Is CART making a comeback or just falling apart

[vectorclub]

CART and their Champ Cars series has long been the best American open wheel series. The IRL split and management issues damaged the CART series. Then the manufacture chaos and series sponsor issues added more problems for CART.

The 2003 season is under way, Ford is suppling the engines for this year and Bridgestone is suppling the tires. Many of the names that had been long assoicated with CART are driving in the IRL.

Can CART make a comeback?

Did the Saturday night race work in your opinion?

Should CART follow the economic oriented rule book of the IRL?

Is there room for two major open wheel series in America?

[simdel1]

well personally i cant stand irl...i just much prefer CART. it does seem to be damaged though by IRL.

i really dont know if it can make a comeback, but if the races have been like the ones i have seen, then more people might watch it.

the night race was an interesting idea. it might have got more ticket sales, but it was still an oval, and i dont particularly like oval races.

[vectorclub]

The night race may have gotten a larger viewing audience as well. Since there was no other pro racing on Saturday night, that made them the only racing to watch. Sundays sometimes get packed with NASCAR, NHRA, IHRA, IRL, F1, and so on.

I think CART would be wise to try and set up their own version of NASCARs The Winston race.

I have followed CART sine the late 1970s and I still like the series better then the IRL. We can only hope they get back on their feet soon.

[z33guy]

I love cart racing...but i think they are facing an extreme uphill battle. They need name drivers to come into the series or create some name drivers of their own. They need great venues and more cars/sponsors.....

[simdel1]

Originally posted by z33guy
I love cart racing...but i think they are facing an extreme uphill battle. They need name drivers to come into the series or create some name drivers of their own. They need great venues and more cars/sponsors.....

i think theres a few future ''name drivers'' in the current crop of rookies.

sebastian bourdais has done an excellent job so far, and if darren manning gets a lola he might get some podium finishes.

i agree, there needs to be more chassis and engine manufacturers taking part to make it more interesting.

personally i think the venues they are using at the moment are pretty good..but i suppose some more famous tracks ( maybe a few more european tracks) would certainly help the ratings.

[z33guy]

yea i think they have some good names coming up, if they stay in the series. Seb, manning....and althought servia isnt new, hes starting to run well and race for the win. I think if they can keep the drivers and establish a driver fan base without them moving on to the irl or F1 or whatever...i think they should be ok. If the 05 or whatever engine rumours are true, i expect good things. The last thing i want to see is cart die.

[fordjay16]

i like irl better than cart for one reason: all of the great cart drivers seem to be leaving and going to irl. cart needs to keep great up and coming drivers like bourdais and veterans like junquera and tracy. i don't mind that ford is the only engine provider but they need to do something to get sponsors.

[davewin]

I think CART's best option is to become some sort of US F1 series and using last season's F1 engines and just focus on road courses. Bernie Ecclestone is probably waiting until they're SOL enough and he'll snap up the series for a song.

That way they can build on the success of the US GP and position US F1 as the top open wheel category in the States and use that as a feeder to F1. Plus they can pick up some of the European races that are being dropped by F1 (Spa, Austria, maybe even Silverstone) as F1 moves toward developing countries like Bahrain, China and Russia.

Plus if Bernie's got that then he can breathe a little easier about the threat of a separate GPWC in 2008 because he'll have more market exposure to offer the manufacturers.

Is it me or does CART have the most ridiculous name this year? "Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered By Ford".

[vectorclub]

Is it me or does CART have the most ridiculously name this year? "Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered By Ford".

Get use to seeing longer names in auto racing. Thanks to the anti-smoking sponsorship laws, lots of money is leaving motorsports. It can take two or more companies to fill the void left by companies such as RJR.

CART was under extra pressure with engine manufacture mess last year. They needed someone like Ford to step in. They probably had inked a nice deal with Bridgestone already, but they needed Ford. It is funny to see these two together since Bridgestone owns Firestone. Ford and Firestone had a major falling out after the Explorer roll over issue.

I look forward to CART adding in other engine manufactures. Diversity is always a better thing in my opinion.

As far as working with Bernie Ecclestone, I fear that. I know CART has built good relations with the FIA over the couple of years, but I have not been impressed by Bernie Ecclestone's leadership. I believe Formula-One could be more dominant without Bernie at the helm.

I have been more impressed with CART this year then in the couple of years. If they manage to gain at least two more engine manufactures, I think they will make a solid comeback.

I think CART's best option is to become some sort of US F1 series and using last season's F1 engines and just focus on road courses.

CART has been considered the American Formula-One series for many years. They may not use Formula-One specs, but it is a very competitive series with teams spending half as much as Formula-One teams. I would bet that running current CART Champ Car specs would be cheaper then running 2002 F-1 cars.

Road racing is my favorite style of racing, but CART had a nice mix of ovals and road courses. I think the IRL is lame with the 100% ovals package. I am impressed by the speeds at places like California Raceway. I think CART could keep four oval track events on their schedule. I would not complain if they went with all road courses.

[davewin]

No doubt that CART's teams run their cars for much less than even Minardi did in 2002. My point is that if they could just buy last seasons F1 cars they wouldn't have to have nearly the budgets of F1 because all the chassis development would have been paid for by the F1 teams already.

With F1 engines headed toward the longevity rules, I think they'll become much less expensive. And CART still runs slicks.

I liked CART a lot in the mid-90s right before the split with IRL because it was actually on the public radar screen and super competitive. Now they actually have to pay the networks to broadcast the races and go out and find advertisers themselves.

As for F1 and Bernie, I wonder what's going to happen.... he's not going to live forever.

[z33guy]

CART does not need old f1 cars. The need sponsors and american drivers. American companies just dont care. Bud couldve taken that 80 mill they gave to williams and backed the cart series, or alteast a two car team. Their TV package could be better but the IRL isnt doing any better. One of the two series will die, but which one remains to be seen. If cart cant get its act together, the irl is going to finish what theyve gradually started. I love cart and want nothing more than to see them rise from their slums.

[davewin]

CART doesn't need old F1 cars but I think they could do better if they were more aligned with F1 because, while I like CART, it looks like they're losing the CART/IRL battle. An F1 tie up would get more attention from road racing fans everywhere, especially now that they race in Europe too.

They do need more sponsors and American drivers to generate interest in America. But the fundamental problem is that in America racing usually means roundy round with Nascar.

So instead of trying to compete for the same audience, I think the best way forward for them is to focus on road racing in the more European and international way... which for open wheel cars is F1.

And if they put on a good show (I have to admit I routinely fall asleep when watching F1, and I love F1) then there will be plenty of fans in the States and other parts of the world, and the sponsorship dollars will follow.

[z33guy]

nascar is where the money is. Thats where the americans go in the IRL atleast. Lefflers, mears, newman, gordon, tony stewart. If bernie comes thru and produces some automakers and what not, i think cart will last a bit longer. The problem with the merger is tony wants to squash cart into nothingness. And cart does not want to loose its name. Both want to be the victor and open wheel racing is on the verge of death. Even indy sucked this year.

[vectorclub]

I believe the movement of teams and drivers is not driven by the IRL being a better series, but as a result of the poltical mess a couple years ago in CART. Previous CART leaders had an ugly fall out with manufactures and some teams. This made manuafctures leave CART, which made some teams leave CART.

The only CART drivers that rally wanted be in the IRL were not doing well in CART (such Al Unser Jr). The good teams and drivers came over as the fall out of the political issues surfaced. There are still some high quality drivers in the Champ Car Series. I agree there needs to be more American drivers like Ryan Hunter-Ray.

As far as getting more venues in Europe, I think that is to competitive for CART. They might get better results adding more events in Asia and South America. They could take a page from NASCAR and have a couple of more Saturday night races. As I stated earlier in this thread, their own version of The Winston would be worth developing.

If i was running CART, I would be finding ways to make the cars much faster then IRL cars. It is important that CART Champ Cars come across as superior to the econo racers the IRL uses. The reason many people admire F-1 is the performance of their cars.

I really believe Americans only like circle track racing becuase it makes it easier to watch the wrecks. The IRL will never be close to what NASCAR is. To say oval track racing is key to gaining viewers is wrong. It is speed, performance, competitive racing, and wrecks that will get viewers to tune in.

If 2004 has more engine manufactures, then I think 2004 will be their best season in many years. It will take CART about 3-5 years to re-establish itself as the top open wheel series in America. Right now their image tarnished enough that some would be foolish enough to think the IRL is the top series.

[z33guy]

if you has more foreign races, all your going to attract is foreign money and the drivers that they want. Reason one F1 sucks balls in america, no interest. As cart will get if it gets more races in other countries. All that manufacture stuff was pretty well known when they left cart, the BOV thing, NA engines, carts lack of a leader. CART and the IRL only get the money from high price car makers. Honda and Toyota are about as big spenders as anyone will get. GM is just a joke at the moment. I agree with some of what your saying, but we wil never run cart so its a pretty small point. Indy is all the IRL has. Robin miller suggested CART enter PT in a cart sponsored car to run at indy, which was pretty funny seeing as how this years bump day was a complete joke.