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On the eve of destruction

Written by Josh Katinger · August 7, 2003

Terry Blount discusses the obvious and ominous negative outlook for the future of the CART series. They all said the exact same thing about CART last year…and low and behold people showed up to race. Granted all the money that was given to teams by CART so they could run this season is gone now. However I don’t think that this group of team owners is ready to give up on the series. Their arrogance will probably see them buy it out and take heavy losses for a few years while they try to figure out what to do with this series…


But therein lies the real question: where does this series fit? As commitment in the past, the MotorRock concept is DOA. The IRL is doing some great racing even if their marketing is quite poor, and of course NASCAR is a powerhouse that has a death grip on the motor sports mindshare of the average American. As Terry mentions, even true racing fans (which are quite different from NASCAR fans) are starting to see CART as an F1 feeder series. So where does that leave CART? Nowhere.

Even if CART did die, I’m doubtful it would spell the end for CART’s marquis events and venues such as Long Beach and Laguna. The IRL has already hinted that they are more than ready to pick away at CART’s rotting carcass and start doing some road racing. On top of that, most of the ovals that CART runs at already have either a NASCAR or IRL, or both. I can’t imagine that these tracks would miss CART all that much given the very lack-luster ticket sales of past 4+ years.

Terry gives good bullet points on the top issues that got CART where it is today:

  • The split with the IRL in 1996, fracturing fans, teams and sponsors.
  • Taking the company public, which limited the ability to make major changes.
  • Mismanagement at the top, with poor hiring decisions and too much control by self-serving team owners.
  • The race-day cancellation at TMS in 2001, one of many decisions that made the league look unprofessional.
  • The appearance of being a feeder series for Formula One. Four of the last six CART champions left the series for F1.

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