The astute follower will also recall that this type of
s***bag behavior was also the mindset of CART
principals and manifest within upper management.
OWRS, aka - Outcast Weirdo Reprobate Slimeballs
Written by: Robin Miller 02/14/2008 - 08:56 AM
Indianapolis, Ind.
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/irl-champ-car-unfication-frustrations/
IRL drivers could soon be joined by Champ Car drivers,
but the merger is yet to be determined.
It's just past midnight on Valentine's Day and my phone has not
rang for almost 30 minutes. Since last Friday, when my story
broke on the latest and most serious attempt to put open wheel
racing under one roof, it's almost been like a non-stop,
information hot line.
Me seeking it and others wanting to know the latest.
For a while it was fun, getting tips, checking them out, tracking
people down and generally being more and more optimistic this
time it was actually going to happen. It's always kinda fun when
you're working on a scoop, especially when it's a topic directly
connected to your passion and your life.
It's also fun to see fans, racing people and other re****ters react
and, as always when we talk unification, the wave of euphoria is
tempered by skepticism.
But, a week into what we'd all hoped was going to be the best
story of the decade, it's not so much fun anymore.
The phone calls haven't stopped, they've just taken on a different
tone. Somewhere between confused and frustrated and angry.
Champ Car drivers, mechanics, engineers, staffers and, yes, even
owners want to know what in the hell is going on?
In the past 24 hours I've heard:
.. Gerry Forsythe has decided to keep Champ Car going without
Kevin Kalkhoven.
.. Forsythe is buying all of Derrick Walker's equipment because
he's going to have to field at least six cars to make sure there's a
dozen on the grid.
.. Kalkhoven and Craig Gore, the co-owner of Team Australia
who still owes Derrick Walker a fortune from 2007, are going to
run a team in the Indy Racing League.
.. Kalkhoven owns the majority rights to Long Beach so he'll still
cut a deal with George to have the IRL there in April and Motegi
will be postponed until 2009.
.. Champ Car will show up at Long Beach for the season opener,
then disband and join Tony George's series at Indianapolis.
.. The four Champ Car owners will have a conference call on
Friday to decide their fate.
.. They've already decided to file for bankruptcy but, for some
reason, they're dragging their feet.
Now, mind you, this stuff didn't come from my imagination or one
of those chat rooms, these different scenarios came directly from
various CC owners, workers and drivers.
And that's why this thing is becoming kinda pathetic, if not sad.
The lack of communication from Kalkhoven and Forsythe to the
other owners and their employees is disengenous, unprofessional
and Enron-like in its insulting silence. Nobody in the Champ Car
office knew anything about a potential takeover by the IRL until
most read it on SPEEDTV.com and some really good people
have gone to work every day this week like somebody on Death
Row.
One would at least think Paul Newman and Carl Haas had earned
the right to be in the loop but they get no information. Ditto for
Keith Wiggins, Eric Bachelart, Tom Figge, Dale Coyne and Walker.
Bachelart, who would mortgage his home - and probably has -
to keep his team going, went out and spent $1 million recently on
a spare car and other bits. Then, he learned his "leaders" were in
the process of shutting down and making a deal with George.
Bachelart found out because I told him.
Kalkhoven and Forsythe have spent millions keeping CC afloat
since 2004 so a million dollars in nothing to them but it's hard-
earned for Bachelart and the least they could have done was
keep their fellow owners apprised of what they were thinking.
Incredibly, they paid a visit to Bachelart a couple weeks ago
to tell him everything was fine and, in turn, he went on a
teleconference and said he believed in them.
Believing either one of them, separately or together, is
becoming increasingly difficult.
In a stretch of 12 hours last week, Kalkhoven said he and Gerry
were 100 percent together on going with George in 2008 providing
Long Beach was in play; then he denied there was ever a deal;
declared that Motegi wasn't going to change its date to appease
Long Beach so the unification plan was over; and then said
everything was on hold until Motegi agreed to cooperate.
We don't know if Forsythe would have approved a deal without
some buyout, because he seldom returns phone calls or speaks
publicly. But a year ago at this time he vowed to only run one car
unless he got sponsor****p and, naturally, he wound up fielding two
cars with no sponsor****p. Now, still with no sponsors in sight, he
might be considering paying for the whole series? That sounds as
far-fetched as a guy spending $25 million to come to only three
races.
Dan Jones sure has a tough time believing them. After their leaky,
sticky and faulty fuel systems failed on their new Panoz cars early
last season, Jones' company was contracted to save them. Now
Jones is a well-liked, smart racer who is universally respected. He
busted his ass and got every car fixed in time for ****tland and
they performed flawlessly the rest of 2007. His reward? His
$300,000 bill has never been paid. He borrowed money to make
payroll and is nearly out of business. He finally sued Champ Car
last week.
On the flip side of this madness is TGeorge.
It would appear he's acting in good faith, based on the information
we've been presented. He said early on that unification was
"closer than ever before" yet there were still obstacles but if the
Long Beach/Motegi problem got solved, he was optimistic. He
flew to Japan last weekend to try and reach a compromise with
the Honda brass.
We don't know what was decided but, obviously, George isn't
going to re-schedule or postpone his race at Motegi until he sees
what Champ Car is doing.
He's flown to England for Scott Dixon's wedding this weekend
and some people are shocked he left the country with open
wheel's future seemingly up in the air.
But maybe he already knows something. Or maybe he just
knows who he's dealing with.
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