Next Year

[RaceGrrl]

According to a couple of threads at crapwagon, Pook is saying that the sale is expected to be complete on December 18. That leaves a little bit of time to fill out the schedule.

Another interesting tidbit was in the story about CART's HQ possibly moving to Vegas. That story reported that there will be no race at Fontana, and no Lausitz race. I didn't really expect that CART would return to either track, but it would be interesting to know where the Fontana info came from.

It's the off season, things are moving slowly and I can feel the doubt creeping in. Somebody, help.

**I do have to say that the Red Bull/Cheever to CART rumors have been fun. Time for Undera to eat crow. That will be fun- Cheever humiliation and lemming meltdown. Maybe the off season isn't so bad.

[Jay]

There'll be a CART(or equivalent) series next year, but who knows what it'll look like and what we, the fans will go through on the way there. There'll be a ton more rumours, mostly false that will have us pulling our hair out before St. Petes comes. My feeling at this point, is that I have little control over it...and whatever happens to CART, there will always be demand for an open-wheel road/street racing series in North America - so I'm sure there will always be one...even if it's not at the level we'd like.

Red Bull is one of the most unpredictable sponsors in motorsport, and are always rumoured to be getting behind a dozen sponsorless teams and drivers in Europe. I don't know if they'll come to CART, but they should at least leave Cheever (who knows why they were ever there).

Maybe it's time for a motorsports vacation...see you in St.Petes!

[nrc]

And will they be racing in Ohio? We've gone over the MidOhio rumors, where does Cleveland stand? I had heard something about IMG shutting down their US motorsports business and the Cleveland Grand Prix web site is just a placeholder.

[Jag_Warrior]

Originally posted by Jay
I don't know if they'll come to CART, but they should at least leave Cheever (who knows why they were ever there).

Tom Walkinshaw is the name I've heard most. Cheever was on the verge of going out of business just before they saved his worthless bacon.

[Sean O'Gorman]

Originally posted by nrc
And will they be racing in Ohio? We've gone over the MidOhio rumors, where does Cleveland stand? I had heard something about IMG shutting down their US motorsports business and the Cleveland Grand Prix web site is just a placeholder.

A guy that parks where I work on occasion worked for IMG Motorsports, so I asked him about this last time I saw him. He said IMG did shut down the motorsports side, but if they found a new event to promote, it could possibly reopen. He is still involved with IMG's spinoff, Elevation Group, which handles de Ferran and some NASCAR drivers. He said CART is looking for a new promoter for the race, preferably someone based in the Cleveland area, but could it could end up being promoted by Motorock.

[Railbird]

Next year looks assured to me as far as having a fairly full schedule.

What's not so sure is the availability of races in my area. Like nrc I have concerns with the loss of Mid Ohio and the shakey-ness of Cleveland.

Throw in the crap date at Elkhart Lake and my CART sched next year is looking pretty slim.

I'm hoping after the sale they can sit back down with MO and work something out. If not it looks like Milwaukee, hopefully Cleveland and maybe RA for me.

[jonovision_man]

Originally posted by Jag_Warrior
Tom Walkinshaw is the name I've heard most. Cheever was on the verge of going out of business just before they saved his worthless bacon.

TWR is toast, he drove Arrows into the ground, is Walkinshaw still around at all?

jono

[Jag_Warrior]

Originally posted by jonovision_man
TWR is toast, he drove Arrows into the ground, is Walkinshaw still around at all?

jono

His kind usually hides some money out of sight when they go broke. But AFAIK, he's out of big time motorsports altogether. The engineering business was the key driver for TWR, and it was sold off months ago. They did race car/engine projects (I think that's what Menard and Cheever got... before Menard kicked Cheever out of the partnership), as well as road car, commercial and industrial type engineering projects - I don't know who got that part of the business.

I admired him because he was the one who brought Jaguar its last Le Mans wins. He also developed some snazzy road cars for Jag in the late 80's and early 90's. But while I admired him for that, yeah... he was a crook. :laugh:

[Corner5]

After the split and everything that's happened through the years up to and including the "CART is dead" chant,Ive grown accustomed to the uncertainty, and chaos that has become the norm for my favorite series. I don't know what would happen if CART were to run smoothly along without controversy. We'd go through D&G withdrawal!!! :saywhat: :cool:

Think I'll put my" head in the sand" till St Pete's!;) :cool:

[jonovision_man]

Originally posted by Jag_Warrior
His kind usually hides some money out of sight when they go broke. But AFAIK, he's out of big time motorsports altogether. The engineering business was the key driver for TWR, and it was sold off months ago. They did race car/engine projects (I think that's what Menard and Cheever got... before Menard kicked Cheever out of the partnership), as well as road car, commercial and industrial type engineering projects - I don't know who got that part of the business.

I admired him because he was the one who brought Jaguar its last Le Mans wins. He also developed some snazzy road cars for Jag in the late 80's and early 90's. But while I admired him for that, yeah... he was a crook. :laugh:

I just loved watching him try run Minardi out of business, only to have his own team fail... and then to add insult to injury, Paul Stoddart buys the rights to the Arrows chassis and it will be the basis for the 2004 Minardi! Too sweet. :)

Red Bull is such an odd company. Trying to sell their drink to Americans by supporting a sport that they don't even watch, F1... and then they put together that elaborate driver search program, that's gotta be costing them a tonne, and for what? Just doesn't seem to be great bang for the buck.

Which of course makes them ideal candidates for CART sponsorhip... ;)

jono