"Emergency trip" to Phoenix?

[Racing Truth]

Champ Car President Steven Johnson canceled an interview due to an “emergency trip” to Phoenix, where the series has scheduled a race in December. Some observers said there could be trouble with the race there, though series officials denied that.

Yes, the SOURCE is lousy and, IIRC, tends to be anti-CC, but here it is. (http://cms.ibj.com/ASPXPages/6iframes/FrontEndArticlesDetailPage.aspx?ArticleID=01064&NoFrame=1)

Anybody know anything 'bout this? At any rate, I'm sure our boy Stevie has it all under control.:tony:

[Andrew Longman]

I see nothing new in that article except recycled gloom and quotes from unnamed sources close to the series. Cripe, Wilke is "close to the series".

[Racing Truth]

I see nothing new in that article except recycled gloom and quotes from unnamed sources close to the series. Cripe, Wilke is "close to the series".

Agreed, except for the "emergency trip" deal.

[dando]

In other news, the sky is falling. :gomer:

-Kevin

[Ed_Severson]

Speaking as a non-biased reader :gomer: , there's a hefty amount of ******** in that article.

[JoeBob]

For all you know the "emergency meeting" could be a sales pitch to a sponsor.

[Andrew Longman]

For all you know the "emergency meeting" could be a sales pitch to a sponsor.


Of anything the least bit more important that keeping an appointment with the hack journalist.

[G.]

Speaking as a non-biased reader :gomer: , there's a hefty amount of ******** in that article.

Is this part of the bs?



John Clagett, Champ Car vice president of venue development, said excitement in new markets for the series is escalating, and he expects to see solid attendance gains this season.

Champ Car’s schedule has grown from 14 races last year to 16 this year, and Clagett projects 18 races in 2008.

“We’ve added six new venues to our schedule this year, and you can only do that if there is keen new interest from promoters,” Clagett said. “We think when the viewership numbers come in from our new venues and [from TV], we’ll really start to build momentum for 2008.”

:gomer: :gomer:

[Ed_Severson]

Could be ... I dunno. Venue development ain't my department. :gomer:

If you want a ******** checklist, here's a good start:


"the openwheel race series had no confirmed car count" -- Garbage.
"fewer sponsors than usual" -- Also garbage; we probably have *more* sponors now than we did last year.
"sources close to the series said the staff here is being downsized." -- Nobody's been downsized yet.
"it looks as though they’ll be lucky to have 16 cars for their opener" -- Actually 17 at minimum, perhaps 18, with possible expansion after Houston.
"three verified paying sponsors: McDonald’s, Red Bull and CDW" -- I guess we're supposed to believe MediZone, Telmex, Ticketmaster and the rest are on the cars purely out of the goodness of the owners' hearts.
"dumping the pace-car program" -- Not dumped at all, just reconfigured.
"attempting to run a May race in China in competition with the Indianapolis 500" -- Scheduling Zhuhai in May was never about competing with Indy.


We're not exactly out of the woods yet, and we've got plenty of problems to sort out. However, anybody who writes an article with this much misinformation in it automatically pegs the ******** meter. We'll see what happens with Phoenix. I haven't heard dick either way, but I'm inclined to believe the opposite of whatever that clown wrote on general principle. :saywhat:

[Hesketh]

Could be ... I dunno. Venue development ain't my department. :gomer:

If you want a ******** checklist, here's a good start:


"the openwheel race series had no confirmed car count" -- Garbage.
"fewer sponsors than usual" -- Also garbage; we probably have *more* sponors now than we did last year.
"sources close to the series said the staff here is being downsized." -- Nobody's been downsized yet.
"it looks as though they’ll be lucky to have 16 cars for their opener" -- Actually 17 at minimum, perhaps 18, with possible expansion after Houston.
"three verified paying sponsors: McDonald’s, Red Bull and CDW" -- I guess we're supposed to believe MediZone, Telmex, Ticketmaster and the rest are on the cars purely out of the goodness of the owners' hearts.
"dumping the pace-car program" -- Not dumped at all, just reconfigured.
"attempting to run a May race in China in competition with the Indianapolis 500" -- Scheduling Zhuhai in May was never about competing with Indy.


We're not exactly out of the woods yet, and we've got plenty of problems to sort out. However, anybody who writes an article with this much misinformation in it automatically pegs the ******** meter. We'll see what happens with Phoenix. I haven't heard dick either way, but I'm inclined to believe the opposite of whatever that clown wrote on general principle. :saywhat:

In all fairness, since a confirmed car count higher than --- what, 12? --- hasn't been publicized, his comment about "lucky to have 16" is easy to say at this point. You've indicated more: can you share? I'm sure forum feeders would love to have confirmation of 16+ cars.

Of course, less than 18 is a disappointment.

Pace car program: swapping the pace cars for the 2-seater equals dumping the pace car program in my book. Unless I heard wrong, the pace car program is gone --- is that wrong?

I can read the statement about China in May differently, depending on which way the red mist lies. Maybe CC didn't schedule it in May to deliberately compete against Indy, but by default, anything in May *will* compete against Indy.

All in all, not so much a batch of misinformation as available information and semantics. <shrug> Nothing we haven't been discussing for months, ay?

[Easy]

The pace car program was condensed.

[KLang]

Way OT.... Hey Ed, any chance you can get ahold of and share a list of scanner frequencys for this weekend? :)

[Ed_Severson]

In all fairness, since a confirmed car count higher than --- what, 12? --- hasn't been publicized, his comment about "lucky to have 16" is easy to say at this point.

Perhaps, but "lucky to have 16" also indicates there was a real possibility we would not have gotten to that number. Dire as the straits are, I'm not convinced there was ever a real chance we would have been fielding 15 cars or fewer in Las Vegas, despite all the internal pissing matches between the car owners. We've got plenty (and I use that term loosely) of confirmed cars ... its' the driver count which has been lagging.


You've indicated more: can you share?

At this point, no. We've already got 14 sorted -- 2 apiece from Newman/Haas/Lanigan, RSports, PCM, Walker, PKV, Forsythe, and Minardi. That still leaves Coyne and Conquest, who have yet to announce anything. I'll leave it to the readers to connect the dots.


Of course, less than 18 is a disappointment.

Depending on your perspective, even 18 is a disappointment.


Pace car program: swapping the pace cars for the 2-seater equals dumping the pace car program in my book. Unless I heard wrong, the pace car program is gone --- is that wrong?

My understanding is that the pace car program will still be in operation, just in a slightly different form than previous years. It has not, as I understand it, been replaced by the MX2 program, although some of the previously-allotted Fast Lap track time is now occupied by MX2 sessions.


Maybe CC didn't schedule it in May to deliberately compete against Indy, but by default, anything in May *will* compete against Indy.

You can make that argument, but it was never about anything other than trying to fill a gap in the schedule between Houston and Portland. I've already registered my opinion on scheduling the race in May in the first place elsewhere so I won't rehash it here, but right or wrong, its original spot on the calendar had nothing to do with any other motor race anywhere.


All in all, not so much a batch of misinformation as available information and semantics. <shrug> Nothing we haven't been discussing for months, ay?

I'd say sloppy journalism at best, misinformation at worst. Either way, there's plenty there to raise eyebrows. I'll stick to my initial reaction of skepticism until I hear something from a more reputable source than this, but I will say that given the way this off-season has turned out, nothing would surprise me much. :)

[Racing Truth]

Could be ... I dunno. Venue development ain't my department. :gomer:

If you want a ******** checklist, here's a good start:


"the openwheel race series had no confirmed car count" -- Garbage.
"fewer sponsors than usual" -- Also garbage; we probably have *more* sponors now than we did last year.
"sources close to the series said the staff here is being downsized." -- Nobody's been downsized yet.
"it looks as though they’ll be lucky to have 16 cars for their opener" -- Actually 17 at minimum, perhaps 18, with possible expansion after Houston.
"three verified paying sponsors: McDonald’s, Red Bull and CDW" -- I guess we're supposed to believe MediZone, Telmex, Ticketmaster and the rest are on the cars purely out of the goodness of the owners' hearts.
"dumping the pace-car program" -- Not dumped at all, just reconfigured.
"attempting to run a May race in China in competition with the Indianapolis 500" -- Scheduling Zhuhai in May was never about competing with Indy.


We're not exactly out of the woods yet, and we've got plenty of problems to sort out. However, anybody who writes an article with this much misinformation in it automatically pegs the ******** meter. We'll see what happens with Phoenix. I haven't heard dick either way, but I'm inclined to believe the opposite of whatever that clown wrote on general principle. :saywhat:

Thanks Ed. I know it's a lousy piece, though as Hesketh notes we've been discussing some of it ourselves, but I only posted it to look into the PHX deal.

[Ed_Severson]

No complaints on my end with regards to posting it. It's about Champ Car -- open for discussion here. I just think the article itself is pretty spotty, but your disclaimer pointed that out straightaway. :)

As Hesketh said, it really is nothing more than what has been bounced around here and at CCF for the last 3 months ... just seems to me that the entire article was directed at projecting the worst possible scenario on every front, which is not necessarily congruent with reality.

[jonovision_man]

Perhaps, but "lucky to have 16" also indicates there was a real possibility we would not have gotten to that number. Dire as the straits are, I'm not convinced there was ever a real chance we would have been fielding 15 cars or fewer in Las Vegas, despite all the internal pissing matches between the car owners. We've got plenty (and I use that term loosely) of confirmed cars ... its' the driver count which has been lagging.

There was never a "real chance" of 15 or fewer cars because there was never a "real chance" that KK wasn't going to be supporting the grid.

(I accept your other points, I'm sure it's not as bad as the article wants to say)

jono

[Ed_Severson]

Oh, Jesus, I'm a mess. I just quoted myself. :tony:

I was trying to edit a previous post to say that admittedly, finding out the straight story on the pace car deal has been low priority for me and I could be completely wrong on that point, but the way I described it above is how I understand that situation to have played out. I guess I'll find out Friday with the rest of the world.

[Ed_Severson]

There was never a "real chance" of 15 or fewer cars because there was never a "real chance" that KK wasn't going to be supporting the grid.

It really has nothing to do with Kalkhoven at all. As mentioned above, NHLR, PKV, Minardi, PCM, Walker, and the Rucketsports monster were good for 2 each minimum. Coyne, regardless of circumstance, fields 2 cars no matter what. That's 14 for certain. Forsythe was running at least 1, and I don't think anybody believed he wasn't going to run 2. So there's 16 without Conquest and without any subsidies from Champ Car. That's the absolute worst case real world scenario ... claiming that we're lucky to achieve that doesn't pass muster in my opinion.

Like I said before, things aren't exactly all candy canes and rainbows, but the article is more fluff than stuff.

[Gangrel]

Forsythe was running at least 1, and I don't think anybody believed he wasn't going to run 2....

Not sure if I took your words out of context, but just to clarify, Gerry is running Paul for the full season, and has already announced that he is running Mario Dominguez for the first three races of the season, so two Forsythe cars is no longer mere speculation. ;)

[jonovision_man]

It really has nothing to do with Kalkhoven at all. As mentioned above, NHLR, PKV, Minardi, PCM, Walker, and the Rucketsports monster were good for 2 each minimum. Coyne, regardless of circumstance, fields 2 cars no matter what. That's 14 for certain. Forsythe was running at least 1, and I don't think anybody believed he wasn't going to run 2. So there's 16 without Conquest and without any subsidies from Champ Car. That's the absolute worst case real world scenario ... claiming that we're lucky to achieve that doesn't pass muster in my opinion.

Like I said before, things aren't exactly all candy canes and rainbows, but the article is more fluff than stuff.

Agree about the article... still not so convinced on the "16... without any subsidies". Maybe I'm wrong, but from the outside I see a lot of cars with no-name sponsors that couldn't possibly be paying the full shot... the only possible saving grace is ride-buying, and even that I can't see covering the costs running in the millions it takes to field a car. The DP-01 may be cheaper, but we're still talking about several million per entry at least.

I have no doubt some of the team owners are willing to dig into their own pockets to make the grid. That's how Grand Am works. ;) So it may not be as grim as it looks from the perspective of the series ownership.

jono

[SurfaceUnits]

The only Phoenix related news lately is the fact that the sponsor's parent company First Data just received a 30 billion dollar buyout offer from a private equity firm. So yeah, 30 billion is alot to worry about.