Champcar.com

[Hard Driver]

What's the story with champcar.com. This site seems to have frozen in mid season 2003. Wouldn't it make sense for Champcar to purchase this domain name. It is a lot more intuitive than champcarworldseries.com

[Andrew Longman]

Dunno. Maybe someone is holding it hostage. Funny to read the old forums over there, especially the silly season/rumors section to see what can true.

That was the first CC site I found and lurked there for quite a while. It's how I came to find 7G and this place.

[Spicoli]

It's bizarre. Not sure what it was/is, but I know someone who tried to buy it. No response from the owner.

wierd.

Maybe you could ask the Gomerati.

[Dirty Sanchez]

Peter Burke owns it[edit] I stand corrected on that one. all that dude does is sim race now. I'm pretty sure he lives in the Madison area... and I'm sure I could get in contact with him in like 5 minutes.

[racer2c]

I saw this on their "forum" from '04.


I don't even remember my forum username/password ;) the guy who left the building
Well, folks, No idea why I even stumbled in here today, but I can assure you that neither me, Peter, nor Lesley will be doing any work on this site anytime soon. I haven't even had contact with her or any of the other folks who used to work on this site for more than 2 years.

Bottom line - there's no money to be made in this series, and we simply cannot be doing freebies forever. The whole thing is only online because I have a great ISP who is a race fan and wants to preserve the good old days to some extent.

Let's see what happens this year - good chance this will all go away. Save your favorite JPEGS - I don't think I even have a local backup of this place anymore.

Peter

[RusH]

A couple of weeks back he had a long winded response at MSF.
He went on and on about what is a fair price for the domain.

The post was deleted and he was banned.


edit: nanders was unbanned :confused:

http://autoracing1.motorsportforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=117702

[rabbit]

Some of the galleries (Laguna 1999 at least) have wav and mp3 files too. I know what I'll be doing tonight: saving a bunch of pictures and sounds before they disappear.

[Wheel-Nut]

There used to be a dude over there that posted under the name of Mark St. Anybody know of him? He was the biggest Montoya critic I think I have ever seen to date. He had a partner in crime that went by the name Dino, I think he was a Canadian national.

That was the first site I visited on a regular basis, still hit it once in a while for the old photos.

[nrc]

I appeciate all the effort that was put in the speedcenter site back in the '90s. They'll feel better if they let go of the bitterness. If you offer someone a free ride you can't fault them for taking it.

I can't blame them for wanting something for "champcar.com" but I think they're probably over-estimating the value. Clearly Champ car has gotten along just fine without it. They're not missing a lot of traffic because someone didn't know how to find them. People rarely stumble around looking for sites by domain name any more.

Still, I think they're being a bit coy about their intent in originally registering the name. SpeedCenter already existed and champcar.com was registered as an alias for that site after CART started using the champ car nomenclature in place of Indy car.

I can't find any trademark for champ car that goes back as far as 1997 so they're probably safe on those grounds. But if they start doing anything to try to force CCWS's hand on the issue CCWS could probably have grounds for a suit based on U.S. Cybersquatting laws.

[RHR_Fan]

That was the first site I ever started posting at. I was "FittipaldiNut." I remember people accusing me of saying I was older than I actually was. I was like 12 or something and some guy thought I was lying and that I was actually older.

That site does have a lot of awesome pics.

~Nicole

[Classic Apex]

That was the first Champ Car site I ever found on the internet, and posted on as well also.

[Andrew Longman]

That was the first site I ever started posting at. I was "FittipaldiNut." I remember people accusing me of saying I was older than I actually was. I was like 12 or something and some guy thought I was lying and that I was actually older.

That site does have a lot of awesome pics.

~Nicole

I remember that well and kept that in mind as my oldest son, now 12, just ventured onto this forum. Your lessons have been part of my lessons in guiding him in how to get benefit from these forums. Thanks :)

[Sean O'Gorman]

That was the first site I ever started posting at. I was "FittipaldiNut." I remember people accusing me of saying I was older than I actually was. I was like 12 or something and some guy thought I was lying and that I was actually older.

That site does have a lot of awesome pics.

~Nicole

I get that alot too, people think I'm like 40

[Stu]

I get that alot too, people think I'm like 40

thats cuz of your receding hair line.

[mapguy]

thats cuz of your receding hair line.

That'll leave a mark.

[RHR_Fan]

I remember that well and kept that in mind as my oldest son, now 12, just ventured onto this forum. Your lessons have been part of my lessons in guiding him in how to get benefit from these forums. Thanks :)

Awesome! Glad I've been able to help. hehe When I first started posting I didn't want people to think I was "just" a 12-year old and not pay attention to what I had to say. I didn't want to post something and have people be like oh well she's only 12, blah blah blah. I guess maybe that's why people thought I was older since I didn't post "like your typical 12-year old."

~Nicole

[Hard Driver]

So, does anyone know how much he was looking for? I once sold a domain name for $22,500 several years back. What is funny is that the company that bought it never used it. And it has turned over several times since then. But like was said, if anyone wants to find the Champ Car site all they have to do is google it.

I just started this thread because I was on a PC without a bookmark and just typed in Champcar.com. When I got to the speedcenter site, I actually remembered they had that domain. (I used to go there to download photos, although I never was active on their forums). I wonder how many hits a month that site gets from people typing in the domain name looking for champcarworldseries.com. My guess is that it is a very low number and most of those people find the official site anyway. So if Peter wants too much money for it, then he needs to be more realistic.

[IlliniRacer]

First forum for me also.

Peter seemed to really change after what happend with Gonzalo and Greg in '99. :(

That's when I really started to notice less being put into the site. Can't say that I really blame him. I work full+ as a web developer, have a couple of freelance projects I'm working on, and am the "volunteer" webmaster for 4 sites. I need to learn to say "no"

[Gizmologist]

As a former contributor to SpeedCenter/CC.com, I watched Peter's burnout. Basically, he poured a ton of money into the venture and had a couple close calls at making it pay-off. But in the end, particularly with the "dog-eat-dog" nature of team photo contracts, he realized that it would only continue to be a money pit for him... he realized that he could keep maxing out credit cards, or stay back in Madison on weekends and make a lot of dough setting up LANs for businesses on the side. The internal politics of the sport, plus the continuing frustration of local track management and security, plus the guy from France that waved a CART license for a "Racer" like magazine that stole a ton of Peter's slides, also added fuel. I was with Peter at Fontana in 99, and yes it affected him as it did all of us.

As for the domain, he and his business partner hoped to be able to run CC's official web site with it. He pitched the deal, but Craig & Co. opted for Internet start-up company ("Q".... what was their name?) that only succeded in doing a classic IPO capital burn-rate flame-out. After his disgust with the situation, I think they'd have to offer Peter a ton of $$$ before he'd give up the domain.

He actually surfaced again at Road America in 2003. He popped over from Madison for a day to see what the "new CART" looked like and to perhaps see if it was worth giving it another go. He was just a paying customer, but he still came out to the wall/tire barrier with us in Turn 6 for some "old time sake" shooting. He left unconvinced that things had gotten any better.

I for the most part have "burned out too". Last year, due partly to the lack of CC races in the central US, and my personal schedule, I covered zero CC races for the first time since 1993. And quite frankly, that fact didn't bother me.

[rosawendel]

quokka, i think...

i didn't really know peter, but i admire his work... there was one shot of montoya through the fences at houston that really caught my eye, and i wrote to him once (i may have sent him a shot or two of mine) and talked photography for a bit. he seemed like the real deal to me... helpful and informative.

[Anteater]

As for the domain, he and his business partner hoped to be able to run CC's official web site with it. He pitched the deal, but Craig & Co. opted for Internet start-up company ("Q".... what was their name?) that only succeded in doing a classic IPO capital burn-rate flame-out.

I think the name was Quokka. Sorry that both you and Peter got burned out. :(

[nrc]

Yep. Quokka. Worst champ car web site ever.

[racer2c]

As a former contributor to SpeedCenter/CC.com, I watched Peter's burnout. Basically, he poured a ton of money into the venture and had a couple close calls at making it pay-off. But in the end, particularly with the "dog-eat-dog" nature of team photo contracts, he realized that it would only continue to be a money pit for him... he realized that he could keep maxing out credit cards, or stay back in Madison on weekends and make a lot of dough setting up LANs for businesses on the side. The internal politics of the sport, plus the continuing frustration of local track management and security, plus the guy from France that waved a CART license for a "Racer" like magazine that stole a ton of Peter's slides, also added fuel. I was with Peter at Fontana in 99, and yes it affected him as it did all of us.

As for the domain, he and his business partner hoped to be able to run CC's official web site with it. He pitched the deal, but Craig & Co. opted for Internet start-up company ("Q".... what was their name?) that only succeded in doing a classic IPO capital burn-rate flame-out. After his disgust with the situation, I think they'd have to offer Peter a ton of $$$ before he'd give up the domain.

He actually surfaced again at Road America in 2003. He popped over from Madison for a day to see what the "new CART" looked like and to perhaps see if it was worth giving it another go. He was just a paying customer, but he still came out to the wall/tire barrier with us in Turn 6 for some "old time sake" shooting. He left unconvinced that things had gotten any better.

I for the most part have "burned out too". Last year, due partly to the lack of CC races in the central US, and my personal schedule, I covered zero CC races for the first time since 1993. And quite frankly, that fact didn't bother me.

C'est La Vie. For some reason the word vultrure comes to mind. I can't for the life of me figure out why. :gomer:

[pchall]

That was the first site I ever started posting at. I was "FittipaldiNut." I remember people accusing me of saying I was older than I actually was. I was like 12 or something and some guy thought I was lying and that I was actually older.

That site does have a lot of awesome pics.

~Nicole

You're all grown up now. I don't need to be a mod any more to look after you. ;)

[Big Mo]

Been away a loooong time.

I paid real money for a Peter photo. It was Mo Gugelmin's gorgeously painted 98 car at Long Beach. I used it for a corporate poster promoting "Accelerating Growth." It's my all time favorite Peter Burke photo. Here is it below.

http://www.speedcenter.com/gallery/gallery98/03longbeach/mo_is_outta_sight.jpg

[Steve99]

That picture gives me a headache.

[Wheel-Nut]

That's how Mo felt after hitting the wall at Texas . . .

[Hard Driver]

Champcar.ws

I just saw this used in a Champcar add. So instead of champcar.com they have champcar.ws

Looked it up and ".ws" is the extension for the pacific island of Somoa. Some guys made a deal with the Somoan government and they market and sell the ".ws" extension worldwide as an alternative to .com. The .ws stands for "web site" but works real well with Champcar to mean "World Series"

[formulaben]

Yep. Quokka. Worst champ car web site ever.

Indeed...it's painful just to remember it. :saywhat:

[Grunschev]

Yep. Quokka. Worst champ car web site ever.
You bas**rds. It took me quite a few beers to kill those brain cells and you guys bring it back up. Now I'm going to have to start all over.

Igor