Say Something UPbeat about CART

[Liz]

I have just come back from a very good weekend at the Montreal CART race and I have a great deal of faith in the series. Because there are many good things we can say about the series we love, why not have an official Good News About CART thread to say it in?

If rush1 and corkholio come here with trash talk, let us ignore them.

=================

I've been to Brands Hatch, Toronto and Montreal this year and I've seen almost all the other races. The CART people have been very friendly and easy to deal with -- and in one case where the paperwork got mixed up (okay, two cases) the people on site were quick to sort it out right then and there and were easy to work with. In one case where someone behaved officiously to one of our writers, the CART people straightened the problem out immediately and saw that the troublemaker was reprimanded. The drivers have all been friendly and accessible, as have the owners, and some have gone out of their way to make life easy for the fans, the press and the other competitors. I saw Adrian Fernandez stop a headlong rush to the grid to speak with and pose for photos with fans; I saw the Players guys mobbed by press, fans and heaven knows who else, and keep smiling and treat everyone as if he or she was the only one there. CART fans are known by the drivers to be polite and to thank them for taking the time to sign autographs or pose for photos out of hours, and to be understanding when they can't. And they give good value for the price you pay.

Although I am a sports car girl at heart, I have high praise for CART and hope all those who can no longer attend a Grand Prix in Montreal will come to the CART race next year.

[marcus]

ok , the cars sound great dont they ?

Ive never heard them up close and personal but to me at montreal they sounded a treat on TV.

was very impressed with the race (allthough I wanted tags to win)

ok hows that ?

[brightline]

At St. Pete this year, everyone was very accesible, team members would see you trying to take a picture and drop what they were doing so you could get a good shot in the pits. Carl Haas and Chris Pook and Paul Tracy were all milling around the paddock, and where else but in CART can you use the port-a-potty next to(or if you're brave after)drivers like Max Papis, not F1. The tech guys were more than happy to explain what they were measuring or weighing after Saturday qualifying. What else...oh yeah nobody thought there would be 19 cars this year, Rocketsports is very competitive, decent rookie battle, good championship battle, and no serious injuries. Who's next?

[Superunknown]

Originally posted by Liz
I have just come back from a very good weekend at the Montreal CART race and I have a great deal of faith in the series. Because there are many good things we can say about the series we love, why not have an official Good News About CART thread to say it in?

If rush1 and corkholio come here with trash talk, let us ignore them.

=================

The drivers have all been friendly and accessible, as have the owners, and some have gone out of their way to make life easy for the fans, the press and the other competitors.

Errm, that broke just about every rule known to man... consider yourself on notice.

[varsitypride3]

I was at montreal, and the cars sounds ****ing awesome. They make me giggle like a little school girl. The atmosphere was great, the action was amazing, and it was worth every second and dollar I spent on it.

[champcarman]

It is not hard to find plenty of good things to say about CART. Most of the Team owners are good guys and there are plenty of good people involved in the Series. What I find hard to understand is how a Series that consistently produces great racing between the nicest race cars in the world and pulls huge crowds to most events can be in trouble? Surely the popularity of the Series is shown by the excellent turn up at most Rounds. The powers that be are surely using this as a selling point for the Series with sponsors, TV and possible venues. In Australia we used to have good coverage of CART on Pay TV but this has now been replaced by IRL coverage which nobody in Australia is interested in! If nobody turns up to watch any sporting event then that code is generally considered to be in trouble and will have trouble selling itself to sponsors but CART is not in that situation. So what the hell is going on?

[Tailwind]

Champcarman...excellent name! If you figure out the answer to that question, let us know becaus ea lot of people are scratching there heads on that one.

Great things about Champ Cars. I love watching them smoke the tires as they pull out of the pits, engine roaring, tires squealing, and then you smell the burnt rubber and burnt fuel. That is so cool!

[macdaddy]

ChampCars are many things. They are sounds. They are smells. They are colours. They are power. They are speed. In short, they are an experience.

Everybody in the circle is your friend. From the person in the campsite beside you to the person in the grandstand in front of you (Yes, the guy over whom you've just spilled your beer), from the team owner to the driver to Joe the mechanic, everybody is approachable, friendly and enthusiastic.

The first time I armed myself with a pit/paddock pass I was truly amazed. And so were my friends, (fans of stick-and-ball), when I came home with a pile of pictures and autographs. Try getting those at any other top-level sport!

A day in the paddock has left me with autographs such as Sir Stewart, Zanardi, Emmo, Mario, Montoya... How many F1 fans can claim that?

CART takes good care of its fans, too. Case-in-point was when TSN totally botched their coverage of last year's Fontana500. I emailed CART to complain, and the next day it was responded to from head office. Within 12 hours after that, a FedEx truck pulled into my driveway and handed me the entire race on VHS, with CART's apologies.

For all intents, CART racing is the only sport I watch. And like many of us here, it's something that I live and breathe. That becomes glaringly obvious the moment one steps onto my front porch, and even moreso when one steps into my house.

I LOVE THE SMELL OF METHANOL IN THE MORNING.

[f1manoz]

CART RULES!!!

Upbeat enough for you?

Best cars, best drivers, best circuits, diversity, best crowds, best racing, fantastic sounds and a very bright future.

[Jay]

champcarman, macdaddy, you guys have it outlined perfectly! This is the best racing series in the world for my money! The cars are not robots like in Formula One - seriously you would fall asleep watching a practice session in F1, whereas in Cart there are constant lockups, tiresmoking, guys getting it sideways - Champcars are real beasts to drive and it makes it great to watch. To quote one former F1 test driver, it's become a bit like playing a video game.

And if you go to the races, I don't think I have to tell you why Cart is worth fighting for... $100-200 you can get a nice grandstand seat and full paddock access - you can meet Mario (all of 'em), Emmo, Paul Newmann and all Cart drivers - and they are all willing to sign autographs in their spare time (don't get them when they're busy - they have work to do).

And anyone who has had the pleasure of dealing with Cart's full time staff will tell you they are some of the friendliest people you'll meet at the track. Amazingly helpful, always thinking of others - whether they be fans, media or team members (though the fans come first!). macdaddy's story is an excellent example of that, but there are many more, especially at the races.

To top that off, most of Cart's races have huge crowds that love the racing. Unlike in the IRL, Cart fans were not forced to buy Cart tickets to get a Nascar ticket or something else - they are 100% Cart fans. It's a shame that such a series can be in bad shape, and would be the death of professional open-wheel racing in North America if anything were to happen to it.

[Jay]

Something positive from Robin "I bash all" Miller:

After talking with Forsythe, Kalkhoven and Gentilozzi over the weekend, I'm convinced there will be a CART in 2004 (probably 15-16 races with no Europe and only one oval) in partnership with Trans-Am and rock concerts. Will it be the diversified challenge it's been the past decade? No, but I guess the object is to go where people want them and are willing to pay (sanction fees).

That would be the goal anyways...

[Bizzo5000]

Something positive? Did anyone see the attendance at Nazareth compared to Montreal? I think that's pretty positive.

[Liz]

Why don't the other guys release their attendance figures?

[Flatspot]

Why don't the other guys release their attendance figures?

They haven't figured out how to add toes to fingers yet.

[Jay]

I don't know how accurate they'd be anyway, considering ISC forces many people who want to buy Nascar tickets to buy IRL tickets. Also, IRL tickets are a LOT cheaper than Cart tickets and many more freebees are given out. So, it's a tough call there...

[Testure]

Originally posted by Liz
I have just come back from a very good weekend at the Montreal CART race and I have a great deal of faith in the series. Because there are many good things we can say about the series we love, why not have an official Good News About CART thread to say it in?

Well, I'm just back from Montréal myself and I can't say enough good things about CART...

Top of the list has to be the openness of the entire operation. Drivers, mechanics and officials were all incredibly friendly. Sébastien sitting on the ground outside his motorhome chatting and signing autographs after Saturday qualifying. Patrick apparently sitting in on drums with a band after Friday qualifying. Watching CART technical inspections. Stood for way too long watching the Conquest mechanics stripping their car on Friday afternoon. Fascinating stuff.

The cars themselves. They look good in pics and on TV, but good grief they look gorgeous up close in real life. Far, far sexier to my eyes than recent F1 cars, though I know some would disagree with me there.

Price of tickets - great value for money.

Lots of nice people at the track and around the city for the race. People from the U.S. in particular seemed really into their CART Plenty of Vasser and RHR fans from the U.S. were around us in stand 12. Had a great chin-wag back at our hotel with a couple of guys from New Jersey about oval racing and NASCAR (decidedly not fans). On the other hand, lots of the locals at the track didn't seem to know much beyond who the Canadian drivers were. There were too many people there just baking in the sun, drinking, smoking cannabis, ogling women and talking non-stop other than to cheer when a Canadian driver passed by. That got old quickly.


Only real disappointment was the sound of the CART engines. They sound terrific on TV, but they're quite a bit quieter than F1 engines in real life. They didn't seem too much louder than the Atlantic cars to me - I guess that's one of the side-effects of being so much less expensive. Maybe they were louder last year?

Couple of pics:
Bruno's car
Sébastien after Saturday qualifying

[The Snout]

Originally posted by Liz
Why don't the other guys release their attendance figures?

Aww hell, they just leave us to count a couple of heads for ourselves.

Seriously though, we have a group of real racers interested in running CART and while the guys who left have a lot of names and money, I've felt so much better this year watching real racers rather than jump where the money is racers. Looking forward to '04.

[Emfa]

Here's something quite positive from the Gold Coast Bulletin regarding Surfers. (Thanks to vatuloa in the Aussie V8 forum for this.)

"Surfers set for top billing"
"THE high-powered consortium behind the takeover of the American company which runs the Gold Coast Indy says it will bill the Surfers Paradise race as the 'jewel in its crown' next season."
(Written for an Aussie audience, of course ) http://www.gcbulletin.com.au/news/news.htm#4436

[¡As-de-mim!]

"I really can't go into any detail about the deal but we're talking to CART and let's just say the negotiations are going along very nicely," he said.

Is it just me or does KK sound kinda undecided about C^RT's future.

[The Snout]

Originally posted by ¡As-de-mim!
Is it just me or does KK sound kinda undecided about C^RT's future.

KK and co. will buy it and the doomsdayers won't answer the bell in 2004.

[Bizzo5000]

I think he sounds pretty much decided. He's going to be an owner. That's it, that's the list.

[Jay]

Originally posted by Testure
Only real disappointment was the sound of the CART engines. They sound terrific on TV, but they're quite a bit quieter than F1 engines in real life. They didn't seem too much louder than the Atlantic cars to me - I guess that's one of the side-effects of being so much less expensive. Maybe they were louder last year?

Yup! The Cart cars are lower revving this year, therefore quieter sounding. They are indeed quite a bit quieter than F1, and to my ears at least, when at full song, are on par with Atlantic and those dreadful sounding Barber Dodges.

As for Surfer's as teh Crown Jewel, that's a tough call... When you have events like Long Beach, Montreal, Toronto, (and St. Petes looked like a winner!), it's tough to chose... But, Surfer's is definatley up there.

[Kurt Maxwell]

Ummm...they helped the economy of Indianapolis by moving there and funding the teams, many who are based there.

[norman-normal]

Putting a turbo on an engine is like putting a muffler on it. The turbo drops the sound level about 12to15 decibels.

[Radioshoes]

Although I haven't had the opportunity to see a race live (the Toronto date is never convenient for me), I love watching it. It's exciting even if nothing seems to be happening. I can't say why. I like the mix of drivers and the mix of personalities. The cars are the best looking of all the open-wheel racers, imho. And they just sound fast, even on tv.

Can I also say something nice about this forum? Please? I puruse other forums but this one seems to be the most down-to-earth group. There doesn't seem to be any self-congratulatory back patting if we get a rumour right, nor any crowing if another forum gets a rumour wrong. The positive CART vibe isn't at the expense of anyone or anything, or so it seems to me. Maybe I haven't been here long enough to see it. Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate everyone on the forum and how I also appreciate everyone's seeming maturity.

Cheers