Portland slams Champ Car
The IRL will reportedly include Champ Car's Long Beach, Edmonton, and Surfer's Paradise (Australia) races for 2008, and perhaps two more Champ Car events.
Mark Wigginton, the PIR track manager, said he is disappointed that Portland will lose its race but that he also believes the IRL will consider PIR for 2009.
IRL officials did not return phone calls today.
"I'm pretty disappointed, because you don't get very many opportunities to have a 25th anniversary race," Wigginton said. "I'm also disappointed in the way Champ Car has handled this from the very beginning — the way they've treated their staff, their competitors, the people that work for them, and the fans."
Wigginton was alluding to the fact that many Champ Car teams found out about the merger talks through conversations with reporters. "You had a business slowly closing down, you had a lot of people (still working) to put on a good show and offer a good product, and everything was done in secret," Wigginton said. "They haven't been straightforward with any of their stakeholders. It's just too bad. — it was a bad end (for Champ Car)."
Wigginton said PIR, which has just been re-paved, will not take a financial hit without a Champ Car race. "What we've made in the last couple years is just a little more than we would make in a typical week of rental," Wigginton said. "I've got an open date in July now. We're going to take a hard look at what sort of options we can come up with. If nothing else, we will just have a normal week." The Oregonian