Now, I do agree that TG should be bannished to the center of the Amazon jungle to never be heard from again but, I'm not sure about CART challenging F1 for world supremacy. I believe the CART format of road, street and oval races is supreme to F1's almost all road course format. But, I don't think CART was ever going to topple F1 as the world's most followed series. F1 truly is the world's preferred racing series since they race literally all over the world. But that brings me to my real point of this post and forgive me if this has been discussed before. Do you think these races comming up this year in Australia and Korea are really going to help CART in the long run? We all agree CART is somewhat lucky to be alive at the moment. I think CART should look at where its at and its future, which I really don't see it being a series that can threaten F1 on a world level. I do see it however, being the premiere series in the Americas. I think it should concentrate on Canada, US and Mexico. And in a couple of years if its feeling bold and wants to expand look at maybe Columbia, Brazil, Argentina or Chile.
Twas a figure of speech. But in reality, CART tv ratings worldwide were second to that of F1, and when dear ole Nige came over there was a tremendous interest in champcar racing in the UK, and in Europe. CART was ready to capitalize on the interest they were getting from all over the world, and had just beaten the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone in the world court to allow CART races worldwide besides just in Australia which had a grand-father clause. But then TG dropped the bombshell and that was it. F TG!
Joudain was left without a ride with Rahal going to IRL...not that I'm a fan of his but that has got to suck to get the rug pulled from under your feet like that... even though Spike TV has some seriously retarded shows (i.e. Supertuner TV, the Funkmaster Flex car show), it is more accessible than Speed and it already has a lot of car-related shows...
Jourdain appears to have kept his sponsorship package, so hopefully another team can pick him up rather quickly.
Hey, I have a question for long time CART fans or Paul Tracy fans. Last night I put in my video tape of last years race at Brands Hatch in England. I guess you could say the CART bug has bitten me again so I watched alittle bit of what was a very entertaining race to watch last year. Anyway, at the time Paul Tracy had won three races in a row and was on pole to start this one, so they did a short history of his racing career. They showed some highlights but they also showed some of the trouble he had gotten into. One of those was in 1992 at the Michigan 500 where after the race, I believe it was maybe Al Unser Jr., took him aside and told him never to do that again to anyone, ever, on a straight away. However the clip they showed of the race didn't really show what Tracy may have done, it just looked like he had made a normal pass. Anyone know what happened durring that race?
I remember quite a few run-ins Paul Tracy has had with various drivers in CART including Franchitti, Andretti and Unser Jr., but I can not recall that specific incident. However maybe someone else with a better memory than I will be able to offer you some info on that event.
Hey everyone, I don't know if any of you have heard of this yet but I couldn't believe it when I read it. The IRL is probably going to add road courses to their 2005 schedule. What the Hell?! Tony George truly is a Bastard. Either that or his head is so far up his ass he can't think. Why did he create the IRL? To revive open wheel oval racing due to the fact that NASCAR has destoyed the Indy 500 as the premier oval race in the US. Now he realizes open wheel racing is nothing without street and road courses. So what is the brilliant plan he comes up with? Let's add some street and road racing next year. Brilliant you dumb ass. Check out www.autoweek.com in their news section for the report. They want to try to get into Mexico City next year to take advantage of Adrian Fernandez defecting to the IRL. They also wanted to get into Canada but thought it would be impossible. I also think they mentioned Long Beach but they are smoking weed if they think they can get in there. Check out the recent interview with Jimmy Vasser on www.cart.com He had some choice words for Tony George basicaly calling him a flat out liar. Also on the Autoweek website there is a very good article explaining the pros and cons of the new broadcast package with Spike TV. In the long run its sounds like it will work to CART's advantage. Something that was not happening with Speed TV and CBS.
It is very simple. Tony George is a criminal. He is the utmost wanker. He is a liar. He has ruined many peoples lives because of his ego. He has destroyed what was once a vibrant community. George Bush and Tony George certainly have a lot in common.
Take a look at some of the new paint jobs on some of the cars. It looks like Sebastien Bourdais will be pimping McDonald's. http://www.cart.com/Content/Photos/2004/By400/20040325P_0002.jpg Roberto Gonzales' paint scheme is sweet. http://www.cart.com/Content/Photos/2004/By400/20040325P_0011.jpg Bruno Junquiera's car has been spiced up as well. http://www.cart.com/Content/Photos/2004/By400/20040325P_0018.jpg I can't wait for the season to get started.
I remember the McDonalds car Tony Kanaan drove a few years back, That paint job was really HOT .... Just a few more weeks till Long beach.....
I couldn't agree more. But do you really think the IRL could add some street and road courses? Well, I'm sure they could but I can't believe it would do them any good. Everyone would say that they are just copying CART. Plus it would take their cost's up due to them having to rearrange their cars for road racing. So maybe its a good thing they might do this, they may self destruct since IRL was at first supposed to be a less expensive series. It was supposed to help the teams make a profit. And you are right with Tony George being a criminal. One of the articles on Autoweek said CART is looking into taking the IRL to court over the Adrian Fernandez move. They think there was a payoff there of sorts.
Hey, one interesting point that came from that interview with Jimmy Vasser is that he mentioned that CART is looking at expanding to add another race in Mexico as well as looking at a race in South Africa. Damn, South Africa? Well, it could work. With Mexico, he said they were looking at Cancun. Now that sounds sweet. I've been to Cancun a few times and if they could set up a race that would run down the main street that goes by all of the hotels it would be incredible. Mexico deserves another race I think. I also think if CART is going to look at more international races I hope they go back to Brands Hatch. That race was great. As well as the tri-oval in Germany, that was a great one too. What about Brazil? F1 used to race in Rio de Janiero. I don't like the circuit in Sao Paulo that much but a race in Rio could be amazing. I think Brazil deserves a race as well. And finally, lets not forget about ovals. The mixture of race diciplines is what makes CART great. Has anyone heard if the TBA races are going to be ovals? I hope so, at the moment we only have one oval race. What about Fontana? At one time they had mentioned Las Vegas, any idea whats going on there?
The I$L has been a sham from day 1. The I$L was about giving the little guy a chance. Now all I see is CART teams and CART drivers and costs significantly rising. And if they add road courses..... well..... WHAT WAS THE EFFEN POINT ANTON GEORGE? YOUR EFFEN EGO YOU BLOODY WANKER!!! Yea, I have no love for that man. Regarding tracks, the RIO race was so hard to deal with the local corrupt politicians. Souther Korea is supposedly this year. South Africa would be cool, but they butchered Kyalami. I would love to see Brands Hatch and Lauseritz back, but alas i don;t think it will happen. I think CART has enough races in Mexico, 2 is enough. Jimmy Vasser has usually been very diplomatic, but even he is sick of all the lies that Satan has told. But of course Wanker george can finance his I$L through the funnelling of money from the Brickyard and USGP races. He is disgusting....
I would like to see Brands Hatch and Lauseritz more than South Africa. I can't imagine CART being followed too much in South Africa. However, there are already a couple of British drivers in CART, as well as Swiss, French, and Portugese. It makes sense to have a couple of races in Europe. With respects to Mexico, one of the reasons the IRL wants to get into Mexico is Adrian Fernandez and the open wheel fans there. If they can get a race or two in Mexico they could compete with CART for advertising and fans. If CART can keep the upper-hand in Mexico it will keep the fans and advertisers. Hence a third race in Mexico I think makes sense.
It's time for Michel Jourdan Jr. to step up to the plate and take over the fame and fortune of Mexico from Adrian Fernandez !! I am concerned about Vasser's new team though. I know nothing about them!! Any word on ticket sales for Long Beach ?
Good news for CART, it looks like they have the 18 car field they need or are at least very close, maybe only one car away. The Autoweek website has a good article about this years upcomming field. http://autoweek.com/motorsportsnews/index.mv Then go to "Good news for champ cars, 2004 grid doesn't look too bad, after all"
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/racing/03/31/bc.car.champ.jourdain.ap/index.html INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The Champ Car series got a boost Wednesday when driver Michel Jourdain Jr. landed a ride for this year. Jourdain, retaining his sponsorship from Gigante, a department store chain from his native Mexico, will drive a second car for the RuSport team. The team recently announced it was moving up from the Toyota Atlantic series with rookie A.J. Allmendinger, the Atlantic champion. The 27-year-old Jourdain decided to stay behind when Bobby Rahal and David Letterman announced recently they were taking their team to the rival Indy Racing League. Jourdain said Champ Car, the former CART series, was more to his liking because of its mix of street and road races and oval events. The IRL is an all-oval series. "It was really, really hard, and really sad to see Team Rahal leave," Jourdain said. "But this is where I want to be and these are the races I want to win. "I decided to stay here because this is what I thought was best for me and my career."
http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/10530/ "Eighteen-year-old Australian kart star Josh Hunt has landed a drive in his home round of the Champ Car World Series at Surfers Paradise. Hunt will drive a third car for PKV Racing, the team owned by expatriate Australian and series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven. Hunt, who has only contested four rounds of the Formula Ford 2000 Zetec Series in cars, will compete in the Toyota Atlantic Championship with top team Lynx Racing this season, before making the giant stride into the headlining series in October."
Well, its somewhat official, we have all 18 cars and are ready to go racing next Sunday in Long Beach. The only thing we are missing are the two drivers for Dale Coyne Racing. Otherwise, the following is how the Champ Car grid will look: Forsythe Championship Racing Paul Tracy - Canada Patrick Carpentier - Canada Rodolfo Lavin - Mexico Herdez Competition Mario Dominguez - Mexico Ryan Hunter-Reay - USA Mi-Jack Conquest Racing Alex Sperafico - Brazil Justin Wilson - England Newman Haas Racing Bruno Junqueira - Brazil Sebastien Bourdais - France PKV Racing Jimmy Vasser - USA Roberto Gonzalez - Mexico Rocketsports Racing Alex Tagliani - Canada Nelson Philippe - France RuSport Michel Jourdain Jr - Mexico AJ Allmendinger - USA Walker Racing Mario Haberfeld - Brazil Dale Coyne Racing TBA TBA
Now all we need is to fill the gaps of the two unanounced races. Hopefully they will be ovals. Fontana? Las Vegas? Anyone have any guesses?
Long Beach here CART comes !!!! I wonder how many Galaxy / Earthquake fans are going to the Long beach grand Prix? I also wonder how many MLS/soccer supporters are also fans of Champcar racing?
So I was in Times Square today and guess what I saw???? Spike TV was shooting a new Champcar commercial! The shoot was in front of ABC studios in T Square. They had a Spike TV Champcar there and a NYPD cycle cop behind it writing a ticket. Then the champcar did a burnout down Broadway. And of course right above this was the Freddy Ljunberg Calvin Klein ad. I haven;t seen or heard a live Champcar since 2001. What a jolt of energy it was to smell the methanol and burned rubber and listen to the Ford Cosworth rev to 16, 000 rpm !!!
That must have been something to see in Times Square! Wish I could have been there to see it. www.cart.com has been given a face lift, check it out. It looks awesome with the darker colors. Darker orange and black give it a more aggresive look. Three more days and we will be racing. Hot Damn!
It was a sight to behold..... The champcar burning down broadway. yes ther new cart.com webpage looks great. That new race director looks very interesting. Only $20 a year too. Calling all Champcar fans! the new season is almost here! So put on Spike TV and enjoy true American Open Wheel racing !!!