No seat for Tracy? - Page 4

JohnSSC · 22 Dec 2007, 12:25 (Ref:2093742)

Just to clarify: I was trying to stay away from the "payments to AOW drivers who are also family members" thing so as to keep this on a CC focus. Plenty of room in the IRL forum to discuss the same issues vis a vis IRL teams.

If someone mentions the paid or paying status of particular CC drivers, that would be fair game for discussion here I would think.

The situation at le Pettit Forsythe is evocative of the larger issues facing CC and it's business model. How things fall out at le Pettit Forsythe could have a dramatic impact on how the series is viewed overall.

So if a poster is trying to justify/explain le Pettit forsythe's actions regarding Tracy as being a reflection of "the way things are in CC" then trying to figure out if Dominguez is a paying or paid driver is germaine.

marcus · 23 Dec 2007, 01:49 (Ref:2093976)

well anyways have we actually heard any news from either Paul or Forsythe themselves ?

mountainstar · 23 Dec 2007, 04:21 (Ref:2093990)

Apparently theu will have a meeting after Christmas.

Minicross424 · 28 Dec 2007, 14:43 (Ref:2095796)

I think names are inportant to a series.
Back here in the uk the british touring car championship is popular because of names that have been created.
Neal, plato, jordan, shedden, jackson etc.
P.T needs to stay.
Cant we try to lure some away from other series? Weldon in champ cars? bring it on!

Knowlesy · 28 Dec 2007, 16:15 (Ref:2095834)

Yes, but they would need a reason to go to Champcar which is a stumbling block at the moment.

agosling · 29 Dec 2007, 07:00 (Ref:2096081)

It would be very hard and cost a huge amount of dollars to attact a name driver to what is seen as a dead or at least dieing series.

SALEEN S7R · 29 Dec 2007, 23:39 (Ref:2096388)

Champcar seen as dead or dying? I dont think so personally, sure it isnt in the best of health but then neither is the IRL and on balance I would think that Champcar is the stronger series.

Back to topic though, it would be a real shame to lose Tracy as he has been one of the stalwarts of Champcar and would be a big blow to the series if he didnt get a drive for 2008. Sure hes not getting any younger but he is still plenty fast enough to be in with a shout for the Championship in 2008.

rush1 · 29 Dec 2007, 23:52 (Ref:2096390)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

Champcar seen as dead or dying? I dont think so personally, sure it isnt in the best of health but then neither is the IRL and on balance I would think that Champcar is the stronger series.

Back to topic though, it would be a real shame to lose Tracy as he has been one of the stalwarts of Champcar and would be a big blow to the series if he didnt get a drive for 2008. Sure hes not getting any younger but he is still plenty fast enough to be in with a shout for the Championship in 2008.

Champ car is stronger in what terms, stronger business model, higher revenue streams, more paying customers, betters TV contract, higher profile races?

SALEEN S7R · 30 Dec 2007, 01:36 (Ref:2096409)

I would say stronger in terms of Driver talent, worldwide media exposure, Quality of teams and on the whole higher profile races, of course the IRL does have the Indy 500 which is in turn more popular than any single Champcar event. Champcar however I feel overall races on better circuits and has slightly bigger attendances, Champcar is followed worldwide where as the IRL is mainly a North American series.

rush1 · 30 Dec 2007, 04:36 (Ref:2096425)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

I would say stronger in terms of Driver talent, worldwide media exposure, Quality of teams and on the whole higher profile races, of course the IRL does have the Indy 500 which is in turn more popular than any single Champcar event. Champcar however I feel overall races on better circuits and has slightly bigger attendances, Champcar is followed worldwide where as the IRL is mainly a North American series.

I respectfully disagree with the driver talent bit.

That worldwide media exposure is an interesting point. Is the remnants of CART morphing into the official minor leagues to F1 now? There is this guy Bourdais on a mid level team in F1 who raced in CART... Is that what you mean by media exposure? That is not going to keep the boat afloat unless a certain benefactor continues to shell out millions for his hobby.

Bourdais, by the way, would have received more world wide media exposure for winning one Indianapolis 500 versus four champ car world series. Except for hardcore racing fans, no one knows about champ car racing but the diehards, my opinion of course.

SALEEN S7R · 30 Dec 2007, 04:58 (Ref:2096427)

With regards to the driver talent point I think we have both made each others view points clear so there isnt much point in further debating that point.

In terms of media exposure I was talking about coverage generally. In Europe Champcar is quite a big series with live TV coverage throughout Europe on Eurosport, not only is the series known thanks to Eurosport but it is known thanks to Champcar having several events throughout Europe in recent years. The fact too that ex F1 drivers such as Justin Wilson and Robert Doornbos make the switch to Champcar is noticed and their fans will sometimes follow their careers, not many ex F1 drivers make the switch to the IRL but they do out of choice make the change to Champcar instead. Why? Because they are street track racers not oval specialists. Champcar is as the title suggests something of a International series, next year Champcar will race in 7 different countries. The IRL is mainly USA based and therefore the fan base is predominantly American.

As for Bourdais receving more exposure by winning the Indy 500 than 4 Champcar titles, personally I dont agree with that statement. Sure he might grab a major headline for it but then it would be forgotton, by winning 4 Champcar titles Bourdais has kept his name in the headlines for many years, sure perhaps not always in the spot light but his name is always around somewhere. It is important to remember that Bourdais had already made a name for himself before heading into Champcar having been a F3000 Champion (because of Enge losing points after failing a drugs test) and finishing 4th overall at Le Mans in his first attempt, the first non Audi finisher.

Is Champcar becoming a F1 feeder series? Perhaps, but not in the same way as say GP2, it has indaviduality that sets itself apart from the other F1 feeder series IMO. Is that really a bad thing though? Better to be a major series in F1's shadow than to be a pan American single seater series that nobody much outside the USA hears about. IMO of course.

Note to mods. Sorry for getting off topic, this will be my last off topic response to this thread but I felt I just had to respond.

agosling · 30 Dec 2007, 05:04 (Ref:2096428)

Worldwide exposure, not really and most of what there is is a remnant of when it was a major championship.

The Gold Coast Indy round is still big but I would be that more people go to see it because the V8 Supercars race there than the fact that it is a Champcar round, seriously take the V8's away and the crowd numbers would plummet.

NASCAR absolutely rules the US racing scene and there isn't room for two struggling open wheel championships and as long as the IRL has Indy they will be the one that survives. It's pretty simple really.

Bernard Bram · 30 Dec 2007, 08:30 (Ref:2096441)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

In terms of media exposure I was talking about coverage generally. In Europe Champcar is quite a big series with live TV coverage throughout Europe on Eurosport, ...

I have to disagree. Champcar is on Eurosport2, which is payTV. Less people are watching Champcar nowadays, coverage in Europe is nearly none existant, imho.

**Craig** · 30 Dec 2007, 12:58 (Ref:2096514)

I hate to say it as it was once my favourite form of racing by a long way, but.. I fail to see how Champcar could be regarded as strong in any regard.

In the US it has been completely obliterated by Nacar. All the talent heads straight to Nascar these days - imagine Champcar with Montoya, Villeneuve, Franchitti, etc. There is very poor TV coverage and hardly anyone attends the races. There are next to no American drivers and the level of interest from the public is appalling. When I was in Houston people would ask me if I'd come all the way from the UK to see the Jimmy Buffet concert (still have no idea who the hell he is?) and were amazed when I said, no, I'm in town for the race. "Race?" they would say. "What race?"

In worldwide terns it suffers from similarly poor TV coverage and spectator interest. Who the hell cares about Justin Wilson, Katherine Legge and the appallingly bad 'Speedy Dan'?? It is very much a dead series. And F1 feeder series? Purllleeease...

indycool · 30 Dec 2007, 14:28 (Ref:2096553)

The Aussies and Mexicans on this board were complaining all season that they had no TV. Just how has CC gotten all this exposure?

TWK · 30 Dec 2007, 22:36 (Ref:2096805)

Quote:

by winning 4 Champcar titles Bourdais has kept his name in the headlines for many years

Too bad there weren't any headlines, only sports page 2 (after baseball, football, golf, and everything else) articles, and then only where the race was a local.

Knowlesy · 31 Dec 2007, 12:06 (Ref:2097048)

Well I care about Wilson, Craig!

Admittedly, this alone is hardly going to boost Champcars profile.

gert · 31 Dec 2007, 13:49 (Ref:2097080)

For what it's worth, in our daily newspaper: ChampCar gets a quick report and top 10 results, nothing can be found from the IRL. The Indy 500 race had 2 lines, containing the top 3.
Nascar got mentioned twice: the day Montoya won and when the title was won.

JohnSSC · 31 Dec 2007, 22:19 (Ref:2097278)

Whereas the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette rarely mentions it as anything more than a summary...same with IRL...no coverage of ALMS...the Wasteland...

D.R.T. · 1 Jan 2008, 04:42 (Ref:2097401)

Quote:

Originally Posted by indycool

The Aussies and Mexicans on this board were complaining all season that they had no TV.

Once again an exaggeration, atleast in the regards to Australia. Australia had television from mid season onwards. Absolutely an issue that the first half of the season wasnt aired on FTA, but it seems silly for you to suggest this went on for the entire season.

JohnSSC · 1 Jan 2008, 13:14 (Ref:2097547)

Must be the "New Math!" One half season on Mexican TV plus one half season on Australian TV = a Full season of coverage...

I think we are getting a bit too literal here, but between the Australian and Mexican fans there were complaints throughout the season that the races were not being shown.

marcus · 2 Jan 2008, 00:26 (Ref:2097803)

can we try and keep this on the Paul Tracy topic guys please

mountainstar · 7 Jan 2008, 19:19 (Ref:2101386)

Paul Tracy is back and all is resolved:

http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_s...26675&hubname=
http://www.gordonkirby.com/categorie..._is_no108.html

JohnSSC · 7 Jan 2008, 23:57 (Ref:2101542)

That is good news for CC and Le Pettit/Forsythe Racing.

Knowlesy · 8 Jan 2008, 02:05 (Ref:2101585)

Terrible news for the repair shop though (of all teams).

Seriously, good luck to him, I hope he has a revival this year. There have been signs of it, but still too much dreadfulness. Maybe 2008 he can turn the corner.

Or is that wishful thinking?

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