The Schedule: A Rant

[macdaddy]

Pretty frustrating.

That's what I'd call the ChampCar schedule. Everybody else is racing, and we don't even know who's driving.

Perhaps it's a catch-22. Perhaps they need to start late, in order to get all their ducks in a row. But nobody's gonna argue that CC needs more of the "limelight" in order to grow the fanbase, and it's all being stolen away right now. It was the exact-same situation last year. Chris Pook said that fixing these long gaps would be on the 2005 agenda, but that was almost exactly a year ago now that he said that. Obviously there have been a few other important matters to tend to, but I see this one as being rather tantamount in itself.

I'll allow them this one more "grace" year. But come 2006, I really don't want to have to wait this long for the opener.

Actually, I could live with that. It's the SIX-week gap between Rounds 1 & 2 that peeves me. Compared to when the other major series begin their seasons, they'd have been racing for nearly three months before we'll get to Round 2!

Chris Pook also spoke of trying to schedule races on a two-week gap, just as F1 does. That would be ideal, IMO.

(Well actually, racing three-times-a-week, year-round would be "ideal")


[/rant]

[Kicking-back]

Agreed.

A final schedule needs to be published in October-November, so teams and potential sponsors know what the plan is.

If new races want to join, they can come in the year after - don't tinker with the schedule during the season.

And once the season is underway, three weeks should be the maximum gap between any races.

[BootsOntheSide]

Formula 1's scheduling is probably a good model for ChampCar to try and follow. Start before most of the other championships, group the races geographically aas much as possible, have plenty of back-to-back race weekends, and no huge gaps (especially not after round 1).

[luke]

I like the current schedule, I don't see the problem of letting a new track join the schedule late in the year, a good 9 months time.
Three week gaps between races, sounds to long, its fine how it is.
The current Champ Car World Series schedule is good, not much different to the MotoGP calendar, schedule wise. I have no problem with the race being in April, certainly when it's at the best street circuit in the world, imho.
I don't think the off-season is to long, as it starts and finishes the same time as the MotoGP, season, and starts one month later, but finishes one month later to the F1 schedule.
I don't think there's too many back-to-back races, especially compared to the irl, schedule.

It's fine how it is.

[BootsOntheSide]

If a 3 week gap is too long, how is a six week gap 'fine how it is'? And back to back races are a good thing for a championship, especially the classic CART way of having very few weekends off in summer.

[luke]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

If a 3 week gap is too long, how is a six week gap 'fine how it is'? And back to back races are a good thing for a championship, especially the classic CART way of having very few weekends off in summer.

I never said back to back races are bad for Champ Car, I like them. In the irl, the first part of the season there is usly a month/ 3 weeks, between the first few races, particuly the 500, which is 5 weeks maybe?

[Snrub]

I dunno, it seems like racing now starts off earlier than before and with more races earlier. Racing is normally thought of as a summer activity, is it a good thing for the series to be racing in February? I think it's better to have it more comrpressed than to have 1 month+ long gaps. As for limelight, is there going to be more starting in Februrary/early March or mid-April?

As for the driver lineup vs. the time which the series starts, I don't know that the two are related for this series. It's a matter of money and we're not going to find out who's driving until a couple weeks before the season starts, regardless if it's in January or May. Hopefully the series will have some momentum for next year, but I doubt we'll have a complete picture as early as we'd like.

[BootsOntheSide]

That's because they're practising and qualifying throughout May - getting publicity and attention all the while - not to mention sorting out last minute qualification attempts.

[Kicking-back]

Exactly - there's still a focus.

The problem with the ChampCar schedule is that the series effectively disappears for six weeks between race 1 and 2

[luke]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Exactly - there's still a focus.

The problem with the ChampCar schedule is that the series effectively disappears for six weeks between race 1 and 2

It's been like that for a few years of late, especially in May, when races like Nazerth and Rio were stopped, then in '03 races in Europe bridged the gap.

[JohnSSC]

Three problems with the OWRS schedule:

1) No race at all until April 10th. Every other major Series is up and running. If the World of Outlaws can be running at dirt tracks already (and they are), so can OWRS. Can't they race in Florida, California or Arizona early?

2) The six week gap. Even the IRL has a smaller "break" for The 500 and that is taken up partially with "Pole Day" qualifying so there is a focus on the Series even though they are not actually racing.

3) No one "knows" what the schedule is. Races are added and subtracted as the season progresses. This makes for an "ad hoc" appearance and does not help in one bit to attract sponsors. The Series gets leftovers as a result: leftover sponsors and leftover drivers.

The fans are just left out.

This is supposed to be the "Premier Open Wheel Series" and instead it looks like races happen when everyone has an open spot on their schedule.

[Jordi]

Where is Pook now, by the way?
If he was directing the thing he'd surely have fixed the gaps as he said?

[BootsOntheSide]

Good points there John - the whole thing ends up looking quite unprofessional.

[Snrub]

Stop whining about "knowing" the schedule. Once it's underway there won't be additions and subtractions this year. Korea was TBA for a long time last year, but it wasn't like current sponsors were 100% expecting it, paid extra for it and then had the rug pulled from underneath them. We've known the current schedule for 21/2 months now and all but a few insignificant details from a "car sponsor" standpoint for substantially longer than that.

In my mind if you're going to start racing early as has become the custom and you're having 2 week gaps, you need a bunch of new races. That's not going to work. Also, if they're racing earlly, it has to be somewhere warm. There is nothing currently on the schedule that fits that bill in the US. Besides, starting in April means that suddenly you get to make news instead of getting lost amoung everyone else's start of season hupla.

[Amar7605]

CC had St Pete, and that started the season early, but look what happened there.

I agree that that 6-week gap is awkward. But how about CC doing a Middle East tour? Before you laugh, hypothetically they could stage races in Dubai and Bahrain. Have the Bahrain race like a month before or after the F1 race, just like what basically happens in Montreal.

[carsten66]

I don't see that it is a big problem to start in april. And CC isn't the only series starting "so late"... in Germany the first race of the DTM (in Hockenheim) is on april the 17th...
But I agree the big brake between the 1st an 2nd race is much too long.

[Omega99]

That six week gap would be a good time to do a South American swing, and as other members of this forum have suggested, that was possibly the original intention, but they couldn't quite work it out. I'm hopeful that it works for next year, and the gaps disapear.

[JohnSSC]

Well, the DTM takes place in Germany. The weather in Germany is similar to what you have in the Northeast of the US, so an "early" start there is not possible.

If a big "splash" is the advantage to a late start, why not wait even longer?

The late start is a big disadvantage as OWRS gets "lost" in the goings-on of all the other Series' and by that time is competing with the opening of baseball season and a number of outdoor activites as Spring weather allows.

The other major Series that run here are able to take advantage of the climate opportunities that living in a country this large offers, so why can't OWRS? More importantly why won't OWRS take advantage of the opportunities?

[N I Tram]

Hopefully the South American races will be an option next year, but I'd still see early season as a good time to do some races in the hotter parts of the US, and maybe Mexico. Get the product out there to the main potential fan-bases, and have more chance of getting the best drivers availalble.

[Straightup]

Late start and an early finish not good. Big gaps especially early on a mistake. The problem is by the time CC starts their season, NASCAR will have run 7-8 races, F1 will have completed 3 races looking at race 4 and the IRL will be making the push towards the 500. The average race fan will know more about who's 18th in NASCAR points by time Longbeach gets here. As of this writing, I'm still not even sure who all will be racing. Need to race and race more often in my opinion.

[Amar7605]

Maybe what is happening is that CC is still rebuilding and getting their reputation back. All of those CART people really made a mess of things in the late 90s, so now the new owners are probably working their tails off to gain favor back with race promoters and such.

Give it a couple of more years, and CC will have more on the schedule.

[enemy-ace]

I see a lot of people stating the obvious here. Ideally I think every series would like to have a schedule like NASCAR's. Sure Champ Cars are starting late and Yes there is too big of a gap between race 1 and 2. But the most obvious aspect of all this is that Champ Car is in the middle of rebuilding the series. These things don't happen overnight. The owners have already stated that they aren't going to pour money into losing ventures. Thus some events have been dropped and more profitable ones are being added or looked at. To listen to some you would think that if the owners aren't propping up existing races by tossing money at them, then they are doing a bad job. But isn't that what Pook got blasted for doing in the past. The same arguement can be applied to the driver scenario.
Yes the current schedule leaves something to be desired, but if managed properly it can lead to the foundation of something much stronger.

[Snrub]

I completely agree enemy-ace. People can't critisize both of the only two options as incompetent.

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by enemy-ace

.... if managed properly....

There's the problem!

[indycool]

Last year, we had Korea AND a TBA. This year, I haven't heard anything final about Argentina, except the SPEED announcement it was going to televise it.

The gaps are one thing. The "ready or not, we're going green" concept of scheduling is another.