is the war ending?

Here's the question: Will I actually be able to find an American Open Wheel race on TV?
 
Well, we have the first casualty of the merger...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/65366

Forsythe Championship Racing have announced that they will close down after Long Beach having failed to secure funding to join the merged IRL IndyCar Series.

The team closure raises questions over the future of 2003 Champ Car World Series champion Paul Tracy, who had a long-term contract with Forsythe and was expected to move across to the IRL with them.

"Forsythe Championship Racing is announcing today the cessation of its racing operations," said Forsythe's VP of Operations Neil Micklewright.

"After 13 years of competition in CART and the Champ Car World Series, the team has been unable to secure the necessary sponsorship to be able to compete in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series in 2008.

"Forsythe Racing Inc., the parent company of FCR, will participate in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Champ Car finale, with drivers to be announced."

The team was founded in 1995 by Gerry Forsythe after he parted company with former partner Barry Green. Forsythe enjoyed early success with the late Greg Moore and took Tracy to a dominant title in 2003.

But the team struggled to attract sponsorship to replace long-time backer Player's after anti-tobacco advertising legislation forced the company to pull out before the 2004 season. Gerry Forsythe's own Indeck company had been the primary sponsor of the team's cars since 2004.

The team was set to run under the Forsythe Pettit Racing banner this season after Dan Pettit - formerly Kevin Kalkhoven's partner at PKV Racing and briefly the owner of the RuSPORT team - joined forces with Forsythe over the winter.

So, one of the great teams of ChampCar decides to quit the game and, for good or bad (decide your POV), Paul Tracy has lost his seat on the new IRL
 
^ that's really sad. PT has had his troubles the last few years and I was hoping to see him do well this year. To bad AGR doesn't have a seat open :(
 
Man, open wheel racing in NA just won't be the same without Paul Tracy. He's a character.

tracy082706.jpg
 
I was hopeful that the merger will be a good thing.

But now it turns out that it will be basically the case of CC dying and IRL taking over... And I don't like this :|
 
Man, open wheel racing in NA just won't be the same without Paul Tracy. He's a character.


He's never been my favourite, but he was a part of CC. A big part.
He'll definetely be missed if he doesn't compete this year.
 
Well, I know that he was looking at na$car for a long time - and made several attempts with RCR. If the powers that be don't find a seat for him, it'll be a mistake. He was my favorite in CART.
 
PT was a real funny guy, got a chance to meet him up at Vancouver a while back. :(
 

And Champcar declares themselves on bankruptcy.... again...

Champ Car World Series sold its assets to the Indy Racing League for six million US dollars - and has more than $10 million in debts - it was revealed this week, when the company filed for bankruptcy in the United States.

CCWS was founded four years ago, on the back of CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) - which then filed for bankruptcy itself. The owners of CCWS are team owners Kevin Kalkhoven, Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Dan Pettit.

In papers filed under Chapter 11 in the US Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday, the company reveals it has around $10 million in debts, as well as almost $2 million to engine company Cosworth - which is separately also owned by Kalkhoven.

Moreover, the court filing reveals the CCWS board approved the decision to file for bankruptcy on February 14th - a week before Kalkhoven and Forsythe issued a Memorandum of Understanding, which directs Champ Car to assign all its contracts, intellectual property and assets to the IRL.

Kalkhoven and Forsythe, according to the memorandum, are also set to receive two million USD from the IRL if they show commitment and support for the newly unified series.

Filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 means the court can give a company protection from creditors for a period of time, in order to allow that company to reorganise itself.

In the reasons for filing Chapter 11 papers, Gene Cottingham, vice president and chief financial officer for CCWS, stated in his affidavit the board has "determined that it is no longer economically feasible to sustain an open-wheel series and that [CCWS] did not have the funds to operate the series in 2008."

Cottingham further added: "it is in the best interests of the sport of open-wheel racing in general to sell certain assets to the IRL and to unify the sport of Indy-style open-wheel racing under the IRL, all before the start of the 2008 season."

Champ Car will stage its last race at Long Beach as a shared promotion between CCWS, IRL, Kalkhoven and Forsythe. The IRL will have responsibility for the production and televising costs of the event.

"The cooperative effort to stage the Champ Car finale will preserve the goodwill associated with the Long Beach race, and help to ensure that IRL can add Long Beach to its schedule beginning in 2009," stated Cottingham.

Ouch
 
Just saw Road America was dropped. That really sucks - it's an awesome track.
 
It's one of the greatest tracks in the world :(

Yes it is. I just wish some stupidly rich person would get the idea to pay for it to be upgraded to F1 safety regulations and for a new US Grand Prix there since we don't have one anymore in the States starting this year. I think it would be the perfect place for F1 to go and would prove to be a great event I think.
 
Yes it is. I just wish some stupidly rich person would get the idea to pay for it to be upgraded to F1 safety regulations and for a new US Grand Prix there since we don't have one anymore in the States starting this year. I think it would be the perfect place for F1 to go and would prove to be a great event I think.
I don't know, judging by the current F1 tracks (with a few exceptions), IMHO, the F1 safety regulations just seem to suck the character out of the track.
 
Yup, making Road America into F1 spec circuit would most likely mean changes to the layout and make it into another featureless track. I much prefer it as it is. Hopefully Indycar will get it back to calendar for 2009...
 
I wished Red Bull would somehow revive Champcar... seeing they've a bucket load of money, and too many drivers...

heck, they even dumped a few to CCWS...
 
^ as much as I'd like to see it, Road America will never be a F1-type track - Bernie only wants tracks in major cities. So if the US gets a race again, it would have to be Vegas, LA, New York, Chicago...but only a downtown street course.

...and I hate street courses!
 
^ as much as I'd like to see it, Road America will never be a F1-type track - Bernie only wants tracks in major cities. So if the US gets a race again, it would have to be Vegas, LA, New York, Chicago...but only a downtown street course.

...and I hate street courses!

About the only good one he could get is Long Beach, and it's not a particularly amazing track. Chicago, NY, Vegas all strike be as the typical checkerboard American cities where all the streets in the pretty parts are built at 90deg to each other. I haven't been to Vegas or Chicago so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I just don't think we have the downtown areas for it like some cities in Europe.
 
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