[John Corn]

CART doesn't do very well to spark up fan interest during the off season. On a scale of 1 to 10 NASCAR scores an 15 when it comes to keeping the loyal fan interest, F1 about a 9 and CART , -3

It's not totaly their fault. It all comes down to weather or not the sponsors of the sport want to keep using racing to hype the product.

F1 sponsors, like the big tobacco companies, are rumored to spend $100 Million per year to put their name on the car. So year round media over-hype is essential to get your investment back.

CART has gotta work through it's "head up butt" management issues first and settle the IRL mess, before they can be followed year round

This possibly could be CART's last yeasr, as there are NO engine builders commited for '03 , as far as I know?

Shameful !!

 

[Guest]

I'll watch Paul Page on the ABC backhauls. Jason Priestley was interesting during the commercial breaks last year. Other than that, no interest whatsoever. If I see a backhaul - I'll post it to the groups, but it's just racing. Watch the cars go round & round. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Borrrrrrrrrrrrrring!!! No thanks unless it's a backhaul feed to hear what's being said during the commercial breaks. If the mics are cut then forget it - onto something else!!!!

 

[Rage]

No

 

[Angelfish]

Up north here we have lost interest in the sport ever since one of teh better racers in the series died during a race, I'm talking about Greg Moore. Here in Toronto they make some noise about the series in January when they want poeple to buy tickets for the Molson INDY in July, but otherwise thier isn't much interest. I think they should get their CART/IRL problems figured out first.

 

[John Corn]

ABC/ESPN still carry IRL. It's the worst, IMO. Very few fans show up, and open wheel oval racing is . Just my opinion.

CART and F1 are on SPEED. However, CART's Long Beach race (April 14) will be on FOX, as will the US Grand Prix for F1, which is in September.

F1 has the best drivers and races all on road/street courses. The champions from CART move up to F1. Kinda like the World Cup of auto racing, at least open-wheeled.

CART races on everything: superspeedways, short ovals, permanent road courses, temporary street courses. They race all over the States and Canada, and now there are two races each in Europe and Mexico and one in Australia.

If you get a chance to see a live race, do it. I'm going to Long Beach. Since you live in the Midwest, I will point out that there is a race in Chicago, one in Wisconsin, and two in Ohio. I think that's right.