Miller exposes flaw in Champ Car strategy

Reiterating what we have preached for several years now, Robin Miller hammered Champ Car on Wind Tunnel Sunday night by saying that Champ Car's street festivals are a great party atmosphere but they do not build a fan base because these people attend the festivals to have a good time, but don't tune in on TV week in and week out to watch the races, because they don't become fans of the drivers, hence their low TV numbers. i.e. they become fans of the particular festival that they attended, but that is about it.

As we have stated for years now, the only way Champ Car is going to be successful is if the focus is on the drivers – the athlete – like every other successful sport.

In this 6-week hiatus Champ Car, which is running its marketing and PR on a shoestring budget, will become largely invisible just like it did in the off-season, with almost zero marketing and zero driver exposure. Is Red Bull, McDonald's, CDW, etc. featuring the Champ Car drivers in funny commercials on TV that raise the consumers awareness of these drivers? Nope, nothing. And if Champ Car can't get the sponsors they do have to activate in this way then the series is never going to get past first base.

The small 17-car grid doesn't help either. That's only 17 drivers for fans to root for. Fans certainly don't sit in the grandstands rooting for the festival, they are there to root for a particular driver, and when there are not many to choose from, they simply don't come back again.

And, from a media perspective, on the biggest racing weekend of the year in the USA – Memorial Day – where is Champ Car racing? Champ Car is invisible with no race while the others all get featured in newspapers globally with F1 at Monaco, the IRL at Indy, NASCAR in Charlotte and Grand-Am at Lime Rock.