Korea GP is blow for Russia, Mexico
At the signing of a minimal seven year contract in Seoul on Monday, the governor of the South Cholla province, Park Joon-young, said: ''We competed with seven countries including Russia to host the formula one grand prix here.'
Indeed, reports that Russia was still eyeing formula one have waned in the last six months, and sources describe that the last attempt – championed by billionaire Roman Abramovich – did founder.
Since F1 cannot meet the world demand for races, is Champ Car prepared to step into Russia? At one time a group was trying to bring a Champ Car street race to St. Petersburg, Russia, but it never materialized. Now that Russia's hopes for an F1 race are over (F1 schedule is full – no room for anymore new races) will there be renewed interest for the Champ Car race? Perhaps, but whomever takes Will Wilson's place as head of marketing (his last day with Champ Car was this past Friday) must be prepared to market Champ Car as a true global sports property, and Champ Car must provide him/her with the requisite marketing budget.
07/03/06 Ron Dennis said the F-1 schedule will include Mexico and Korea by 2009 and he expects a race in Russia within the next five years. Indy Star
[Editor's Note: The big boys, NASCAR and F1, will fight over every possible sponsor dollar available in Mexico in the coming years. Champ Car will likely drop the Monterrey event from its schedule in 2007 and if it does not put a renewed focus on Mexico soon, it could end up losing the entire Mexican market. When Joe Heitzler and his team were stationed in Mexico full-time looking after that race the attendance and sponsorship for the CART/Champ Car event was huge. Once he and his team were yanked out of Mexico, the floor dropped out of the Mexican market for Champ Car. You cannot manage a business from 5,000 miles away. Not having a Mexican driver capable of winning races did not help Champ Car's cause either. Why isn't Salvador Duran in a car yet?]