The American Grand Prix Series

[pchall]

Herald.com (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/6096283.htm)

Buried at the bottom of this collection of F1 tidbits are a few intersting comments from Craig Pollack:

BAR-Honda shareholder Craig Pollock, who also fields teams in CART, admitted Sunday he is interested in buying an interest in the struggling Champ Car Series.

"CART has put a business plan toward a private bank and is obviously looking for other investors to take it of the public and privatize it," he said. "I am not denying there is a possibility I could be one."

Pollock and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone met Friday with CART head Christopher Pook and there's been speculation that Ecclestone could purchase the series and put Pollock in charge.

Pollock said CART, in its current form, is "a confusing series." To fix it, he said he wanted to race only on street and road circuits and change the name to the "American Grand Prix Series" to help it gain popularity in the United States.

I cut some additional comments out so Herald.com will get some more hits from you folks. ;)

[Sean O'Gorman]

So in one article, Pollack goes from saying that Ecclestone owning part of Minardi is bad because it is a conflict of interest, and then says that he may become part owner of CART??? I dont get it. :saywhat:

[Ankf00]

It's the ski instructor, what's to say?:mad:

[Railbird]

Thanks for the heads up pchall.

I still think Polock will be the front man for Forsythe and Kalkhovan, not the principal buyer.

[pchall]

Here's Robin Miller's take on Pook in Montreal.

MIller at RPM (http://espn.go.com/rpm/cart/2003/0615/1568383.html)

[mexican]

McLaren Mercedes boss Ron Dennis said he had no problem with it.

"It is an elegant solution to a difficult situation and I am delighted for both Paul and Bernie," Dennis said. "Also, I was pleased to see Bernie do one of those rare acts of putting his hand into his pocket."



:rofl:

[nrc]

American Grand Prix Series? Why, because the other American Grand Prixs have been so successful? :rolleyes: I suppose Watkins Glen would be cool, but do we get parking lot races in Phoenix, Dallas and Vegas, too?

The notion that CART will be competing any less with the IRL for sponsors if they drop their one remaining U.S. oval is just silly. Everyone besides NASCAR is fighting for the same scraps.

[racer2c]

How will CART differentiate itself from the ALMS, besides the obvious car aesthetics. If they are to survive and grow as a road racing only series they need to convince the would be fans that they are America's premier, top tier series, or else they are just another series, buried within the back pages of auto-racing history books.

Will they still run outside the US? I'm guessing they will. They'll hit the stops that can't quite cough up the funds for F1.

They need to change the cars then, just like pchall said in the other thread.

Well, how long before the hard core road racers in a series of all ovals take the high road back to their first love? There has to come a time when they say enough is enough, I can't take it anymore!

But I degriss...

[tllips]

Originally posted by pchall
Herald.com (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/6096283.htm)


Pollock said CART, in its current form, is "a confusing series." To fix it, he said he wanted to race only on street and road circuits...



This is the problem I have with his statements. I like the diversity. If CART loses Fontana, I think they should find a way to get on another superspeedway. I think the wing package in the past was what hurt Milwaukee and Chicago. There were something like 60,000 at the first Chicago race. When it was a parade, few wanted to return. They should keep the new/old wing package that they had in Milwaukee this year and start rebuilding the oval races.

[RaceGrrl]

What's so confusing about a series that races on four types of tracks? It's a test of driver and team skill and adaptability. It's what I love about CART. Change that and you have something else, but it's not CART, and I won't be as interested.

[RaceChic]

Originally posted by RaceGrrl
What's so confusing about a series that races on four types of tracks? It's a test of driver and team skill and adaptability. It's what I love about CART. Change that and you have something else, but it's not CART, and I won't be as interested.

I would agree with RaceGrrl. I will still be as interested in CART if there are no more ovals and/or superspeedways though. I cannot tolerate just the roundy roundy all the time. I would prefer CART to that(IRL or NASCAR) even if it became all permanent road and modified street courses only. I just couldn't help but feel the thrill and excitement of Laguna Seca with all of the elevation changes, especially the climb uphill to the corkscrew with the blind drop out of it. What a rush. Something exhilarating about watching them wrestle with these turbocharged beasts without power this and power that around courses that push their physical limits that keeps me coming back for more. It would be a shame to loose the variety though. A real shame. :)

[JoeBob]

Here's a link to the CART Press Release, if anybody is interested in reading it: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030616/clm002a_1.html

What we're witnessing is legal @ss covering. I'm fairly familiar with the laws on disclosure, as well as corporate transactions. What you're seeing today is step one in CART's privatization. Now that the "For Sale" Sign is on the door for all the world to see, they can pursue some of the deals that have been talked about for a while. I seriously doubt they would put that sign on the door unless they already knew that somebody was interested in buying.

Whenever a public company takes part in a transaction that involves a change in ownership, you must ensure to your shareholders that you're getting the best possible deal. If you don't, it is lawsuit city (and there's almost always a shareholder lawsuit, but exploring all options is the key to winning that lawsuit.) Even if they have a solid offer from Bernie, they need to be able to prove in court that his deal was the best possible deal. Thats where Bear Stearns comes in. They'll be able to provide an independant analysis of any sale and ensure the shareholders are getting the best deal. What they're likely to do is take an existing offer to other possible buyers (likely other competitors in the market, like IMS and NASCAR) and give them an opportunity to make a higher bid.

Part of the sales process also means disclosing financial information about the company. They can't disclose that to potential buyers without also disclosing it to shareholders. Hence, laying it all out in today's press release. (It will also show up in an associated SEC filing, if it hasn't already.)

[racer2c]

Interesting JoeBob. It's funny to me to think that NASCAR would actually be in the running to purchase CART.
Theoretically, couldn't some major player step in to thwart the sale to the would be owner that CART wanted i.e. Tony, or the dude that owns Virgin or something like that?

[racer2c]

How would this new series affect the US Grand Prix? Would Bernie try to put the AGPS in at Indy (which I doubt) or more likely, F1 gets Long Beach.

[JoeBob]

It doesn't mean that they're in the running to buy it. It just means that they're given an opportunity. I worked for a company that went private (the company was approached by an investment bank that wanted to buy) and in the SEC filing about the offer, it was revealed that the company retained a bank to search for better offers. That bank went to the company's (larger) competitors and asked if they were interested in buying the company. They were not, but it was enough to satisfy the shareholders that they had looked for better deals.

When you ask yourself, "Who might be interested in purchasing the company?" The first guess is always the competition. I don't think there's any way you could pass the "Did we exhaust every opportunity to get more money for the company" test withough asking NASCAR, IMS, Panoz, etc if they're interested. And, if one of them is, Bernie and friends can always raise their bid.

(I also wonder if some of the additional disclosure was intended to discourage other offers.)

[nrc]

Right, CART has to make sure that they can't be accused of handing the keys to the company over to their pals without allowing any other parties with a potential interest the opportunity to kick the tires and make a bid.

That was predictable based on the comments from this weekend. What I found surprising was their guidance. They say they have money for 2004 but 2005 may be a problem. I would have guessed that they might start 2004 but not have the cash to get through it. Analysts at the accounting firm of Wilke, Collins and Bond predict that they'll run out this year.

I haven't plugged their guidance numbers in to see whether they add up yet, but I suppose it's possible that they're giving rosey guidance to avoid accusations that they deliberately buried the stock price with doom and gloom.

[chop456]

Originally posted by nrc
Analysts at the accounting firm of Wilke, Collins and Bond predict that they'll run out this year.


:laugh:

[Dr. Corkski]

Hey, at least Jargon Joe wasn't stupid enough to actually pay Patrick Lemarie to do anything other than skiing like the Idiot Ski Instructor did. :thumdown:

[racer2c]

Originally posted by Dr. Zhivago
Hey, at least Jargon Joe wasn't stupid enough to actually pay Patrick Lemarie to do anything other than skiing like the Idiot Ski Instructor did. :thumdown:

I knew it! CART is going belly up because of Lemarie! :mad:

[sundaydriver]

Originally posted by racer2c
How would this new series affect the US Grand Prix? Would Bernie try to put the AGPS in at Indy (which I doubt) or more likely, F1 gets Long Beach.

Bernie getting Long Beach.. hmmm.

:cool:

[Treeface]

Speaking of other buyers I'm would think Bruton Smith & Co. would want to take a look. They need to get out from under NASCAR dependency.

[JLMannin]

Originally posted by nrc
Analysts at the accounting firm of Wilke, Collins and Bond predict that they'll run out this year.

Bond has made his 7th annual "CART won't turn a wheel" predicition for next year.

BTW, he has been wrong the last six times, but who's counting?

[Jag_Warrior]

Originally posted by Treeface
Speaking of other buyers I'm would think Bruton Smith & Co. would want to take a look. They need to get out from under NASCAR dependency.

It's been speculated that SMI will go after Dover Motorsports. Plus they've built several dirt tracks near their speedways to accomodate WoO and Hav-A-Tampa (or whatever it's being called now). Bruttie wants one near Bristol, but wants the city/state to help him pay for the construction.

SMI lost big-time playing with the IRL a few years ago. I doubt he wants anymore of open wheel formula car racing... especially CART. And he's somehow tied in with the new TRAC series... which will probably never turn a wheel. SMI will lose the Winston (the race and probably the date/location) next year(?). He does need to open other revenue streams away from NASCAR, but I don't know what they might be.