From Speed TV (USA)
Silence Not Necessarily Golden
by: Robin Miller
(SpeedTV) - Paul Tracy will have a hard time contending for another Champ Car title with no team-mate. (Photo courtesy Champ Car)
The silence from the Champ Car office in Indianapolis isn't just deafening, it's in surround sound.
Six weeks before its season opener in Las Vegas, the series supposedly in its year of momentum is awash in questions, rumours and a serious lack of urgency, information, organization and cars.
Forget the fact only eight drivers have been confirmed for 2007, because there are more serious concerns that nobody wants to discuss.
Car count is the most critical area.
Gerald Forsythe, who co-owns the series with Kevin Kalkhoven, has vowed to run only one car this season for Paul Tracy.
RuSport, whose founder Carl Russo has sold/leased his team to Dan Pettit, maintains it hasn't given up on two cars but last week told its mechanics there was a distinct possibility of cutting back to one.
Rocketsports appears to be a one-car effort at this time, and there's even speculation that RuSport will share technical information with Paul Gentilozzi's outfit and eventually might move under one roof in Lansing, Mich.
With MiJack owner Mike Lanigan leaving long-time partner Eric Bachelart, Conquest Racing is scrambling to muster the money for one car.
If these four teams only run one car, and Newman/Haas (who still hasn't officially announced Graham Rahal), Minardi USA, Dale Coyne, Pacific Coast, PKV and Team Australia field their usual complement of two cars, that totals 16.
Or eight shy of Kalkhoven's ceiling (he said last year that no more than 24 cars would be allowed to compete) and two short of the usual grid.
As it stands today, 25 new DP01 chassis have been shipped and the Panoz people reportedly have been told to cease building because there are no more orders coming in. If there were the normal 18 cars and each had one backup, that's 36, so obviously some teams don't have a backup car.
Of course, that's because few have any seven-figure sponsors. The new car might be cheaper, but you've still got to have some cash to buy it.
Now, Kalkhoven and Forsythe swear they're not going to prop up other teams like they've done in the past, but there are some extenuating circumstances which could, or should, get the starting line-up to at least 18.
First off, Forsythe is evidently unhappy that his marketing man has yet to find a sponsor in the past three years and has threatened not to run a second car unless it's funded.
But the loyal car owner from Chicago is going be a lot more upset if Tracy doesn't contend for the championship and/or race wins and, without a good team-mate, the Canadian veteran virtually has no chance against Newman/Haas. Ditto for Wilson, last year's runner-up, who could be saved by a clause in his contract (or sponsor CDW's contract) that calls for two cars and/or a team-mate.
As for the drivers, we know three-time champ Sebastien Bourdais, Justin Wilson, Will Power, Tracy and rookies Neel Jani, Alex Figge, Ryan Dalziel and Simon Pagenaud have seats. We figure Alex Tagliani and young Rahal are all but confirmed, and we assume Katherine Legge will be in one of Coyne's cars and Nelson Philippe will be with somebody.
Oriol Servia and Bruno Junqueira tested well and figure to be in the frame, and it's hard to imagine having a race in Mexico City without Mario Dominguez. Sadly, Andrew Ranger may vanish like Ryan Hunter-Reay, and it's pretty obvious that Champ Car understands nothing about continuity.
The ever-changing driver line-up and lack of Americans is why it's so hard to follow, or care, about Champ Car.
On the business side, all the crowing about a title sponsor for the season opener in Las Vegas has stopped because evidently the deal has come apart.
At the press conference, it was dubbed "The Las Vegas Grand Prix Fueled By VISA" and carried that moniker on the website until a couple weeks ago. Now it's simply the Vegas Grand Prix. No mention of VISA.
And one must wonder if this loss could impact the season finale at Phoenix, which shares the same promoters.
The general lack of information about cars, drivers and races falls in line with Champ Car's overall lack of leadership and communication. The SCCA-flavoured front office is clueless about marketing, promoting and public relations -- not to mention open-wheel racing.
Hirings and firings are totally irrational, just like dumping the pace-car program, losing Ford as an ally, running China during May, taking advice from Gentilozzi, sticking with terrible television production partners and having one race a month from October through December.
What appeared to be a breath of fresh air a few years ago now has that same old, stale taste and reinforces the theory that car owners cannot competently run a series. Especially when one is in California, one is in the midwest and their point man (Steve Johnson) still lives in Kansas and makes it into the office at least four days a month.
Champ Car appeared to have some momentum last summer, but it's evaporated into this amateurish guessing game that sets them further behind the Indy Racing League.
Kalkhoven and Forsythe have spent a lot of money keeping Cosworth, Long Beach, Toronto and the series going, plus they spend a bundle to be on national television. It's big money, and nobody can knock their commitment. But, instead of cutting corners and making bad decisions during these past few months, they should have been locked and loaded on keeping stability in the ranks, bolstering the staff with smart hires and promoting the product -- damn the cost.
But maybe it's become too expensive, even for guys with their wealth. Or maybe they've simply lost interest. Maybe this would be a good time to cut a deal and cut their losses.
Call Tony George, sell him your assets and save money, if not open-wheel racing.
-I had a discussion with someone on this forum before about the CCWS and IRL. I state my case. CCWS looks to be in trouble for sure.
[Edited on 2-3-07 by spark]
Comments
At least the Euro 3000 has a full grid this year.
Does anyone who knows more about this think its accurate??
He honestly hates Tony George, and loves ChampCar, but he's not the kind of guy that'll be a cheerleader while they make mistake after mistake.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/57030
(Quite a good read) Thats also the original version before SPEED edited the AMA and Michael Waltrip bits.
[Edited on 3-3-07 by Clown]
In the land of earthquakes, they were announcements that could only be described as a seven on the Richter scale.
Zsolt Baumgartner named test and reserve driver for Minardi Team USA.
Tristan Gommendy named the second driver for PKV Racing.
Mazda named the official vehicle.
Matt Halliday is testing the Conquest entry.
Holmatro Rescue Tools named title sponsor of the safety team.
Pacific Coast Motorsports unveiled its paint scheme.
Hostess Twinkies named the official pastry.
OK, that last one was a joke but, for the most part, so was Thursday’s Champ Car’s Media Day at Laguna Seca. With the promise of some blockbuster announcements from series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven, the slim media contingent instead received the nebulous news above.
Make no mistake, a month before the season opener at Las Vegas it was good to have Alex Tagliani (Rocketsports) and Gommendy confirmed as drivers to put the official number at 10.
It was also good for Paul Newman and Carl Haas to welcome Mike Lanigan as a partner and now it’s Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, which hopefully is going to officially announce Graham Rahal as the second shoe before he turns 21 (for the record, he’s 18).
But, in terms of newsworthiness, it was hardly “stop the presses” material.
Gommandy evidently got the nod at PKV over veteran Oriol Servia because he’s bringing $2 million from a yet-to-be-named foreign sponsor.
Baumgartner, who once drove for Minardi owner Paul Stoddart in Formula 1, appears to be in line to drive the Minardi two-seat F1 machine at this year’s Champ Car events. That’s about all the seat time he’ll get since testing is very limited by the rules.
Mazda, owned by Ford which had been a presenting sponsor and partner of Champ Car, will supply pace cars and some courtesy vehicles.
And having a title sponsor for the safety team is nice but there’s still no title sponsor for a series that’s desperately in need of money for its teams.
To be honest, the real news here wasn’t the feel-good kind.
Katherine Legge politely declined to participate in Media Day because she says she still doesn’t have a firm deal with any team.
Justin Wilson, last year’s runner-up and Bourdais’ top challenger, arrived at the track to learn his RuSPORT team had entered into a “technical” partnership with Rocketsports and there’s been serious talk of moving the Colorado-based team to Lansing, Mich. Let’s just say the classy Englishman is less than enamored with any and all of that news. Ditto for his crew.
Three-time series runner-up Bruno Junqueira is spending one day in Dale Coyne’s car here, as is Canadian Andrew Ranger, but neither has a seat for the season.
Mexico’s Mario Dominguez showed up to look for work while Nelson Philippe, who scored his initial win last year, is a no-show because his family is not writing any more checks and claims if he can’t be paid to drive, he’ll be a spectator.
Dan Clarke, a rookie in 2006, is pounding the pavement but has nothing yet.
Servia, a loyal veteran of Champ Car since 2000, is also walking around with his helmet but no place to put it.
For the record, that’s a total of seven full-timers from ’06 who are in limbo and, with RuSPORT definitely cutting back to one car, Rocketsports only fielding one and Gerry Forsythe still sticking to his guns about not running a second car without funding, there’s less opportunity than ever before in a series that’s been around since 1979.
Right now, unless some things change drastically in the next couple weeks, it’s looking like 16 starters in the opener at Las Vegas on April 8.
But the best news for Champ Car is that nobody noticed, because Media Day didn’t get a lot of national play. No USA Today. No L.A. Times. No Indianapolis Star. No Las Vegas papers. Not even new broadcast and marketing “partner” ESPN bothered to send anybody.
It was just a quaint little group. Tristan, Zsolt, a few Internet sites, one racing weekly and SPEED. We came, we saw and we shook our heads.
This offseason HAS been a disappointment after the carefully constructed sense of optimism and progress fostered over the past year or two. The series is no longer (supposedly) providing subsidies to the teams and there is fallout and complaining. I think that this was done a year or two too soon and has pretty much wiped out the image building that's happened since KK and Forsythe took over the series. Those guys hiring and looking to hire straight up pay drivers (Tristan Gommerdy?) or in Forsythes case run only one car sends a terrible message. This is the wrong year to blow it from a series standpoint with a new car, new TV, and Mazda sniffing around as well. Providing the appearance of stability CAN lead to real stability and growth.............pulling the plug too soon is like expecting a 3 month old to run an obstacle course.
[Edited on 11-3-07 by dst]
[Edited on 11-3-07 by dst]
Even though I'm one of the the most blindly loyal supporters of the series, it's getting really hard to envision long-term success for Champ Car.