Will Champ Car return to Milwaukee?
06/05/06 There has been much speculation that Sunday's race at the Milwaukee Mile would be the last for Champ Car. The race promoter had to hit a home run to avoid being knocked off the schedule by rumored races in Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Antonio (more likely for 2008) and Zhuhai, China. With at least 1/2 of the seats empty Sunday, it was far from a home run, but it was an entertaining race.
Milwaukee Mile officials saw it different.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article says [excerpts], Craig Stoehr wore sunburn and a smile.
The Time Warner Cable Roadrunner 225 wasn't flawless but it still provided plenty of positives for the chairman of Milwaukee Mile Marketing, the group that experienced its first race Sunday since entering an 18-year contract to promote the track at State Fair Park.
"We feel pretty good about it," Stoehr said. "The attendance was way beyond where they were last year, so we were happy about that. We had a great day. We had a real good race.
"Obviously there were some things that go off that you don't have any control over, but once the flag goes down, that's it."
Management announced a ticket distribution of 28,357 for the Champ Car World Series event, about 2,000 more than one year earlier. Actual attendance was estimated at 20,000. Although attendance is less than half of the peak of a decade ago, the crowd Sunday was at least double the size of that for the 2005 race.
The fans had a couple of reasons to complain. Just 16 cars started the race, the smallest field for an Indy-car race at the track in 60 years, and three of the starters were eliminated by a crash on the first competitive lap.
Although scheduled for 225 laps, the race was stopped after 197 because of Champ Car's time limit of 1 hour 45 minutes. A few jeers could be heard from the grandstand after the race, and some fans complained to track workers and each other about the length of the race.
"The answer is, of course, that we have contracts with television companies, and we have to fulfill those contracts," said Kevin Kalkhoven, a co-owner of the series and of the PKV team. "Obviously I was disappointed, but there were some yellows at the beginning.
"And I think there was some great racing for the fans today. I really do. They saw some history with a lady (Katherine Legge, one of Kalkhoven's drivers) leading the race today. It was a great day's racing, beautiful racing, and the fans seemed overall pretty happy and I think we are, too."
Of the time limit, Stoehr said, "We're stuck with it." The same thing occurred last year, when the race was cut short by four laps.
"What we obviously have to do is make sure that the fans here understand why it wasn't 225 laps to make sure there's no confusion about it," Stoehr said.
Stoehr leads a group of investors that leased the track from State Fair Park, which had lost money in three seasons in the unfamiliar position as a race promoter. Although the deal includes land for development, Stoehr and his management team have said they expect to put the track, itself, back in the black.
"We're in the position that we will sit down and talk with Champ Car – just like will with IRL and just like we will with NASCAR – about next year and make sure we get an arrangement that works for us as well as for them," Stoehr said. "If we can do that, we'd hope to have everybody back."
With this track within city limits it could easily be a 3-day festival that Champ Car likes to see, however, the only way that is going to happen is if the race moves to the State Fair week in August. However the infield of the race track is used for parking during the fair, and in the past that has prevented this from happening. We expect that Champ Car will drop this race from their 2007 schedule and the IRL will move their Milwaukee date to the traditional weekend after the Indy 500. Champ Car will return to Milwaukee if there is a merger with the IRL. If not, Champ Car may have run its last race at the famous mile oval as we heard a lot of people complain that all the damaged race machines were not worth the price given the disappointing attendance.