2003 Provisional Schedule!

[Jay]

Here is the proposed 2003 CART schedule:

Feb. 23, St. Petersburg, Fla.
March 23, Monterrey, Mexico
April 13, Long Beach
May 4, Miami
May 18, Chicago
June 1, Milwaukee
June 15, Laguna Seca
June 22, Portland
July 6, Cleveland
July 13, Toronto
July 27, Vancouver
Aug. 10, Mid-Ohio
Aug. 17, Elkhart Lake
Aug. 31, Denver
Sept. 7, Montreal
Sept. 21, Rockingham (England)
Sept. 28, EuroSpeedway (Germany)
Oct. 12, Mexico City
Oct. 26, Surfers Paradise
Nov. 9, Fontana, Calif.

Of note, an early start to the season with a new date in St. Petersberg FLA. The new Miami event moves up towards the start of the season. Also of note, although there is no event scheduled for the weekend of the IRL 500, the Chicago race will run two weeks before it.

[Peter Scillitoe]

Am I missing something here! I thought that CART were having a race in Washington DC (possibly with the ALMS)?

[Jordi]

not quite, but we're having it at Miami this year

[Jay]

The downtown Miami race later this season (Oct. 4-6) will have American Le Mans and Trans Am as support races... If you can make it, it should be great. Seriously... if I could only attend one race in a year this would be it! Too bad I can't make it...

[macdaddy]

Cleveland - Toronto - Vancouver - Mid-Ohio
Seems like alot of travelling to and from the west coast for just one show. I was expecting to see the races grouped together geographically a bit more than they are. Like why throw Mexico in between Germany and Australia? And the opening round in St. Pete's looks very close to the date of the Daytona 500.

And the layoff times during the early part of the season return again to haunt us. A month between rounds 1 and 2. And then three more weeks until R3. Again, three weeks until R4. After that the schedule tightens up. So again there will be three races from late February until the beginning of May, allowing other series to grab some spotlight.

[Liz]

The ALMS does that too, but in their case it is because of Le Mans, I think. This looks like a sort of haphazard schedule to me -- I would imagine after consultation with the crews and FedEx, they will tighten it up some and also group the races geographically a little -- though I expect they are not running too many races in the same neighbourhood at the same time so as to maximize the audience.

[f1manoz]

Putting races in the month of May is a sensible idea. Remember all the BS stories about CART's demise coming out during that month because they weren't racing!?!?!?

[Muzza]

And no race in Brazil in 2003.

[racer69]

Originally posted by Jay
The downtown Miami race later this season (Oct. 4-6) will have American Le Mans and Trans Am as support races... If you can make it, it should be great. Seriously... if I could only attend one race in a year this would be it! Too bad I can't make it...

I assumed that CART were actually the support race to the ALMS, seeing as the ALMS had the date then did a deal for CART to join them on that weekend, or will it be like Surfers Paradise, where they will have equal staus with the V8s.

Nothing suprising in the Calandar, seems nicely spread over the year, and no 7 races in 8 weeks like this year, which is good for us, but hell for the teams.

[SevenGrain]

If it was up to me, I'd have a third race in May. I'd have it on the saturday before the 500. It could be a two day event so that Thursday is left open for Carb day.

The Media pays a lot of attention to auto racing on Memorial Day Weekend and this is a viable way for CART to get in on it, and still let it's teams run the 500.

Perhaps a venue within close proximity to Indy (Chicago? Mid Ohio? maybe even Cleveland) would make it even easier. In 2000 Ganassi raced in Nazareth on Saturday (date moved due to snow on the original date) and Indy Sunday without compromising the 500 effort (Montoya won).

I would do it...

[mac]

There must be a race in Brazil.

[f1manoz]

Yes, surprising that they still haven't been able to negotiate a race in Brazil. With Brazilian drivers dominating, they should have 2 races there!!!

[Muzza]

Dear All,

Although disappointed, a I am not surprised to see that CART will not race in Brazil in 2003.

Knowing Brazilian motorsport inside out - I grew up there and I was involved with racing and with racing organization in Interlagos for years - the main obstacles are:

1.) Lack of organization (I will put this in simple words to avoid a too long posting)
We Brazilians are known for our friendliness, creativity and "easy-goingness", but organization is definitely not our strong point. Sports organization - in general, from soccer to basketball, being volleyball the only exception - is, simply, a general freaking mess. I cannot even describe this to a foreigner. Even supposedly major events turn to be chaotic. I forgot the number of times that I had to use my own credit card to buy fuel for an event on behalf of the organizers, just to be paid several months later - and I was on my early twenties and dead broke.

The Brazilian Formula 1 GP only happens because Bernie Ecclestone has full rights over the race (it is his race, as simple like that), and because he has a man like Tamas Rohonyi running International Promotions, a company set by Tamas and Bernie to run the race.

Tamas is a very experienced professional, and has a solid business sense. He would be the man to take good care of a CART event in Brazil, but International Promotions is absolutely not interested in doing that. Especially now - or should I say since 1997 - with the approximation between Bernie Ecclestone and Tony George.

2.) Lack of funds
Do not be fooled, Brazil is a poor country. Yes, there are a few rich families there, but about 60% of our 170.000.000 inhabitants have a per capita income of less than 200 dollars a month. It is a place of social contrasts, so severe that it shocks any visitor (sadly many locals are anesthesiaed by denial or simple lack of social concerns).

Just an example: in one of my home-leave trips I was driving in São Paulo with a German friend as a passenger (he's married to a Brazilian girl and they live in Munchen). I had educated him on all security tips needed to survive in the "City That Cannot Stop", including never ever stop at a traffic light at night. I lost two friends in stop light robberies (one of them did not react at all, but was killed with a shot in his head anyway, fired through the window, had his body thrown on the street and his lousy old Chevy Opala taken by the thieves).

So, we stopped at a traffic light at Henrique Schaumann (famous street in São Paulo) and we saw a kid - seven, eight year-old maybe - with a sign saying "Please feed me". He was walking between the cars and he approached a new BMW with a family of four inside, who totally ignored him. My German friend cried out to the point of sobbing.

Anyway, raising funds to run a CART race in Brazil would be tough. Even the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) has absolutely no money whatsoever - it is in shambles. Unless the event is fully backed (note the word fully) by major international corporations, it would be a chimerical to see a CART event taking place there.

For these two reasons - lack of organized structure and of funds - CART races in Brazil always engage the name of a celebrity behind it (sure, this brings media exposure, but I guarantee it is not the main point).

Emerson Fittipaldi is aiming to run the event, but there are two drawbacks: first, he lost a lot of credibility in the CART sphere with the Rio race fiasco, which I approached in other postings. Secondly, he has far too many other business interests. Sharing his time amongst all these activities has proved to be difficult - his messy management of Helio Castroneves career ended in turmoil, with Helio leaving him and being very outspoken about his disappointment.

Note that some weeks ago Chris Pook was very cold-footed in a press conference shared with Emerson on this concern. Fittipaldi was enthused and all over the place, whereas Chris publicly stated that there were "plans only" for a Brazilian race.

Nelson Piquet - a long shot second option-, by his turn, does not have any will to be involved with CART for the time being. Nelson is too engaged in his son Nelsinho career, running the Brasilia track - he would be adamant about running the race there, and CART favors an event in Rio - and with other business interests (as vehicle satellite tracking - good business in a country with so many cargo robberies).

Once again, I recall that Piquet and Fittipaldi parted company in very sour manners when the society they had put together to administrate the Rio track crumbled.

Regards,

[Evilsenna]

What's wrong with them, 1 month without races again
at the start of the calendar!!!!

[MolsonBoy]

Knowing Brazilian motorsport inside out

Thanks Muzza. That was very interesting insight on Brazil and the autoracing scene.

[f1manoz]

At least the calender is spaced out a bit - 4 weeks in a row of racing is a bit much.

[Cart_cutie]

being a girlfriend of one of the team truck drivers, I must say I am pleased to see the toronto race followed by the vancouver race. it is hard to see my boyfriend drvie his ass off from toronto to cleveland, to vancouver, only to go back to ohio. it is all about demographics, CART will not put events in the the same area together for more than 2 races in a row so that more fans will come out. if cleveland and mid-ohio were back to back, stats prove that only 60 % of people would attend only one or the other race, not both. when vancouver is thrown in between, then alot more people will attend both.

[f1manoz]

Muzza,

Thanks for that great piece on Brazilian motorsport organisation (or should that be disorganisation!)

But it is still a shame not to see a race staged in Brazil, where the CART series obviously has great support, and also a country which has supplied an abundance of talent over the years, not just to CART but to all forms of motorsport.

Hopefully within the next few years something can be sorted out so CART can return to Brazil.