Monterrey race woes

UPDATE #3 This rumor is upgraded to 'fact' with today's announcement. See Hot News page. 02/04/05 We are hearing again that the Monterrey race will move to Sunday and it will now probably be shown on SPEED rather than NBC. The reason for moving it to Saturday in the first place was so the race could be on network TV. 01/31/05 We are upgrading this rumor to "very strong" as our sources tell us the promoter of Monterrey, Mexico is in full revolt and the race will be moved from Saturday back to its normal Sunday date. Reasons are given in this rumor below. Mark C. 01/22/05 Word on the street in Mexico is that moving the Monterrey race from Sunday to Saturday is going to have a negative impact on attendance in a big way. Instead of being a weekend event, the move makes the race a defacto one-day ordeal. Asking poor Mexican fans to buy a 3 day pass when most people can’t attend Thursday and Friday because of their jobs will make it difficult this year. Also fans who viewed the race as a complete weekend fun event will now be faced with the decision of just going to the race on Saturday.

Our sources on the ground in Mexico tell us to expect a decrease in attendance, and expect everyone who is against Champ Car to declare the Monterrey event dead after this 5th event. Local organizers have declared that they haven’t received this notice officially and are disappointed that they had to read the news on the official Champ Car web page. Our sources tell us that if Champ Car is trying to kill this race, they are doing a great job, alienating fans and local organizers. [Editor's Note: We don't make the news, we just report it.]