Some ChampCar ponderings

[Chaos]

Hey all,

This is just a general post of ponderings with ChampCar.

1. Ford - Ford has a number of different nameplates they can use: ie. Ford, Mercury, Mazda etc. I think they can use this to their advantage somehow. For example, have some teams badge their engines as Ford, others as Mazda etc.

2. More ovals? Well, if the IRL wants to go road racing, which appears to be the case, should ChampCar race on more ovals? this is a tough issue i think.

3. Costs etc. Is it possible to be considered an elite form of racing and putting caps on costs? It seems that one reason sponsors are shying away from ChampCar is the poor ROI. Of course, one way to improve that is to lower the investment by lowering the costs. Of course, the trade-off is the prestige factor etc.

4. Different Sponsors? It seems lately that one of the reasons sponsorship has become difficult to come by is the corporate scandals that have been going on. Conventional sponsors (retail/merchandise for the most part) were one major source of sponsorship funds in the past. Perhaps it's time to look in another direction.

[Turn7]

Putting multiple brands on the cars could provide added exposure to various operating divisions but, it could also create undue negative exposure as well if one brand is on a team that is superior to other brands. What if Ford dominated and Mazda was with a team that was a backmarker? That would say that Mazda sucks. Who's operating budget would get hit? Each of the divisions has an advertising budget and probably arent' to keen on selling Mercury's with Mazda money or vice versa.


Why compete with the IRL on oval's? Is it nice to have a few ovals? Yes. I wouldn't want to have the more than a couple on the schedule and I would go for none if they could adopt a chassis/engine combo that would be better suited for closer competition on the road and streets enabling a better opportunity for passing.

Yes you can control costs and still be an elite form of racing.

Sponsorship? Well, if you had the silver bullet magic answer how to solve everybodies woes in that department, you would be a rich man.

[ferrarigod]

Putting multiple brands on the cars could provide added exposure to various operating divisions but, it could also create undue negative exposure as well if one brand is on a team that is superior to other brands. What if Ford dominated and Mazda was with a team that was a backmarker? That would say that Mazda sucks. Who's operating budget would get hit? Each of the divisions has an advertising budget and probably arent' to keen on selling Mercury's with Mazda money or vice versa.


Why compete with the IRL on oval's? Is it nice to have a few ovals? Yes. I wouldn't want to have the more than a couple on the schedule and I would go for none if they could adopt a chassis/engine combo that would be better suited for closer competition on the road and streets enabling a better opportunity for passing.

Yes you can control costs and still be an elite form of racing.

Sponsorship? Well, if you had the silver bullet magic answer how to solve everybodies woes in that department, you would be a rich man.

He was saying rebadge the Cosworth covers and stickers on the cars. Not send one engine to MazdaSpeed and SVT or whatever.

Great idea, and one that I wrote and called CART about when this Ford deal started. The only answer I got was that if Ford is in CART than Ford wants its name their at not its other brands.

Also, l add Jaguar to that list

[Turn7]

I understood what he was saying.

If Mazda is on Coyne's car and Ford is on Forsythe's car, do you think that Mazda will enjoy running at the back of the pack all year? All that is going to do is start an intercompany bickering on why FoMoCo put my division on the loser and the other division on the winner. Advertising against yourself is never a good idea as far as I am concearned.

[Jag_Warrior]

I'll be happy to just get Ford back next year. I'd rather see some sort of mandatory engine parts commonality (anything practical to keep the costs down) in the next formula, and then have 3-4 various makers (not brands within the same company). At first, I liked the idea of having Jag, Mercury, Volvo, Mazda, etc. competing, but it really would just be a shell game within Ford, and I don't sense they'd go for it anyway. Plus, the danger is that if Ford went away, they'd ALL go away. Better to go for a broader base, no?

[Riverside]

I wouldn't mind a couple more ovals as long as they're not the high banked 1.5 mile D shaped tracks.
Why is it they don't build interesting ovals such as Rockingham(UK) and Eurospeedway in the US? It's always the same boring 1.5 cookie cutter configuration.

[mueber]

Severe cost control is essential until open wheel is well started on the road to recovery. I’m tired of seeing the same cars every year, but it’s the price we have to pay for survival. In the long run, the formula will have to be affordable, but I hope we can do away with the spec. racer kit car thing and put some excitement back into the beginning of every new season as far as the cars are concerned.

Ovals: Fine, as long as the event pays for itself.

Badging: Whatever Ford wants.

Sponsors: At this point we will take whatever we can get. In the long run, services and specialty products. I think the future is to sell ChampCar to sponsors as a loyal and financially desirable demographic group and to the fans as an exciting lifestyle.

[Madmaxfan2]

As someone who works for the blue oval, I can tell idea number 1 will not work. Racing is viewed by Ford as a part of marketing, and is funded by brand marketing. That means that Volvo, Madza and Jaguar would have to individually fund each badged team out of the individual brand's marketing budget. How would you like to be assigned the Volvo badge and find out that the overall marketing budget for Volvo has been cut, while your rival is getting mega bucks from the Ford brand marketing budget. Not quite fair, I would say.

As for ovals, it appears that ISC is giving up a few interesting small ovals in Nazereth and Rockingham, add Gateway you might have the beginning of an oval tradition in OWRS. Building a fan base in those places will be a challenge.

[pkvracing12]

Ovals: add 1 short track one D shaped oval and a few like Pocono and rockingham Germany.
Engines: Well we need more then just Ford and other strings of Ford. Automotive Manufactures Such as KIA BMW, and if Chevy leaves the Indy Racing League lets jump on getting them. Stay with turbos becuase thats what seperates Champ Car From Nascar IRL F1 ect.
Sponsors: Such as Dell, Verizon, Gateway, Microsoft, Beer Companys Ect are the sponsors OWRS should look at Becuase these companies are the wave of the future.

[Ed_Severson]

I have to disagree with one of the above comments.

Chevrolet should be the last auto manufacturer on earth that Champ Car asks to supply engines.

Their current auto racing efforts of note are:

1) A 1950s-era "stock" car circuit, where they can run and hide behind the sanctioning body if their competitors outperform them.

2) The worst open-wheel racing formula ever devised, where the only way the have been able to remain remotely competitive is to depend on their most bitter rival for the last hundred years or so.

GM sucks, and they suck like no other. Champ Car can do better than Chevy, and we deserve better.

[pkvracing12]

I have to disagree with one of the above comments.

Chevrolet should be the last auto manufacturer on earth that Champ Car asks to supply engines.

Their current auto racing efforts of note are:

1) A 1950s-era "stock" car circuit, where they can run and hide behind the sanctioning body if their competitors outperform them.

2) The worst open-wheel racing formula ever devised, where the only way the have been able to remain remotely competitive is to depend on their most bitter rival for the last hundred years or so.

GM sucks, and they suck like no other. Champ Car can do better than Chevy, and we deserve better.
I do agree that Chevy sucks both automotive and racing but we need good names in engine manufactures. Thats why I included Kia or BMW hey what about chrysler they could make a turbocharged engine. CCWS needs a lot to make it back on top. And I also want to ask a question, what happend to swift chassis in ChampCar?

[sadams]

As gas prices move upward turbos are going to make a comeback in passenger cars so it's natural the mfgrs would want to showcase their enginerring talent in a series with turbocharged engines.

[SurfaceUnits]

Message to GM (http://www.indybooks.net/DATA/usuck.wav)

[Insomniac]

Ovals: add 1 short track one D shaped oval and a few like Pocono and rockingham Germany.
Engines: Well we need more then just Ford and other strings of Ford. Automotive Manufactures Such as KIA BMW, and if Chevy leaves the Indy Racing League lets jump on getting them. Stay with turbos becuase thats what seperates Champ Car From Nascar IRL F1 ect.
Sponsors: Such as Dell, Verizon, Gateway, Microsoft, Beer Companys Ect are the sponsors OWRS should look at Becuase these companies are the wave of the future.

Chevy is in OWRS. Cosworth makes Chevrolet's engines for them. Why would Ford want to rebadge their own engines?

[scanman]

I have to disagree with one of the above comments.

Chevrolet should be the last auto manufacturer on earth that Champ Car asks to supply engines.

Their current auto racing efforts of note are:

1) A 1950s-era "stock" car circuit, where they can run and hide behind the sanctioning body if their competitors outperform them.

2) The worst open-wheel racing formula ever devised, where the only way the have been able to remain remotely competitive is to depend on their most bitter rival for the last hundred years or so.

GM sucks, and they suck like no other. Champ Car can do better than Chevy, and we deserve better.
Please don't take this badly...Why are the Corvettes so competitive in
the ALMS.??...is it because no competion.?? or they have the right formula
for their class.?? :confused:
ps....never bought a GM...Probable never will...Ford or Crysler has been my choice...

[Ed_Severson]

I can't answer that -- I don't really ever watch ALMS.

However, GM's recent history pretty much speaks for itself. When the stakes are high and there's anybody else involved, GM gets hammered for a couple years and then leaves. Sure, they beat the hell out of Nissan in the early years of the IRL (and who wouldn't have -- Nissan was spending about $25 a year on their IRL program) but as soon as the big boys showed up, they got blown out of the water and went running to, of all people, Cosworth.

I can promise you, they won't stick around much longer ... I'd be suprised if they're involved in the Retirement League in 2006. They'd bail on NASCAR if the morons that run the Cup series weren't manipulating the rules every five minutes.

Think about it ... when you think of world-class automobile racing in the present tense, does the word "Chevy" ever enter your mind?

Me neither.

[Insomniac]

I can't answer that -- I don't really ever watch ALMS.

However, GM's recent history pretty much speaks for itself. When the stakes are high and there's anybody else involved, GM gets hammered for a couple years and then leaves. Sure, they beat the hell out of Nissan in the early years of the IRL (and who wouldn't have -- Nissan was spending about $25 a year on their IRL program) but as soon as the big boys showed up, they got blown out of the water and went running to, of all people, Cosworth.

I can promise you, they won't stick around much longer ... I'd be suprised if they're involved in the Retirement League in 2006. They'd bail on NASCAR if the morons that run the Cup series weren't manipulating the rules every five minutes.

Think about it ... when you think of world-class automobile racing in the present tense, does the word "Chevy" ever enter your mind?

Me neither.

I saw an article somewhere. They have a multi-year deal with Cosworth, but I can't remember when it ends. As long as they're doing the work, I'd expect Chevy to stay.