Some of you may have heard about CART losing sponsors and drivers along with the continuing financial problems they are experiencing. How do you think this is going to affect motorcycle road racing since we use a lot of the same tracks?
One concern I have is that the potential demise of these organizations is going to have a detrimental financial effect on the tracks which are important to motorcycle road racing. If the tracks lose a lot of revenue it will be harder for them to stay financially stable.
However this may be a benefit to us as well if the tracks become more motorcycle focused. They may be willing to accommodate us with better safety features and more/cheaper track time.
If these organizations disappear Motorcycle racing could also benefit from a shift in fan base as there are many who do not care to watch cars drive in a circle for hours but yearn for the excitment of a road course. Could we get some of the fans of road racing into motorcycles if the open wheel auto races go under?
Any opinions? good thing, bad thing, indifferent, or am I whacked and nothing will change?
Interesting theory.....
We'll have to see if this has any effect.
Dawn :)
I could go on forever on this topic. I have been an avid fan of CART since 1987 and to see the decline of the sport saddens me. With introduction to IRL in the mid 90's, which to me seems like open wheel nascar, there has been a shift to IRL with the big teams. The problem there is this.
IRL runs ovals only. No road/street courses.
CART has been a platform for drivers to get to Formula One.
If CART goes away, then there will basically be no way for an american racer to get to run Formula One. It is close to impossible to get and F1 ride anyway. The only american F1 racers in recent history have come from CART or Indy racing (before IRL). If an american wins a championship in IRL, I doubt very seriously that he will even get one call from an F1 team.
If something isn't done soon, I'm afraid the hopes of ever seeing and American F1 champion is ruined.
My .02
As for the impact on us racing these tracks, I don't have a freaking clue :-/
I would guess that the track owners would have to adjust their pricing accordingly to make up enough lost revenue for their businesses to remain profitable. Owners of tracks that are in the "urban development path" might find it more profitable to sell altogether.
Either way, it's bad news for us.
I think the tracks will probably be fine. My guess is if you look 5 years ago the only way tracks could make money is through racing events. Today's track day surge, however, has probably changed the dynamic of all of that. A small price increase for renting the track for a track day could go a long way to minimizing any losses during the year from missing out on a CART race. Spread that increase out across 80-100 participants and the overall increase to the end user is likely fairly small. I am sure there are other things that can be done as well to make up some of the lost revenue.
I'm also former open-wheel racing junkie. But the CART/IRL split killed it for me.
It's too bad CART is so weak and on the verge of collapse (we need more motorsports, not less), but since they were already moving away from the natural road courses into urban street races, I'm not sure their demise will affect motorcycle roadracing significantly. They only raced at Laguna, RA, Portland and Mid-O this year, and I know RA lost money on their CART weekend.
Perhaps a bigger threat to the future of motorcycle roadracing is the stunning success of NASCAR.
Thankfully there are still people willing to build and maintain natural road courses. We got VIR back, and MAM and Barber opened in the last few years. But what happens when investors and businessmen come to believe that the only viable, money making race track is an oval?
You may be right and I may be sticking my neck out here, but I'll venture to guess that Road America charges a LOT more to rent to CART than to NESBA.
Unfortunately, there is a price point where the cost of a track day may become unreasonable to a big percentage of the sportbike population. Given ever-increasing insurance costs and other overhead... will your "typical" car/bike club be able to continue to draw viable crowds?
I was under the impression that for pro events, the track would PAY the sanctioning body to have them race at that particular track, and the $ would be made up from ticket sales.
Anyone know how it works for the big orgs?
That's it. The tracks pay a huge sanction fee to the race organization and then have to promote like mad to get enough ticket sales.
The tracks also go after big sponsors to help pay the costs.
Wouldn't it be nice to see some of the big CART sponsors come over to motorcycles? I won't hold my breath though.
Keep in mind the teams also rent tracks for practicing when they are not racing. This income also helps the track owners. I know on my way to work I pass Firebird and there are cars of some form running almost every week.
IRL (at least accroding to Road&Track) is discussing adding road course races.