Observations from Assen Friday

After some rain overnight, the day has dawned partly cloudy and cool with a 30% chance of rain the next three days. The locals say that means a short period of rain can be expected anytime. That will make the guesswork for the teams and drivers that much more challenging this weekend……..As we arrived around 7:15 AM the track marshals and security personnel were just finishing their pre-race meeting. A large tent of some 400 personnel dispersed around the circuit…….We walked the track yesterday and took these photos on a very cloudy dark Thursday afternoon………..The smell of methanol is in the air as the Champ Car teams begin to warm up their 800 HP Cosworth engines…………..The support series running here this weekend include ATS Formula 3 Cup, BRL-V6 and the Dutch Super Car Challenge……..The white two story suite building seen in one of our photos is the largest temporary suite structure we have ever seen erected for an event………Kevin Kalkhoven is flying into Assen from St. Petersburg, Russia this morning on his borrowed Gulfstream IV, having spent the last 5 days vacationing with the large entourage he brought along…….Champ Cars are already down to the low 1m20s range, a full 8 seconds faster than what Andreas Wirth turned here in a demo two weeks ago using a Lola and over 12 seconds per lap faster than an A1GP car ever turned at Assen. By the time the weekend is over the Champ Cars should be down to the 1m18s range…..The owner of the two Europe Champ Car races, Bart Rietbergen, confirmed that all suites are completely sold out and ticket sales are huge. He is very happy. He also told us that next year Zolder will attract a lot more fans as they learned a lot this year about what mistakes were made. We are told by our German colleagues that very little advertising for the event was done in Germany. If true that is a real oversight with the large number of race fans in that country. Mark C. reporting from Assen