Interesting Article

[Dov]

From Crapwagon:

Grand Prix in low gear, but still in motion

03/24/04

Elton Alexander
Plain Dealer Reporter

There is a pulse with the Cleveland Grand Prix Auto Race.

Even as the Champ Car World Series (formerly known as Championship Auto Racing Teams) reinvents itself with new ownership, struggles with car counts and new business strategies, the race will go on. Champ Car announced its schedule several weeks ago and it had the July 3 race in Cleveland as part of the 14-race slate.

Just as with CART, Champ Car will be responsible for putting on the event. For several months, a variety of local businessmen met with the circuit's officials and expressed interest in being a part of the 23-year-old event. But in the end, no individual or group of individuals could come up with the finances necessary to take over the race.

So there is no local promoter, no business office, no established ticket prices or even a storefront from which to sell tickets. However, former CART administrator Rena Shanaman, who worked alongside former local CGP race promoter IMG, has been hired by Champ Car to be general manager of the event, and moved to Cleveland Monday to get the ball rolling.

She will be in charge of production, sales, marketing and promotions for the race. "I want to insure the race is produced in the best way possible and generates the most revenue possible," she said Tuesday morning.

Because IMG has disbanded its motorsports division, Shanaman will be working from scratch to build a staff. She said the resources are at hand to do that quickly. Many former IMG people are still in Cleveland, she said, along with former CART people familiar with putting on temporary street races.

"Operationally, we will be fine," she said.

"But from a sales and marketing standpoint we are very late. That is where the biggest challenge is. We need to get out and market quickly. We are looking at several sports-marketing agencies, both locally based and nationally, to help sell the event."

While the race will be run on Saturday, as it was last year, it will not be a night race.

"July 4th in this region is very much family oriented," Shanaman said. "We didn't want to compete with that. It is our hope to bring it back as a night race. But, quite frankly, the lead time and the cost is not conducive to do that this year."

Shanaman plans to meet with city officials to coordinate times of other events going on downtown before setting a start time for the race.

An official race announcement with Champ Car and city officials can be expected in early April. There will be three other support races that weekend, Toyota-Atlantic, Trans-Am and Formula BMW. But the continuing open wheel battle with the Indy Racing League and Champ Car has already had an impact on the main event.

Lured by IRL dollars, the Columbus-based team of Bobby Rahal, winner of the first CGP, and the team of Adrian Fernandez recently abandoned the ranks for the all-oval series. So with less than a month to go before the April 18 opener in Long Beach the circuit is not yet up to the minimum of 16 to 18 cars necessary to put on an event.

"We have 14 [car and drivers] confirmed and four others real close," said Champ Car publicist Eric Mauk Tuesday. "We'd like to get as high as 20, but 18 is what we are shooting for."

The 14-race schedule will run from the opener in Long Beach through Nov. 7 in Mexico City, Mexico but will not have a stop at nearby Mid-Ohio. Cleveland will be the only Midwest stop on the circuit.

[Fogelhund]

Thanks for the article Dov.

[macdaddy]

That's twice tonight that I've heard the number "twenty" floated around.
Wouldn't that be great!

[Bizzo5000]

20 would be amazing considering there was talk of only 12 confirmed. How great would that be?