RIP Kevin Kalkhoven

[devilmaster]

77.

https://www.speedcafe.com/2022/01/05/former-champ-car-owner-kevin-kalkhoven-dies/?fbclid=IwAR2g5PxgGwTL0JXaOVqOwMR7NwQOCwKn4-aeZGHQtyVmjV-v-DDd6-tiLVs

[TravelGal]

77.

https://www.speedcafe.com/2022/01/05/former-champ-car-owner-kevin-kalkhoven-dies/?fbclid=IwAR2g5PxgGwTL0JXaOVqOwMR7NwQOCwKn4-aeZGHQtyVmjV-v-DDd6-tiLVs

:eek: Oh my. Reading that brought back so many memories. LB 2008 and sitting with so many OC and 7th gear friends at the last Champ Car Fanatics dinner, Hole in the Wall camps, the split, the fight, the day I saw KK and saw the fight had gone out of him (after which the mergification happened quite quickly). Good times, those days. :(

[Kiwifan]

RIP Kevin. A big thanks for trying to save our sport when you did. I did wonder if he had given up towards the end but really appreciate the good years he gave us.

[pfc_m_drake]

I remember wondering to myself how he and Forsythe were going to make ChampCar work. To my amazement, they did - and did a good job, probably for about as long as they could. RIP.

[nrc]

I hadn't even followed things enough to know that his team won the the Mergification 500. Or maybe I forgot. Good for him.

RIP.

[pfc_m_drake]

I hadn't even followed things enough to know that his team won the the Mergification 500. Or maybe I forgot. Good for him.

RIP.Similar to you, I didn't follow very closely, but as I recall, TK's win was with Kevin's team.

[Hard Driver]

RIP. He was a guy who always seemed to be trying hard and fighting for the best for the sport.

[opinionated ow]

Met him at Gold Coast 2006. Seemed a decent guy and he did wonders for the people who worked at Cosworth and PI, saved their jobs and greatly increased their work output. Someone on racer made the point that he and Forsythe (with some input from Gentilozzi) made a world of difference to the eventual merger by sustaining things longer. If the merger had happened earlier it wouldn't have had any CART input and subsequently zero crowd outside of the 500

[TravelGal]

Met him at Gold Coast 2006. Seemed a decent guy and he did wonders for the people who worked at Cosworth and PI, saved their jobs and greatly increased their work output. Someone on racer made the point that he and Forsythe (with some input from Gentilozzi) made a world of difference to the eventual merger by sustaining things longer. If the merger had happened earlier it wouldn't have had any CART input and subsequently zero crowd outside of the 500

This is a very good point and one I hadn't thought of before. I was devastated when it ended and the "sale" included all of the CART/Champ Car history and relevant artifacts. I couldn't see beyond the end to realize that having gotten this far, Champ Car had solidified itself in the mind of the more casual fan and was a force to be reckoned with in the negotiations. It went from the fire sale at the bankruptcy hearing to a real presence in the sport.

[RTKar]

One of the good guys during the split years.

Thanks for trying KK