OWRS wants Vegas race!

[Dov]

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_ho.../22824817.html

Thursday, December 18, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MOTORSPORTS: CART buyers want Vegas race

Open Wheel Racing pledges to bring event here in 2004

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Open Wheel Racing Series, the group that has purchased CART's assets, strongly committed Wednesday to a 2004 race in Las Vegas, possibly the new Champ Car World Series season finale.

Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkhoven, who with Gerald Forsythe own Open Wheel Racing, addressed a national teleconference Wednesday and sounded ecstatic to be able to talk about plans for the 2004 season.

The group initially tried to buy all of Championship Auto Racing Teams, including the name, for an estimated $8 million. Its strategy changed a few weeks ago, partially because of the difficulty a private group faces in trying to buy a publicly held corporation.

Instead, OWRS spent $1.5 million to purchase CART assets, including contracts with race venues, sponsors and teams.

Gentilozzi said he expects at least 18 teams to compete next year with a schedule of 15 to 17 races. Miami and Fontana, Calif., two cities on last year's 19-race schedule, have been dropped.

But one of the 2004 races will be in Las Vegas, Gentilozzi said.

"We're committed to racing in Las Vegas," he said. "We think it's a venue that's valuable to us and can provide huge marketing opportunities as we go forward. With every safe assumption, we can tell you we're going to be there."

But Gentilozzi still lacks a venue for a Las Vegas race.

"In the next two weeks, I'll be back in Las Vegas to make some final decisions about where we're going to race and what kind of track," he said.

Gentilozzi has reservations about staging his event on Las Vegas Motor Speedway's 1.5-mile oval , but it has nothing to do with the racing surface.

The speedway hosted Indy Racing League events -- CART's open-wheel racing rival -- from the series' inaugural 1996 season through 2000. Published reports show attendance for the first race at 67,000 -- the first-ever race at the track -- but it dropped each of the following years.

The last IRL race, in April 2000, was on the Saturday afternoon before Easter when the IRL basically rented the facility from the speedway. The crowd was estimated to be 18,000.

"The open discussion, quite honestly, is do we go to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which has had some difficulty promoting open-wheel racing," Gentilozzi said. "It's a city full of (scheduling) conflicts, and if you're not in front of it, sometimes it's difficult to get people to come out to the speedway.

"We're convinced that with a joint effort (with the speedway) we can change that."

Speedway officials previously have indicated that the track is willing only to rent the facility to the open-wheel series.

Speedway general manager and president Chris Powell would not comment Wednesday on the possibility of his track hosting a Champ Car race next year.

But Gentilozzi said his group also is "investigating doing an event in conjunction with a major casino in a facility adjacent to the Strip."

Proposed schedules released the past few months included a May date in Las Vegas, but Gentilozzi said that date could change.

"(For 2004) it will require us to change the timing of the proposed event," he said. "There's a good possibility you'll see Las Vegas move off that May date. We have two wonderful opportunities to end our season; one would be Las Vegas, the other could be Mexico City."

[suzmac]

It would be awesome to have a race in Vegas! I would definately go to that!! Vegas is such a cool place!!

Sue