Why did this new name take so long?

[ChrisB]

The first time I read that CART would be calling it's top cars as "Champ cars" was in a Gordon Kirby article in RACER in late '97. A year earlier many of us on these forums had a strong hunch that the IRL would start using "IndyCar" as soon as they could in Jan '03. (Which they did)

So CART could have started using and promoting the "Champ Car" term as long as 5 years ago. 5 years ago. Even Pfanner publications (who do RACER) came out with a magazine called "Champ Car" (which is now gone... but at least they saw it fit enough to use the name).

For years these forums have been filled with fans who were suggesting the name change and how badly descriptive the term "CART" was. These arguments even came up many times from non-race fans when the rec.autos.sport.cart usenet group was proposed in the late 90's.

So why didn't it happen? It didn't happen during Andrew Craig, Bobby Rahal, & Joe Heitzler's tenure... Why not?

Did any of the Indy-centric teams who are now gone (Penske, etc) not want it to happen?

Was there any ONE person within the organization who should probably take credit for it finaly getting done? IMO Chris Pook seems a bit too "F1 feeder" focused, so I'm not too sure he was the motivation behind it finally happening.

Did it finally take knowing that the IRL would soon start calling itself "IndyCar" to make CART do something at last?

[Don Quixote]

I swear I remember an interview with Stallone when he was filming "the movie that shall not be named". He said he was trying to get the series to change its name to Champcar in concert with the movie release which at that time was going to be called "Champs". The CART folks would have none of it. Funny how this stuff comes about.

[mnkywrch]

Originally posted by Don Quixote
I swear I remember an interview with Stallone when he was filming "the movie that shall not be named". He said he was trying to get the series to change its name to Champcar in concert with the movie release which at that time was going to be called "Champs". The CART folks would have none of it. Funny how this stuff comes about.

Maybe they didn't want the name of their series linked to the albatross that was Driven.

[Don Quixote]

Mnkywrch, you just wrote the name of the "movie that shall not be named". Shame. But I agree with you, the decision by CART was understandable from the linkage standpoint, and also because it takes alot of time and effort to get everone on board for one of these changes.

[MAXAR RE]

Boys club mentality on the BoD, too much management for changes to go through, and no one willing to make a decision or allowed to make a decision. They even hired that guy from Target's PR dept to run PR for CART, but then he was never allowed to do his job and eventually left the company.

Luckily Pook has come in, gotten power to act from ther BoD on most things, stream-lined the management at CART, and is willing to do what it takes to turn CART away from the black whole it was falling into under Andy and Joe.

CART has made a right turn (see arrow in logo) and is now headed straight up! :cool:

[ChrisB]

They even hired that guy from Target's PR dept to run PR for CART

Now I remember... Pat Leahy had come from Target and was CART's marketing VP. Sometime in mid/late 2000 CART.com had an online thing to post questions for Leahy. Some guy ;) asked whether the new CART logo (which was due in 2001) would prominantly feature the term "Champ car". Leahy responded saying it was still under wraps, but that folks would be pleased when it came out.

Then Heitzler was hired. The story I heard was that Leahy had wanted to market CART in traditional "product branding" marketing, whereas Heitzler had some vague notion that it would be "entertainment/lifestyle" marketing or whatever. Leahy was out, and Heitzler got somebody new.... who was later out when Pook was in. So maybe some "Champ car" branding might have appeared in 2001 if Heitzler hadn't gotten rid of Leahy. Who know?

[damiandoan]

Originally posted by MAXAR RE
Boys club mentality on the BoD, too much management for changes to go through, and no one willing to make a decision or allowed to make a decision. They even hired that guy from Target's PR dept to run PR for CART, but then he was never allowed to do his job and eventually left the company.

Luckily Pook has come in, gotten power to act from ther BoD on most things, stream-lined the management at CART, and is willing to do what it takes to turn CART away from the black whole it was falling into under Andy and Joe.

CART has made a right turn (see arrow in logo) and is now headed straight up! :cool:

The perfect response, except, (and you knew it was coming maxar) the part about Andy & Joe. The BoD & Franchise Board, not Joe & Andy are who are would hold responsible. Even the mighty Pook struggled last year. Now that Cheep, Barry, & the rest are gone CART is moving foward.

:)

DD

[damiandoan]

:confused: Way to much tequila on a Wednesday afternoon perhaps? :eek: :D

DD

[nrc]

There were really two ideal opportunities to make the switch. The first was when CART was forced to drop "IndyCar". They switched from the PPG IndyCar Series to the PPG CART World Series. Using CART instead of "ChampCar" at that point was a blunder. Either they had the notion that "CART" would be marketable or they just couldn't give up the notion of "IndyCar" to move on to something else.

The second opportunity was when FedEx came on as the primary sponsor. That's when they became the FedEx Championship Series. At least by then they recognized that they needed to emphasis the "Championship" idea and seperate the series name from the sanctioning body name. But it could have just as easily become the FedEx ChampCar World Series at that point. Who knows, maybe FedEx didn't like that as much.

[damiandoan]

Maybe reveiwing these past decisions is beyond the scope of relevancy? Ya think? Why the need to go through it? We all know that the former franchise owners had a huge say in everything CART did in the past. Now that these , uh-hmm, individuals have moved on, so should we? no? Gannassi & Penske are back where they belong, sucking TG's toes!

DD