good point. And if we ran the whole series in North America, we'd have room on the schedule for three races in Quebec (Montreal, Trois-Rivieres, et Mont Tremblant).

[Jay]

There's no way Mont Tremblant could host a modern day Cart race, there isn't the facilities, and the track's not up to it. The Trois Rivieres track is up to it, but I'm not sure the area is. Having just made my reservations for this year, the area appears to be stretched to the limit as is...I don't think they need Champ cars there...might be interesting though. I wonder if a team might be interested in doing a few laps of the circuit as a demo - maybe to promote the montreal race (as if it needed promoting...lol)

If you want another race in Canada, I'd suggest Alberta... It's been thought about actually, and could happen in the future.

That said, I think Cart should stick with what it has for now apart from maybe adding a European date. Hanover (at least some there) want a street race, and I'm sure there are others too.

[Flatspot]

Originally posted by Lee Janotta
Uhm, Flatspot, one point that I do have to harp on. It's our effing series! We nutured it for 24 years! It belongs to us!

Lee, believe me I know how you feel. If I had my choice things wouldn't be turning out this way. I just don't see many alternatives to either this type of diversification or just throwing in the towel. I'm not ready to call it a day.

Would people in Russia enjoy auto racing? This to me is a no brainer. The Russians are humans too. They just need to be exposed. I can't think of any society that has been exposed to racing that doesn't enjoy it. It's part of the human spirit. In that part of the world the two major forms of entertainment are sport and the arts. I think they'd eat this up as I see it as both.

As far as cost is concerned, the primary cost component is getting the equipment across the pond in the first place. Cart needs more races on the right bank to justify what they are already paying for. There are economies of scale to stay longer and truck cars around there before shipping them back. Economically it would make even more sense to circumnavigate the globe going from there to Asia and the Down Under before returning. A single trip around the world is far less expensive than multiple trips to various parts of the globe.

Originally posted by Omega99
But two races in "St. Petersburg" would be just too confusing..

I never thought of that...lol

[Lee Janotta]

Jay, they completely renovated Mont Tremblant two years ago. It's now, at the very least, on par with Mid-Ohio. Not to mention some of the most breathtaking scenery on the continent:
http://216.219.236.142/photos/02gacmtstzp1-36.jpg
http://216.219.236.142/photos/02gacmtgszp1-3.jpg
http://216.219.236.142/photos/02gamtj3-48.jpg
http://216.219.236.142/photos/02gamtj2-26.jpg
http://216.219.236.142/photos/02gacmtj2-2.jpg
http://216.219.236.142/photos/02gamtj1-2.jpg
http://216.219.236.142/photos/02gacmtj1-18.jpg

It's even got those fences you love.
http://216.219.236.142/photos/02gamtj2-33.jpg

New Yorkers, Flatspot. They're the exception to the rule.

[BobbyB]

Lee,
Nice pics. I like jpg 48 with the blue car heading who-knows-where! You're right... the scenery can't be beat. Is the pitlane maybe a bit narrow for ChampCars, though?

[macdaddy]

Lee, you never cease to amaze me.

[Lee Janotta]

Originally posted by macdaddy
Lee, you never cease to amaze me.

Good!

Uhm, how so?

Bobby: Not my pics, just using them as examples. If you really like them, go over to theracesite.com and tell Juha and the folks at Zoompics. A little pat on the back never hurt.

You have a point, the pitlane _is_ narrower than Mid-Ohio, more on par with Brands Hatch.

http://www.motorsport.com/photos/car...mo-bk-0147.jpg

_However_, if Mont Tremblant were ever considered for addition to the schedule, it'd probably be by leadership with the sense to also ban refueling, so a wide pitlane wouldn't be absolutely essential.

[Rob29]

To correct a few errors here; Russia does have motor racing. Since before World War One in fact!Only recently has news of it got through the 'Iron Curtain' Several Italians have been doing the Russian F3 championship,and a couple of Russians have been seen in western series.
Two St.Petersbergs will be fun.There are 2 Rockinghams.
Moscow and St.Pete are competing for an F1 race.

[corkholio]

If CART wants to hone in on the ex-commie demography then they should get Brno instead. I would much rather see Enge and Janis instead of Zlobin and Maslov.

[DNQ]

Mont Tremblant ... wow, thanks for posting the pictures, great track, lovely scenery.

[GP Racer]

You know, if the economy was good, the world at peace and the stars and planets were in line and CART had some extra cash hanging around( right!) then yeah, take a gamble on Russia. Because make no mistake about it, its a huge risk to do business with Russia, the problems are enormous and endless, and theres certainly no guarantee of any payoff no matter how good the event was. I hope CART is not this desperate. Hell, you'd have a better shot at making money on the roullette wheels in Vegas Chris! Geez, what next, a street course in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan. The supporting event could be a camel race, yeah the mujahadeen are big race fans! I read that somewhere!

Stay away from Russia, STAY FAR AWAY!

[Dov]

http://www.theracesite.com/photocapt...210&form_cat=3

[BobbyB]

What is Pook's fixation on dragging CART all over the earth? Let Bernie take care of that project with F1, and lets put CART's energy into strengthening its known markets in North America, and maybe a little in Europe. To do otherwise is suicidal in today's world economy... why is that so hard to see? CART's cash reserves are dwindling fast!