Champ Car to cancel China race?
08/28/07 Champ Car officials will confirm any day now the worst-kept secret of their season: The race planned for China in October finally has been canned. The cancellation is a given among Champ Car teams. No one is planning for the event, and the title contenders spoke about only “four races left" after the race at Zolder in Belgium. AutoWeek
[Editor's Note: AutoRacing1.com can also confirm this. Champ Car was trying for an alternate date, of Thanksgiving weekend, but it made no sense this late in the game. We await the official announcement.]
06/24/07 We hear there is a meeting with the FIA next week and Champ Car still hopes the FIA will be lenient with them and allow them to race in China in October. Honestly, Champ Car is no where near a threat so why should Bernie be worried about a race 750 miles away? Makes no sense to us. If not October, the race will go in May next year.
06/05/07 This rumor is downgraded from 'fact' to 'speculation.' Kevin Kalkhoven told AutoRacing1.com that "the FIA's position on the China race is bizarre. Our race in Zhuhai is three weeks after the F1 race in Shanghai and 750 miles apart. It is a totally different market. We won't take this lying down. We have a meeting on this with ACCUS coming up."
The Automobile Competition Committee of the United States (ACCUS) is the National Sporting Authority (ASN) of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for the United States. ACCUS serves as the interface between the international FIA organization and its member clubs in the United States. For 2006, the member clubs are Grand-Am, IMSA, USAC, Champ Car, NASCAR, NHRA, SCCA, IRL, and WKA.
If the race does not run in October, it will definitely run next May we hear.
06/01/07 This rumor is upgraded to 'fact' with today's news – see Hot News page.
05/31/07 Before things get out of control I will give you the facts as they stand today.
The FIA had approved a race date in China for the month of May. We were full speed ahead until the investor group for the promoter changed over the winter. The new investors did not have enough time to stage the race.
We have gone back to the FIA for a date change (Oct 28) but they have not approved the change. They feel with F1 running three weeks prior to the event nearly 800 miles away that it may take away from the F1 race.
Although the FIA has acted within their rights and by their bylaws, exceptions could be made. I do not believe that we will impact the F1 race, nor do I feel the F1 race, 800 miles away will impact our race.
We have not given up and are working to provide the support data to our argument to the FIA.
If we are not successful then we will have to postpone the race till the spring of next year. The difference between this and Korea was the Korea situation was very political and there was not a track completed to race on.
Everything in china is a go. The track and city are beautiful, the infrastructure is there we just need approval by the FIA.
To summarize, the FIA has done nothing wrong nor has BE. We are using our best efforts to convince them to make an exception for us. This has been done before. Steve Johnson, President of Champ Car
05/26/07 Another reader writes, Its never too late for Champ Car to get a Chinese driver into their series. Best bet still being Ho-Pin Tung, who now is competing in GP2, unfortunately without any pre-season testing whatsoever. Nevertheless he is beating his more experienced teammate this weekend in Monaco!
By the time the Zhuhai race is scheduled (October 28th), the GP2 series is long over (last race September 30), and the people behind Champ Car can prepare Ho-Pin for his debut in Champ Car in time. He will then be the first ever Chinese driver to start a top-level single seater series (and by doing so they will beat 'good old' Bernie in his attempt to have the first Chinese driver in his series)!
By giving Ho-Pin Tung, as a Chinese driver, his debut during the Zhuhai race in China, Champ Car can make themselves immensely popular in China! Somehow I'm not sure if the people behind Champ Car realize this …. One person does understand this though and he was spotted shaking Ho-Pin's hand on the Barcelona grid … !
Of course this can only happen if a Champ Car race will be held at Zhuhai, which at this point appears iffy at best. Peter Joseph
05/26/07 A reader writes, Dear AutoRacing1.com, Who won the Champ Car race in Zhuhai, China scheduled for May 20th? I went to the Zhuhai website and there is no news on who won the race. Ditto for the Champ Car site and I never saw an announcement on the cancellation. In fact any mention of the race has been removed from Zhuhai's website. Looks like this race is going to be another Ansan, announce the race and then have to cancel it. Kalkhoven and Forsythe should sell the series to a company that has deep pockets and can make the proper investments in the series to run it right. As it is right now the only way they are running it is right into the ground. When it comes to running a race car series they haven't a clue. Larry Becker
Dear Larry, Given Champ Car's history in Asia, and lack of announcements on Zhuhai, we would not purchase any tickets just yet. The FIA has not approved the date change Champ Car wanted to October 28th because they claim it falls too close to the F1 race 750 miles away in Shanghai three weeks earlier. We think that's nonsense since 750 miles is quite some distance as is three weeks. We suspect there's more to this than meets the eye. Let's start with Champ Car not having a Chinese driver in the series this year……. Mark C.