Race in Buenos Aires a step closer

[Muzza]

Just posted at the (very good) Brazilian racing news website Speed On Line:

http://www.speedonline.com.br/montat...ql_query=14659 (in Portuguese)

"Buenos Aires close to host F-CART [sic] in 2005

by Luiz Rodriguez


The rumours that Formula CART will have a race next season in Buenos Aires, Argentina, are getting stronger. The race would be take place at the Autódromo Oscar Gálvez, which has not held a major event since 1998, when it hosted a Formula 1 race.

Local officials, including Buenos Aires Sports Secretary, Jorge Rappaport, attended the recent [Champ Cars] race in Denver and are negotiating with Champ Car concerning a race in March, likely opening the 2005 season.

If on one hand Buenos Aires wants Formula CART as a way of recovering its international appeal, the attraction is reciprocal - since the series has plans for a return to South America.

One of the still pending issues are the costs of organizing a single event in the continent, and an agreement regarding an event in Brazil would be fundamental to reduce such costs."


Comment by Muzza: Champ Cars is known in Brazil as Fórmula CART or Fórmula Mundial.

[Snrub]

They've got to get atleast one CART race in South America, but I would think Brazil is the better canidate. Anyone know if Brazillian TV ratings holding steady from last year?

Was does "Mundial" translate to in english?

[Dov]

Here are some layouts available:

First the 1998 F1 version (2.646 miles)


Second without the infield (1.516 miles)


Third with some infield. (2.079 miles) Almost correct as Tobogan has been replaced by Senna.

[Amar7605]

Looks like a pretty wicked circut. Thanks for the pictures, Dov!

[mountainstar]

Buenos Aires would be awesome. Great country with a strong passion for racing. And argie girls are splendid(speaking from 1st hand experiences). A round of TC2000 would be a great addition to the weekend.

[stmookeyj033]

If somehow we keep Mazzacane in the series then it would be even better. We definitely need some sort of South American presence in the series and either Argentina or Brazil would be an ideal venue to host a race.

(It also adds another race to the Southern Hemisphere, a largely untapped market).

[N I Tram]

Only your hand has experience of Argentinian girls?

I think Mundial means 'world'.

Two South American races back-to-back would be good progress - the Brazillian races in the past did extremely well, and it might tempt more Brazillian drivers into the series to join Haberfeld. The Argentinian F1 races did okay, and I beleive the economic problems which largely scuppered the event in the late 90s have subsided. With Mazzacane in the CART field, it could do well.

[Snrub]

Originally posted by N I Tram
Only your hand has experience of Argentinian girls?

LOL that's great. I think you're pushing the boundries of the "family" nature of this forum (BTW: Does anyone read 10/10ths with their kids?).

Is Mazzacane finishing 17th really going to draw any extra fans to the stands?

[Muzza]

Originally posted by Snrub
They've got to get atleast one CART race in South America, but I would think Brazil is the better canidate. Anyone know if Brazillian TV ratings holding steady from last year?

Was does "Mundial" translate to in english?

Hello, Snrub,

I talked to two friends (journalists) in Brazil today and they confimed what I had heard: unfortunately, local audience ratings obtained by Champ Car races have been quite low.

As you may know, Brazilian Stock Cars (which bare no similarity to NASCAR; they are rather close to Australian V8s) are finally being professionally managed and promoted; this category, which had been the most popular local series for the last twenty so years, has seen its audience go "over the roof". This - and, more important, Champ Cars's decline itself (let's not blame the other's fortunes for its woes) - has kicked Champ Cars, quite frankly, close to oblivion.

(this is not an exaggeration. Also, please read my old postings in this forum about how important the series was in Brazil some eight years ago - to the point of rivalling with Formula 1 for tv ratings! - and one will comprehend better my point and my disappointment with the current situation)

Mundial means global, worldwide; it is the adjective related to the noun world. It was a locally created moniker; the local press (and everybody else there for that matter) continued to call it Formula Indy - as CART was always known in Brazil - after the 1996 split. But then the IRL sent some nasty letters to tv stations and newspapers telling journalists that it (the IRL) was the sole owner of the rights on the word "Indy" for sports promoting purposes and a new name was needed.

Formula CART would have been much better (most Brazilians associate the word formula to open-wheelers, single-seaters, which is obviously wrong), but some brilliant mind at TV Record (that had the rights to broadcast the series years ago; now it is shown by RedeTV) created this "great" name Formula Mundial...

Cheers,


Muzza

P.S.: Argentinean women are absolutely gorgeous.

P.P.S.: ok, no PPS, this is a family forum...

[luke]

The old f1 circuit -1998 was like a kart track and wasn't very popular OWRS should use the circuit with out the infield.
The first long left sweep would be great to see a Champ Car slipping and sliding around at high speed.

[Muzza]

Originally posted by luke
The old f1 circuit -1998 was like a kart track and wasn't very popular OWRS should use the circuit with out the infield.
The first long left sweep would be great to see a Champ Car slipping and sliding around at high speed.

Luke, my good man...

I have been thinking about that too. You know what? With proper run-off area that (using the Number 15 circuit configuration) would be feasible.

However, the outer loop made by the straights del Lago and del Fondo and by the awesome Curvón have not been used in years (at least not to the best of my knowledge; I don't think any local series has used it recently) and I know as a fact that the pavement at those points of the track is in very bad shape.

Cheers,


Muzza

[Mekola]

Originally posted by Muzza
With proper run-off area that (using the Number 15 circuit configuration) would be feasible.

However, the outer loop made by the straights del Lago and del Fondo and by the awesome Curvón have not been used in years (at least not to the best of my knowledge; I don't think any local series has used it recently) and I know as a fact that the pavement at those points of the track is in very bad shape.

Muzza, the outer loop around the Regatta Lake is used by the Turismo Carretera in their multiple visits to Buenos Aires during the year. They use the Circuit Number 12 (similar to number 15 but without the Mixtos-Ombú-Cajón-Tobogán twisted area), a circuit with long straights and quite a few curves.

[luke]

Originally posted by luke
The first long left sweep .

I meant the circuit with the long first right hand sweep.

If you don't now what I mean click here!
http://www.racingcircuits.net/_series/single.html

circuit number3!

[Muzza]

Dear Mekola,

Thanks for correcting me. I thought TC was using circuit 7 (http://www.racingcircuits.net/Argent...nosAires7.html - but, as you explained, that series uses circuit 12 (http://www.racingcircuits.net/Argent...osAires12.html)

These links point to Dan King's excellent Racing Circuits website. Any contribution (information) to enhance Dan's wonderful work will be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Muzza

[luke]

Or if you can't be bothered Dov has posted it at the top, the third one.

[Tailwind]

Wow. I hope the Buenos Aires race works out. I like the F1 course. Thanks for pointing me toward the "Racing Circuits" web site. There is a lot of great information there.

[luke]

Originally posted by Tailwind
Wow. I hope the Buenos Aires race works out. I like the F1 course. Thanks for pointing me toward the "Racing Circuits" web site. There is a lot of great information there.

Yearh, it is great.
I have been using it for a while now.
Hats of to poor bloke who must of spent hours putting in all the different circuit configurations for loads of different racing series.
Anyway of contacting him!

[luke]

[luke]

Just wondering guys. The race in Argentina next year is rumored to start in about march.
There is the WTCC racing at the circuit there in march also so it could be a double header good news?

[Muzza]

Originally posted by luke
Just wondering guys. The race in Argentina next year is rumored to start in about march.
There is the WTCC racing at the circuit there in march also so it could be a double header good news?

No, as there will no longer be a round of the World Touring Car Championship in Argentina. The local promoters found the fee asked by the FIA too expensive and decided to withdraw the race.

Luke, Dan King - the man behind Racing Circuits, http://www.racingcircuits.net - can be contacted at info@racingcircuits.net.

Regards,


Muzza

[luke]

So there will not be a WTCC race in north or south America then.
Originally there was going to be mexico city, before it was relplaced by Argentina.

[stmookeyj033]

Better off running with Local catgegories anyway.

[Muzza]

I understand you, stmookeyj033.

I don't think there is any sane person that does not believe that motorsports - almost all forms of it - is facing a challenging moment. What astonishes me is the arrogance and greed of organizing bodies and rights owners, asking millions from almost-bankrupt local federations and clubs for the privilege of hosting race...

Take a look what is going on in Formula 1: FOM asked twenty-five million dollars to Canadian promotes for this year's GP du Canada to happen. But even Formula 1 is in a "not-so comfortable" situation: the tactic of picthing one country against another - in a sorts of auction for a slot in the calendar - is no longer working, as the benefits of running a F-1 GP are question more and more often, deeper and deeper. Formula 1 is now going to "exotic countries" (not my choice of words, hence the quotes, but that's how they are called by the media of countries like Germany, UK or France) not only because tobacco sponsorship is allowed, but also because to these markets Formula 1 still has an aura of mystic, charisma and magic that it has seen diminished in most of its traditional stops... The problem, stmookeyj033, is that scores of traditional Formula 1 fans are now saying "ok, so we lose our local GP [say, in France]. So freaking what? Life continues, there are other series to watch..." This really concerns me. Some people in these organising bodies are living so high in ivory towers that they completely lost touch with reality. (any similarity with the fall of CART is not mere coincidence).

The facts that Brazil has all but lost its MotoGP and that Argentina is not going to have a WTCC race - in both cases, because exorbitant fees were asked - are a shame. A shame.


Muzza

[luke]

Well they could run the popular Argentian Touring cars they are popular.

[indycool]

Good post, Muzza.......the international scene for touring series is hitting financial barriers. As I posted elsewhere, the date change of the USGP to follow Canada so the two could share expenses was a help to both.

OWRS has to do "two-fers" on international expansion similarly to make something close to working for everybody.