Is Champ Car self-destructing?
Dear Eric, It's about this time every year that the rumors begin of Champ Car's demise. Just to underscore how ridiculous the rumors are, one says there is supposed to be a meeting in Indy Friday between Kevin Kalkhoven, Gerald Forsythe and Tony George about a merger, when in fact Kevin Kalkhoven won't even be back from the Antarctica until next week.
Losing Ford is pretty much losing nothing as they did zero promotion of the series and paid near zero dollars to have their name on the engines. They did support the pace car program but that was so they could entertain their guests. As for Denver, that race was a foregone conclusion the moment it lost its title sponsor. And the track was rather Mickey Mouse, crammed into the Pepsi Center parking lot. Just as the IRL had to deep-six their Colorado Springs event, auto racing has just never caught on big time in Colorado, which is largely a stick and ball sport state. Officially, however, Champ Car says it will return to Denver in two years.
As for the Vegas race, they list a lot of sponsors on their sponsor page. So while VISA may be absent for some strange reason, that race appears to be in absolutely no danger. Remember, it never was truly a VISA sponsorship, but instead a partnership agreement with First Data Independent Sales® Fresno by Cardservice International which processes VISA transactions. We suspect VISA did not want its name used as the deal was not with them.
And last your concern about Conquest Racing is valid as Eric Bachelart is struggling to find sponsorship to continue, but we saw this with teams in the IRL too. Mark C.