Monday, Sept. 29, 2003 | 8:55 a.m.
The CART Champ Car World Series will return to Las Vegas next season for the first time since 1984 and will stage a race and concert at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The sanctioning body, which is in the process of being bought out by a group that includes current team owners Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkhoven, on Sunday released a list of 15 "confirmed venues" for the 2004 season that included LVMS.
"The addition of such a strong market such as Las Vegas, where our television (ratings) have always been well above average, gives us even more reason to be excited about the upcoming campaign," CART president and CEO Chris Pook said.
"We are confident that 2004 will provide our fans, sponsors, teams and drivers with a series that they can be proud of and that delivers maximum value across the board."
The rock band U2 is one of the groups being courted to perform in concert before or after the race -- which likely would guarantee the event to be a success. U2 twice has played to sold-out crowds in excess of 40,000 at Sam Boyd Stadium.
LVMS general manager Chris Powell said Sunday that he would not comment on CART's announcement and would neither confirm nor deny that the speedway would host a CART race next season.
In addition to being one of the principals in Open Wheel Racing Series LLC, which is buying out the financially troubled CART, Gentilozzi also is a partner in MotoRock, a New York-based company formed to merge racing and other forms of entertainment. On the night before Sunday's Grand Prix Americas CART race in Miami, MotoRock staged its first big concert with Elton John.
Adam Saal, vice president of communications for CART, said Sunday evening that Gentilozzi had worked out a deal with Texas Motor Speedway general manager Eddie Gossage to stage at least the concert portion of the event at LVMS. Both Texas Motor Speedway and LVMS are owned by Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc.
"Paul Gentilozzi was speaking with Eddie Gossage ... as late as Friday and Paul was fairly certain that they had a deal (for Las Vegas)," Saal said. "The relationship is between Moto-Rock (and LVMS) more so than Paul Gentilozzi on behalf of CART.
"Although Paul is part of a group that is trying to purchase CART, he doesn't have the authority to do a (race) deal right now."
CART did not announce a date for the race and said in a release that "specific dates (for the 2004 season) continue to be coordinated with Champ Car television partners."
The open-wheel Champ Cars raced in Las Vegas in 1983 and 1984 on a modified oval in the parking lot behind Caesars Palace. Since the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was purchased by SMI in 1998, Powell has negotiated with CART on several occasions in an attempt to bring the series to Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosted the Indy Racing League from 1996 to 2000, but has been without an open-wheel race the past three years.
The news that CART will stage its first race on the 1.5-mile LVMS superspeedway likely will come as welcome news to at least four of the series' drivers as Jimmy Vasser, Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani all live in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway was the only new venue among the 15 CART listed as "confirmed" on Sunday. The other venues, which include ovals, permanent road courses, street courses and temporary road courses: California Speedway in Fontana; The Milwaukee Mile; Road America; Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland; Denver; Long Beach; Miami; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Surfers Paradise in Australia; Mexico City; Monterrey, Mexico; Montreal; Toronto and Vancouver.
CART said that current venues in England, Germany, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif., Portland International Raceway, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, as well as a new track in East Asia, are "under consideration" to be added to the 2004 schedule.
archive
