Champ Car entrants.

[Russ-Turner]

From the imformation i have found Champ Car seems a cost effective relatively hassle free way to go racing.I recently read on www.champcarworldseries.com that to get a team up and runing would cost around $2m but for a top team including teating and development $5m - $10m could easily be spent. These costs are a world away from the mammoth sums spent in the operation of a Formula-1 team ($60m - $200m), and i understand that the current economic climate breeds caution but what is stopping entrants from queing up to join the series?! Is the series perceived to be weak since its split from IRL? Which incedentally looks alot weaker from where i am standing, especially with the manufacturer pull out on the horizon. Or am i talking rubbish?

[astinus4]

Is the series perceived to be weak since its split from IRL?

Champcar didn't split from the IRL. It was the IRL that was set up in opposition to the CART series (now known as Champcar) in the mid 90's.

[Russ-Turner]

...but am i wrong in thinking the two did used to be the same championship though?

[2112]

The vie for the same fans, which have now dwindled primarily because of the creation of the IRL and of the split/alienation in the fans base(and Nascar). They both always had different championships.

On the topic, the value of the series will have to be earned the next few years.
I think sponsors will come around when they feel the series is finally on solid ground.

[macdaddy]

The network-TV package will certainly help.

And, welcome to 10T's, Russ-Turner!

[Russ-Turner]

Originally Posted by macdaddy

.
welcome to 10T's, Russ-Turner!

Cheers Captain

[Snrub]

The bottom fell out of CC. After the "split" things slowly declined for a number of years. After the 2002 season Toyota and Honda left the series, pulling substantial money with them, which left a big vacume and sponsors left. A number of teams/drivers followed Honda and Toyota to the IRL and have received substantial contributions from the manufacturers to their cause. Sponsors seem to be a tad gun shy about CC, perhaps because of the mixed success of US events and near non-existant TV presence and general public awareness of the series.

Is Minardi spending $60M? The top teams speed up to $400M! As a point of interest, Toyota stated that back in 2001 they spent $200M on CC! Even by F1 standards of the time, that's impressive and keep in mind that they didn't produce the actual cars.

[Kicking-back]

While ChampCar has a hard-core following among racing fans, it has little recognition with the general public, sadly.

[BootsOntheSide]

The decline of ChampCar racing started before the IRL was created. CART was chasing interantional drivers, overseas races and a high proportion of road/street course tracks, none of which was of interest to the average American. NASCAR was in a big growth period, and starting to appeal outside its traditional Southern fanbase. Jeff Gordon going to NASCAR rather than ChampCars accelerated both those changes, and the same thing has happened to much of the obvious US talent in the last 10 years - it's reached the point where a MEXICAN regards the BUSCH series above CART.

[Hazza]

To sum up boots, every great disaster is actualy a collection of smaller disasters.

[mueber]

It is not enough to be inexpensive. If that were the case, my local short-track would be overflowing with cars, which it most definately is not.

There has to be fan interest in order to attract sponsors and owners. Not only is Champ Car not particularly attractive to the general fan, open wheel is not attractive to the fans. Nor for that matter are sports cars or anything that turns right attractive in the U.S. market.

Hopefully, time, marketing, good management and the saturation level of NASCAR will leave folks looking for auto racing alternatives and finding at least one of them in Champ Car

[Ac.]

Originally Posted by mueber

It is not enough to be inexpensive. If that were the case, my local short-track would be overflowing with cars, which it most definately is not.

There has to be fan interest in order to attract sponsors and owners. Not only is Champ Car not particularly attractive to the general fan, open wheel is not attractive to the fans. Nor for that matter are sports cars or anything that turns right attractive in the U.S. market.

Hopefully, time, marketing, good management and the saturation level of NASCAR will leave folks looking for auto racing alternatives and finding at least one of them in Champ Car

A good synopsis mueber. I for one think that the NASCAR juggernaut may be starting to show a few weaknesses. Whether this means that any of those fans will turn to open wheel racing is unsure.

A bit off topic, but I really enjoy reading Ben Blake's commentary at SpeedTV.com. He brings a very honest view of the problems faced by the tin tops.

[Russ-Turner]

Thanks for the insight guys.