CCWS Off Season Thread

[indycool]

I don't think there's much in the way of event promoters suing. Portland has no contract, according to today's Oregonian. The European races are track rentals and contracts may well not be signed. Think Mexico City's contract was up at the end of '07. Houston and Cleveland, Lanigan is fronting for CC, so those contracts are with the city and those cities would get nothing in a Chapter 7.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...or-bankruptcy/

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by indycool

The European races are track rentals

Are we sure? As i was lead to believe Assen was anything but a track rental.

Originally Posted by indycool

Think Mexico City's contract was up at the end of '07.

For it to appear on the 08 calender, surely there would be a renewal of some sort.

Mexico, Toronto, Cleveland and RA hopefully can make there way onto an 09 schedule.

[paul-collins]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

A merger has to happen now. CC teams and events have had to stop with all the recent events going on. No one will touch a CC event now and in that sense a merger HAS to happen.

Well, I've done my part, by restructuring the forum.

No Rodney King-esque "can't we all just get along," but I expect that we can now start talking about what we want the series to grow into.

Have at it, folks.

[indycool]

Somehow, Assen was "connected." It was running a website called champcar.ns.

Yes, D.R.T., I think they could've put anything on the schedule without a signed contract. A lot of those dates and deals are agreed on but signed later. Since it appears that these talks started back in September, I imagine that CC has been a little careful about what it signs since then. How else does Ansan, Denver, San Jose, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Zhuhai, etc., come unglued without races OR lawsuits? Correction: First Zhuhai promoter still has a lawsuit filed in federal court in Indy.

[indycool]

Yes, paul, it's likely that many hardcore fans of either series will claim a win or a loss and argue about it.

IMO, with one series instead of two, THE SPORT wins.

[Tenoch]

Speaking of the Mexico city race, I noticed that on the TV schedule it is denoted as a Non-Championship round. When did this happen? and if their contract did expire what's the point of keeping a now meaningless race.

[icemachine]

Are you looking at the Atlantics Tenoch? I know it was listed as a non championship/cash bonus round

[indycool]

I just learned that Surfers and Mexico City both have one year ('08) left on their contracts.

[Tenoch]

Originally Posted by icemachine

Are you looking at the Atlantics Tenoch? I know it was listed as a non championship/cash bonus round

that's exactly what I was doing. heh, heh,

Thanks for the clearing that up.

[Chewie-1990]

Heading back to the Team Australia topic
http://www.crash.net/motorsport/cham...egardless.html
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/65110

Walker: "My truck was on its way to Sebring and I turned it round because nobody in Champ Car could tell me what was going on. We've put our energy into IRL and will work toward that until someone can show me that Champ Car is really going to happen.
I'm praying for a merger but you have to be careful what you wish for. It costs about $1.3 million to show up for the IRL races so that's the money we've got to find."

[JohnSSC]

Walker is a pretty steady guy. Been around long enough to have done most of it and seen the rest. If he thinks it (CC) is in a dodgy position, then it likely is.

[blaarg]

February 13, 2008
For the Fans: Walker Racing's Point of View
By Derrick Walker
Over the last couple of days there has been a lot of speculation as to what is happening with Champ Car and Walker Racing/ Team Australia. We are sure that the fans have heard and read a lot of the rumors that are circulating about Champ Car and we thought it was important to give the fans a little perspective on Walker Racing's point of view about the issue of the potential merger and our current status.

First and foremost let's begin with the issue of the merger. From a fan, sport and business point of view, one open wheel racing series in the United States has long been recognized as the only way for a strong series to succeed successfully. Two similar series racing against each other and competing against one another for the same fans, sponsors, race tracks and television packages, really doesn't make sense in today's world. There isn't enough interest in the United States or even in the world for two competing series as similar as Champ Car and IRL are.

It makes all the sense to pull both series together and that's obviously been tried many times before and now there has been a lot of discussion about the possibility of it happening again. However there is great difficulty in being able to pull those series together at this time of the year for IRL or Champ Car.

Logistically on the Champ Car side to restart the series and go racing at the first race is probably easier of the two equations when you look at what has to be done for we as teams to compete in open wheel racing. However if there is a merger all of the Champ Car equipment is basically redundant. It's obsolete because the rules in the IRL are completely different. Teams would have to buy new equipment. For example: cars, spare parts and systems to be able to work the IRL car comes with a price tag of around $1.3 million per driver, so it's a significant investment in equipment. It's also worth noting, in Champ Car we invested on average $1 million in Panoz equipment and that investment would be written off if there was a merger.

From a competitive standpoint Champ Car teams would be at an obvious disadvantage to be gearing up with this new equipment and to be competing again on ovals, racing a completely different specification car with no previous knowledge or information on how to set it up and race it effectively. One could expect that the Champ Car teams, from a competitive standpoint would be a little bit behind initially and slowly over a two year period would begin to catch up and to regain some reasonable level of competitiveness.

On the issue as to whether Champ Car survives or doesn't, here is what we know. We know there has been and continues to be discussions on the possibility of a merger. We know very little else. There are some obvious signs that Champ Car is on hold until these discussions are finished. It's also fair to assume that Gerry Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven have invested a considerable amount of time and effort into making Champ Car a success. So if this merger is to happen, it represents a considerable change in their strategy for Champ Car.

From a Walker Racing standpoint, Craig Gore my partner in Team Australia has expressed many times to continue his involvement in the Team Australia program with Will Power, whether it is in Champ Car or in a merged series. As of yet, those plans are on hold until we know what is happening with the potential merger.

Our interest in the IRL was formulated sometime ago. We looked at the possibility to run two open wheel series cars in our facility again . So the idea of running in the IRL is not a new concept for us and is not a concept that was born out of that fact that there would be a merger or that Champ Car could disappear.

The future for open wheel racing is somewhat uncertain, but the encouraging sign is that all parties are talking. There is nothing that seems to be off of the table at the moment. It's just an awkward time where everyone is on hold and the media is trying to get the story out there to the fans, but it's too premature to be able to tell the story because the discussions really have to be finished before everyone in the IRL and Champ Car know what potentially could happen. If Champ Car continues on and we have the funding, it's very likely that Team Australia would continue, and it's also quite possible that we could successfully secure sponsorship for the IRL and have an IRL program as well.

My last comment from a Walker Racing perspective: we are a small specialized company running in open wheel racing. We are non-political. We see open wheel racing as open wheel racing and we go where our business leads us. If it's in two series or if it's better for the business to be in one series then we will be where we can get the corporate support to be able to keep racing. Thank you for your support as fans and we will do our best to keep you all posted.

http://www.walkerracing.com/

[blaarg]

These words from Derrick make the Crash.net and Autosport article look foolish.

[climb]

Well they rather sound to me as a show of diplomacy

[indycool]

Ugh...Edmonton radio station report on financial status up there.....

http://www.630ched.com/news/news_xml...news_local.cfm

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by indycool

Ugh...Edmonton radio station report on financial status up there.....

http://www.630ched.com/news/news_xml...news_local.cfm

Damn IC I don't know how you get any work done listening to Edmonton AM radio down there in indy.

[indycool]

The magic of cyberspace, ms......this seems to have been a dead day in the rumor mill. I watched the Daytona Twins in a saloon with a bunch of racing people here in Indy and none of them knew anything about the goings-on.....about like Curt's blog on the other thread.

[f1toy]

tony's biggest Asset

[indycool]

The SI swimsuit collection -- 44 of them online of her alone -- is better......

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/

[f1toy]

Originally Posted by indycool

The SI swimsuit collection -- 44 of them online of her alone -- is better......

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/

si swimsuit pics are exploitative and sexist.

danica is a pro racer.

[indycool]

Yes, she is.....doesn't mean she can't be a model or gourmet cook or whatever, too.

[mac]

Originally Posted by f1toy

si swimsuit pics are exploitative and sexist.

danica is a pro racer.

She sure looks in distress in those photos - in fact, in one of them I thought I saw the shadow of a gun pointed at her head.

She looks awesome. She's celebrating it - and so am I.

Good luck to her...

[climb]

Back to racing mateys!

[enemy-ace]

While I have no issue with Danica's photos I think she has to start winning soon or she will end up being the Anna Kounikova of Auto Racing.

[Tenoch]

Originally Posted by enemy-ace

While I have no issue with Danica's photos I think she has to start winning soon or she will end up being the Anna Kounikova of Auto Racing.

Not possible anna was actually attractive. Sure Danica is not bad to look at when she's standing next to Tony Kanaan. She should worry more about her driving and not throwing childish tantrums.

Anyway any word on the so called press conference to announce the merger.