The Glass Is Half Full
Written by George Katinger · March 3, 2007
You know the old saying about the difference between an optimist and a pessimist. When evaluating the health of the Champ Car series there is one prominent party that sees the glass brimming with liquid promise.
autosport.com: Kalkhoven bullish on ‘07 season
I know what you’re thinking. What else do you expect a league owner to say; “Yes, our series is swirling around the old porcelain convenience and we expect the final plunge any day now”?
Kevin Kalkhoven, founding partner and primary source of finance for the Champ Car series, is responding to the devastating commentary written by Robin Miller on the speedtv site and as previously rebutted here at FastMachines. Some of Mr. Kalkoven’s relevant points:
“Looking at it objectively I think you’ll say the series has taken significant progress for 2007 and beyond.”
“Next Thursday people will discover that there are a number of new sponsorship deals in Champ Car which we will develop, and there are a number of very fully-funded teams and it’s going to be one hell of a season.
“There is absolutely no financial support being offered to any of the teams this year and the teams are standing or falling on their own success or failure. I’m delighted to say they tend to be standing.
“The other thing is we’ve signed long-term agreements with a number of new promoters and we have new events which fit the pattern and future of our series and we will be announcing series sponsors as well.”
Mr. Kalkhoven does admit to not properly marketing these promising new developments in the media, but further insists this may be the best series season yet. New cars, teams, venues, etc. etc.
What he fails to discuss is the continuing abysmal scheduling of races that gives the casual fan the impression that the league is hanging by it’s finger nails for survivial. With the China event dropped from May and pushed back to the fall (better than saying we’ve cancelled it yet again) there will be two six week stretches without a whiff of Champ Car racing.
While I react to the negative side of Champ Car stories (what else has there been to comment on?) I truly hope the series can rebound from the perceived negatives stated in Robin Miller’s article and implied by the series lack of PR efforts this winter. The IRL’s CART Lite effort is far from satisfactory in my eyes, and I don’t believe Mr. George can be trusted with the future of road-street racing if left to his own “visionary” planning.
So here’s to you Kevin: New cars, new TV deal, new sponsors, new American driver(s), new venues, a new engine sponsor, and a tighter schedule is all that it will take. We AOR fans all hope that glass is truly half full.
One last word on Robin Miller’s firing by the Champ Car web site. Robin, what did you expect when you told the owner (Kalkhoven) to sell his series assets to the competition (Tony George)? A pat on the back and a raise?
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5 Responses to “The Glass Is Half Full”
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Champ Car is alive and well. The true fans of Champ Car will do the advertising,but a bit of corporate help would not hurt.
This is another example of why I give Speed little to no credibility.
They fire Miller for writing the truth, yet keep Dillner after his “fake but accurate” story on RCR during last years NASCAR Chase.
Robin still writes for speed, unless there is more current news I haven’t read yet. He was fired by the official Champ Car web site.
Only because Miller tells it like it is and people take it how they want. Sometimes you need to take what Miller says with a grain of salt. Like it was once said don’t take it how I say something as long as you understand what I say and use it. I personally can’t stand the man and have met him a few times but more times than not he knows what he’s talking about other than he thinks Sarah Fisher will not win a race and I think she will, Go get’em little lady.What Camp and Indy need to do is at the end of the year is take the top ten racers from each series, match them up on PINKS(SPEED CHANNEL) and have it come down to the last driver from each series then merge once again and lets get it back to the racing it once was.
Since both organizations are on quasi talking terms, why not have an end-of-year championship with the top cars participating. You have to figure out what car to use and one side will have the advantage so maybe decide a “championship” with two races (using one anothers cars). Yes, its more expensive and complicated but then you’d have a “unified” championship.
After doing this for a couple years, everyone will probably be willing to work out a merger. Do you think the NFL and AFL liked each other in the 60’s?
There, problem solved and we can live happily ever after - I’m feeling wonderful now, isn’t it easy. Oh, fa la la, fa la la …