CC News & Rumours

[Dov]

Update on Tecate posted on 14:45

Fernandez Racing has not lost their Tecate sponsorship. The Tecate sponsorship, however, has been reduced to just on the rear wing of the car. We have pictures and will upload them as soon as possible.

[Dov]

McDonalds Signs Multi-Year Deal posted on 14:49

McDonalds and Newman-Haas Racing have signed a multi-year deal with Sebastien Bourdais as the driver for 2004. They will be advertising Paul Newman's "Newman's Own" salad dressing for McDonalds.

Bruno Junqueira also was announced as the second driver for Newman-Haas with PacifiCare sponsorship.

Cialis was not part of the press conference at all.

[macdaddy]

Good for N/Haas and Bourdais!

[Dov]

NHR Livery posted on 15:28

We spoke to the graphic designer of Newman-Haas Racing and they will be having a slightly different livery for Long Beach. The sidepods will be different as well as the top of the sidepods.

[Dov]

Rahal Conference News posted on 15:31

Not much news came out of the Team Rahal press conference.

One thing of note, Team Rahal did say that they were approched by a driver with money, but that deal did not materialize and that driver/money went elsewhere.

Can we say Lavin/Corona?

Also, Team Rahal did not bring a car to the preview. We suspect that they may be doing a launch in Mexico like Corona is doing...

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally posted by Dov
Update on Tecate posted on 14:45

Fernandez Racing has not lost their Tecate sponsorship. The Tecate sponsorship, however, has been reduced to just on the rear wing of the car. We have pictures and will upload them as soon as possible.

Does that mean that Tecate is bringing less "Dinero" to the team for the sponsorship this year???

On the surface, it would indicate that as being the case....

Did any of the media ask that question????

[sgw2]

Tim,

They probably didn't lower their support. More likely it never was that high (as has been the rumor for years). Honda was a huge chunk of his budget. That s why Adrian wavered so much on staying in, and I think it also explains why his effort was weak last season compared to previous years (no test budget). The Visit Mexico deal really helps.

[Tim Northcutt]

But in racing circles, there are certain "values" generally noted or set within a series that ID's locations on the cars where the sponsor's name appeares based on a range of $$$ support....

Sidepods are worth more than a wing endplate, as an example...

[Dov]

For the most part I feel OWRS has put on a REAL amateur show!!!

RuSport Announcing...but posted on 16:59

RuSport is currently announcing their participation in the 2004 Champ Car World Series, but they have not brought a car with them. We will have more info as it becomes available.

[Dov]

Trans Am NEWS!!! posted on 16:41

-Gentilozzi and Rocketsports Racing has signed Tommy Kendall as his driver for the entire season.

-There will be a 10 race season....maybe an 11th coming.

-They are definately racing in Puerto Rico

-last year there were 4 events with Champ Car..this year there will be 7

-They are looking at having more integration with the Champ Car series in the future.

-3 standalone events: puerto rico, trios-riviers, sonoma

-trans am/champ car has a technological and technical agreement between the series. They have never been able to do that. They will be doing simulations etc. with both series.

-Trans Am's relationship with SCCA will continue

-Trans Am will be working together with SCCA to try and bring the GT1 class into Trans Am from SCCA. Will be done in a progessive manner.

[Flatspot]

Dov, Have you seen any new Champcar logos or the hint of one hanging around?

[Dov]

It looks like their still using the old CC logo.....at leat for now!

[Tim Northcutt]

I've said it before....

They HAD to release info on the Series, the schedules, etc.....it is approaching the "Ides of March," for crying out loud....

But they didn't have the time to seal deals on sponsorships for teams, etc., due to the 4-5 weeks from when this thing was finalized in court....

As a guy who has done PR professionally for the past 20 years, I would have done this as a "Series" thing and not tried to trot out the teams with painted up cars with sponsors, etc....there wasn't enough time to make those deals happen....

and by trying to do too much, they ended up looking amateurish....

[Dov]

RuSport Highlights posted on 17:45

RuSport is really concentrating on a 1-car effort for the 2004 season. However they are committing to 2-cars for the 2005 season.

-No title sponsor was announced. However, Red Bull will be AJ's personal sponsor with a helmet design and his suit designed in Red Bull livery.

-BG Products will be an associate sponsor for RuSport

-AJ said the team has done around 600 miles of testing so far.

-AJ also said that the difference between a Champ Car and a Toyota Atlantic car is totally on two different levels. He said the Champ Car is extremely difficult to drive, whereas the Atlantic car has a lot of downforce.

[jjspierx]

Not that its necessarily any of my business, but shouldn't we be linking to articles, instead of cutting and pasting text that is written from other websites? I know if were running Champweb, I'd be a little upset at not getting credit for stuff I were writing.

[Dov]

Hey JJ,
Yeah, your probably right. Yesterday I was giving links to all of the articles (and a few today), but for the most part I wasn't doing that today. The only way I can apologize to ChampWeb is by thanking them for their hard work and by letting everybody know that all of the info (articles & images) that I have posted over the past two days has come from their website......

[The Snout]

Originally posted by Tim Northcutt

But they didn't have the time to seal deals on sponsorships for teams, etc., due to the 4-5 weeks from when this thing was finalized in court....

.....and by trying to do too much, they ended up looking amateurish....

I agree on that Tim, this year it appears to be a bit rushed. On a whole though I agree with the concept and next year without the court drama and a schedule etc well in place the whole gig will have a chance to go down with the polish it deserves. Overall I like the concept.

[sgw2]

Tim,

Adrian, like Derrick Walker, grew the signage to fill the car. It looks better and keeps the sponsors you do have even happier. But like Newman-Haas, if a one race deal comes along (e.g., Bourdais at Cleveland), they'll bump the "primary" off to make room. This says much about the price of the primary signage.

And the price to get signage on a Champcar is much less than it used to be. Corona did not up their racing budget, and yet for two years running they will get full signage for no more than $2M.

Champcar is not alone on this, in F1 the prices are way down as well (they call it the "cash crunch"). Only in NASCAR, which has hit its limit, has it gone up, where $15M is the entry price for a mid-pack car. The days of $7-10M for side pods and wings that Player's and Kool paid are gone.

Its hard not to see why. NASCAR has 36 races which will all get 4.0-6.0 ratings, while Champcar has only 7 US races and will be lucky if any does much better than a 1.0 rating.

[full throttle]

Yes, even those in the know with NASCAR teams will tell you that the dollars have plateaued, and are starting to receed. They can't fill a field anymore either...

[JohnSSC]

And, if I recall correctly the sponsors in NASCAR sign with NASCAR. NASCAR then doles out the $$ to the teams which works wonderfully in ensuring that the teams toe the line.

[indycool]

No, John, they don't. The teams get their own sponsors and make their own deals. They are "encouraged" to be involved in programs with NASCAR, though.

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally posted by full throttle
Yes, even those in the know with NASCAR teams will tell you that the dollars have plateaued, and are starting to receed. They can't fill a field anymore either...

I agree with you, full throttle....

If you look at the Leviathan that NASCAR has become, they have created their own problems in the sponsor area...by expanding their "feeder series" systems that have become quite expensive to race in if you want to be competitive....

Running a Busch Grand National team has become an expensive proposition, and each of those teams eats up sponsor $$$ that could have gone to a Nextel Cup team...and the Craftsman Trucks take it to a third level, which dilutes a finite sponsor pool even further...

Both the Busch Series and the trucks are very high-priced when you compare it to the "real cost" of what it would take to be competitive in the ALMS Series with an LMP1 or LMP2 program.....

I did some "What If" budgeting for an "LMP Car on a Shoestring," and I figured that the estimated cost of fielding a competitive LMP1 in the ALMS (if done wisely) is probably about $1 million for the season and maybe a little more.....at the very most....

A Busch or Craftsman Truck program is 4-5 times that cost....

[Tim Northcutt]

"As a guy who has done PR professionally for the past 20 years, I would have done this as a "Series" thing and not tried to trot out the teams with painted up cars with sponsors, etc....there wasn't enough time to make those deals happen....

and by trying to do too much, they ended up looking amateurish.... "


I didn't really cover "How I would have done it".....


If I were the OWRS PR Guy:

The past two days in Long Beach would have been the many annouancements pertaining to the Series itself, with the new rules, announcing as much of the schedule as possible, the Trans-Am and Formula BMW involvement, etc., and I would have considered having some of the Team Representatives or Team Owners there to talk about their plans....but would not have done the "unveiling" gig unless teams had things set, the cars painted, and drivers finalized....

Think about this from a PR Perspective:

Since they are allegedly trying to nail down a Las Vegas date to close the season, and Long beach is the opener, why not do a "Big Splash" in Vegas the weekend of April 3 & 4 to:

1. Announce the new race in that city (the alleged street race) and do it at the Casino or Hotel that they are trying to partner with on it....

2. Unveil your teams, drivers and liveries in Vegas with all of the bells, whistles and glitz (showgirls and all....pull out all of the stops to create a dramatic visual setting like the auot makers do at car shows)

It accomplishes many things from a PR perspective:

1. It gives you a second big media hit for the series and the teams in a very high-visibility town, plus it gives that high-profile venue a big kick-off...

2. There is a tie in from the Long Beach "Series" event, since long beach is the opener, and Vegas would be the closer.....put the two events into a context of "we announced our Series plans in the town where we'll begin, and the teams where our innaugural OWRS Season will end....and everything in between on the tracks will be just as fast and as exciting as what you have experienced at these two events."

3. Most important...by splitting the events, it gives the teams more time to finalize deals, get their cars and logos squared away, and thus both events are done well....

OWRS would have set a better tone for the launch of their Series by doing it this way...but now, the can be a perception of disorganization and "not ready for prime time" and just feeds any cynicism that might be out there....

[indycool]

Tim, I agree and your plan would've been excellent and eliminated the question marks of what's NOT done.

Incidentally, the Vegas race apparently centers around some deal with the Mandalay Bay. I heard that out there when I was at the Cup race last weekend and it went up on Mark C.'s site ysterday. Apparently Gentilozzi at least fashions himself as a player with the big kids at that hotel. Throwing one together out there is a long pull from right now and will take some serious $$$$$.

[BobbyB]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
He was just as "reckless" much of the time in F3000 last year.

Then we must not have been watching the same series. Howcome everyone is determined to pre-judge how Townsend will do in the coming year? Many seem to be stuck in the past here, which I find disgusting. I'll be laughing the loudest if he lands a ride and kicks some derrier.