Edmonton Gets Champcar Race

sgjb · 28 Oct 2004, 12:13 (Ref:1138784)

http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story.asp?id=102937

It seems as though Edmonton will host the race in Alberta. The airport course will be entertaining thats for sure.

Cowboy · 28 Oct 2004, 13:01 (Ref:1138842)

Here is today's headline from the Edmonton Journal
"City of Champ Cars: It's Official"
The Edmonton group signed a 3 year deal with a 2 year option.
You can read it for yourself at
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmon...e-705ca3d507d1

Snrub · 28 Oct 2004, 15:42 (Ref:1139050)

Sweet. Good to hear it. Sounds like Molson WILL be involved.

The Edmonton Journal article mentions one thing that concerns me: "Macdonald kept gloating to a minimum as he needs to attract race fans from Calgary, not repel them, if the event is to attract the 120,000 spectators necessary to make it a financial success." That's a fair number of people for a medium sized city, realistically they need to pull in substantially more than that.

macdaddy · 28 Oct 2004, 18:38 (Ref:1139155)

The schedule has been released, and they are indeed travelling to Edmonton!

Omega99 · 28 Oct 2004, 19:23 (Ref:1139204)

Woo! But seriously, Calgary would have made 10 times more sense. There's just no suitable venue. Maybe in a couple of years....

As for Edmonton, I'm living there right now, so maybe I'll extend my stay over the summer... Should be sweet. I'll finally attend a champ car race.

luke · 28 Oct 2004, 19:45 (Ref:1139222)

If Pureto rico does go a head there will be 3 Airport circuits!

macdaddy · 28 Oct 2004, 19:51 (Ref:1139226)

I read something very recently, which seemed to indicate that there is a plan in place to ensure that the Edmonton airport does not have to be closed down for the race weekend. If this is the case, then the layout options may be quite limited.

IMO, in a perfect world, every street race would take place on the local airport!

macdaddy · 28 Oct 2004, 19:57 (Ref:1139229)

BTW - I've changed the title of the thread.

"Edmonton appears to get ChampCar race" is no longer accurate!

Edmonton · 28 Oct 2004, 20:05 (Ref:1139238)

Quote:

Originally posted by Omega99
Woo! But seriously, Calgary would have made 10 times more sense. There's just no suitable venue. Maybe in a couple of years....

As for Edmonton, I'm living there right now, so maybe I'll extend my stay over the summer... Should be sweet. I'll finally attend a champ car race.

Calgary has never supported motorsports. Infact there are many stories comming out from there that after 05 RaceCity is toast.

BTW in the early 70s CanAm got 40000 spectators when the whole edmonton and area only 300000 people-now the area has over 1million.

extreme · 28 Oct 2004, 20:31 (Ref:1139251)

Macdaddy. There used to be a CASCAR race at that the airport and the layout allowed for a runway to remain open. I cant remember the exact layout but it did seem to be fairly good. Im thinking that they will probably use the same layout.

Edmonton · 28 Oct 2004, 20:36 (Ref:1139255)

Quote:

Originally posted by extreme
Macdaddy. There used to be a CASCAR race at that the airport and the layout allowed for a runway to remain open. I cant remember the exact layout but it did seem to be fairly good. Im thinking that they will probably use the same layout.

And you could see all of the track from the grandstands including what they called the comming at you strait just before the final hairpin.

Omega99 · 28 Oct 2004, 21:03 (Ref:1139275)

Quote:

Originally posted by Edmonton
Calgary has never supported motorsports. Infact there are many stories comming out from there that after 05 RaceCity is toast.

Calgary has never suported motorsports? What motorsports? Race City is a pretty lousy venue and it's some distance out of the city right next to the dump. And I don't think there has ever been a world class racing sereis there, such as CanAm or champ cars. You drop a champ cars race in the middle of the city and watch the people show up in the hundreds of thousands like they do for the Stampede.

And I'm by no means saying Edmonton won't be able to support the race. On the contrary, fans of anything in Edmonton are among the most enthusiastic in the world. (Definietely better than Calgary's. And I was raised in Calgary so that really says a lot.)

I think that Calgary makes more sense based exclusively on the corporate exposure. Oil companies everywhere. Yes Edmonton has the same oil companies, but all the executives hang out in Calgary. I just think there would be more of a chance of attracting sponsors, but I could easily be proven wrong.

Bring on the race in Edmonton!

macdaddy · 28 Oct 2004, 21:23 (Ref:1139297)

I agree with your post, Omega. Calgary is most certainly one of Canada's corporate capitals. To be honest, I was surprised to see that the race is going to Edmonton. I'm glad though, in that Cleveland has forced me to LOVE airports!

Hopefully Gretzky gets to call, "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!!"
(I'm assuming that Edmontonians don't hold a grudge?)

Bringing this slightly off-topic, but I was watching one of my taped races a few months ago, it was Vancouver in 97, and there was a pre-race interview with Andrew Craig. The entire content was regarding the liklihood of it being Vancouver's last race. What I'm trying to say is that we've been speculating over Vancouver every year for many years. It really comes as no surprise to me that it's gone. It's a shame though, Vancouver is perhaps our most beautiful big city, and it is pretty "big" (in Canadian terms!).

Bring on Edmonton, I say! The layout will be incomparably better, although the heritage (Moore) will be lost.

Has there been concrete confirmation that Molson will be involved?

extreme · 28 Oct 2004, 21:42 (Ref:1139304)

Yeah Edmonton you could see the whole track but there was nowhere near the 120,000 People that this group wants to be there. There was less stuff at that race. I fully expect there to be stands at almost every corner of this track. Unlike Cleveland this track doesnt have to worry about full fleged air traffic, and they will be able to keep one runway closed for at least a week.

Edmonton · 28 Oct 2004, 22:38 (Ref:1139347)

Quote:

Originally posted by macdaddy
I agree with your post, Omega. Calgary is most certainly one of Canada's corporate capitals. To be honest, I was surprised to see that the race is going to Edmonton. I'm glad though, in that Cleveland has forced me to LOVE airports!

Hopefully Gretzky gets to call, "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!!"
(I'm assuming that Edmontonians don't hold a grudge?)

Bringing this slightly off-topic, but I was watching one of my taped races a few months ago, it was Vancouver in 97, and there was a pre-race interview with Andrew Craig. The entire content was regarding the liklihood of it being Vancouver's last race. What I'm trying to say is that we've been speculating over Vancouver every year for many years. It really comes as no surprise to me that it's gone. It's a shame though, Vancouver is perhaps our most beautiful big city, and it is pretty "big" (in Canadian terms!).

Bring on Edmonton, I say! The layout will be incomparably better, although the heritage (Moore) will be lost.

Has there been concrete confirmation that Molson will be involved?

Moore came up here a few years ago in guest car for iceracing much like the Unsers did as well.(Okay not much heritage

)

Dov · 28 Oct 2004, 23:13 (Ref:1139370)

Here's a small pic of the Edmonton City Centre Airport map:

If you prefer a bigger one, here it is (pdf file):LINK

Omega99 · 29 Oct 2004, 20:44 (Ref:1140183)

In today's Edmonton Sun the front page of the sports section has a guy pointing at the proposed circuit.... the guys arm blocked the bottom right corner there so I just guessed that it would be a double apex type corner. I'd attatch the image that I made of it in paint, but my browser is being kinda wierd right now. It looks like an ok layout, but there really isn't a turn like turn 1 at Cleveland, which is the best part of an airport course. I'll post it later when I fix the problem.

macdaddy · 29 Oct 2004, 20:58 (Ref:1140191)

Images can not be uploaded to the new 10T's server right now, Omega. Perhaps that's the problem you're having. Any pictures that you see in threads are hosted third-party and linked into the reply.

macdaddy · 29 Oct 2004, 21:22 (Ref:1140205)

Looking at this map, I see that the airport is right in the middle of the city! It can't help but to attract a big crowd!

Also notice that, just miles away, is another airport named "Villeneuve". I just thought that ironic.

codename_47 · 30 Oct 2004, 00:55 (Ref:1140291)

Airport tracks just have to create a good layout for racing....they just HAVE to....and (speaking from a selfish point of view since I'm only going to be seeing this race on T.V.) That's all that matters!

Oh...and putting on a great show for the large number of fans that attend, of course!

Dov · 30 Oct 2004, 02:05 (Ref:1140316)

I'm going to start posting some images of Edmonton City Centre Airport. From Airliners.net:LINK

Btw, click on the little pop-up box in the bottom right corner of the image to make it bigger or smaller.

Here's a nice aerial image of the Edmonton City Centre Airport:LINK

Dov · 30 Oct 2004, 02:23 (Ref:1140318)

This image of Emonton City Centre Airport was taken in July or August. From Airliners.net:LINK

This is an aerial image of downtown Edmonton and the City Centre Airport far off in the distance. From Airliners.net:LINK

Dov · 30 Oct 2004, 02:38 (Ref:1140320)

Aircraft's final approach into Edmonton City Centre Airport. From Airliners.net:LINK

This image is of runway 30 and the west side of the airport. From Airliners.net:LINK

Dov · 30 Oct 2004, 02:55 (Ref:1140321)

Here's some possible layouts for the Edmonton City Centre Airport track. Thanks to 'EwoksHateTG2' from CCF/CW:

#1

#2

#3

#4

Dov · 30 Oct 2004, 03:53 (Ref:1140324)

Here's the final track layout and my personal favourite:

#5

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