San Jose fallout
- Mercury News: How city's grand prix dream of long-term deal went south
- ESPN – Demise of San Jose GP just latest setback for Champ Car
09/12/07
- Purdy: Big promises for S.J. Grand Prix and, in the end, little to show
- Organizers: Future construction is roadblock to downtown San Jose Grand Prix race
- PressTelegram: LBGP survives series
- The Monterey Herald: It's about the money
While critical, the Purdy article gets to the heart of the matter – the organizers were losing money and were not going to receive a larger government subsidy. The development in the area is being used as a cover. If the race was in the black, the promoters would have petitioned to move the race to the HP Pavilion parking lot or maybe even the underutilized Moffett Field airfield in neighboring Mountain View. Both sites were discussed as potential venues in the past.
To us, it seems like they allowed Champ Car time to save face and negotiate the move to Laguna Seca. Considering that attendance shot up when the race was moved to San Jose, this has to be seen as a sideways move at best. Of course the cost to run a street race is magnitudes higher than on a natural terrain road course (which has no setup and dismantling costs). On another note, this has to hurt whatever might be going on in Orlando as we hear that San Jose City leaders knew about the Phoenix cancellation.
Many traditional Indy Car and Champ Car fans never felt that these powerful cars belonged on a street course, having originally been designed for high speed ovals and natural terrain road courses. While there is magic on the streets of Long Beach, Surfers, and Monaco, it takes a very special street circuit layout (think Adelaide, Australia) to make a street venue work. We have seen too may fail due to the high setup and dismantling costs (without the requisite corporate backing) and poor sight lines for fans.
If Champ Car wants to have a successful street race, go to Adelaide, Australia like we said years ago – on back-to-back weekends with Surfers. Both will be huge successes. Otherwise, as we are already seeing, Champ Car will move back to natural terrain road courses, both here and abroad, where the cost to put on an event is far less. If Champ Car does add a new street race, expect it to be far more scrutinized than in the past. The series cannot afford the negative PR from any more failed events and Las Vegas appears to be the next to get the axe unless the right forces are brought to bear to ensure its success.