WHAT I KNOW ABOUT 2005...

Well here we are. And a Happy and Prosperous New Year to all of you. I want to share with you what I have picked up about next year since the season ended. The traveling officials were summoned together in the Tech Garage in Mexico City for the “State of the Series” address and despite the fact that many aspects of the ‘05 season aren’t settled, we are still WAAY ahead of the game from last year, when a 2004 season was far from assured.

SCHEDULE

You can find the current 2005 schedule here:

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/Event/EventSchedule.asp?Year=2005

14 races in all right now. 3 new venues in Edmonton, San Jose and Ansan, Korea. Edmonton will be an airport circuit (contact Ray Wintonyk for Marshal info - wintonyk@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca )
San Jose is a street circuit (Marshal Info TBD, but I would suppose SF Region will be involved) and Ansan will also be a street race in a suburb of Seoul and I dare any one of you to come!!

Unofficial talk of adding more races continues to surround two venues: Buenos Aires, a street race that is pending Government approval for a possible September date, and good old Elkhart Lake, which is currently being battered about by internet speculators as being added in May (Brrrrrr…) So we may have 14, 15 or 16, depending on how things shake out.

One very positive thing to report on the schedule and future planning for the Series is that we entertained a number of Ford Executives for both North and South America while we were in Mexico City. They all got rides in the two-seater, and I even had one alongside me in Race Control during a good portion of the race. Let’s just say that they and Ford are very happy with their involvement in our series right now, and where it’s headed. They are a big part of our plans for 2005 and beyond and I expect that a number of our future venues, both domestic and international, will reflect the markets that they are interested in. Half the races on the 2005 schedule are in the US, and half are outside. That’s the mixture we should see in the future.

SPRING TRAINING

We expect there to be a “Spring Prevue” type test sometime in February, although where isn’t finalized. I would look for a two or three day test in the Western US, but don’t hold me to anything. Could be we have Champ Cars and maybe even cars from our other support series as well. If we need Marshals, you’ll hear about it here.

TV PACKAGE

We will have network exposure again in 2005 which is great news for our sponsors. A TV package was set in October, but time since then has been spent making it better. There originally were going to be races live on CBS, but since CBS covers The Masters golf tournament on the same day as Long Beach, another network was needed for our Flagship domestic event. Milwaukee, Portland, Cleveland and Toronto will be on CBS and Long Beach and Montreal are on NBC. The remainder will be on a cable network which is still being worked out. For more have a look at:

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=8612

ENGINES

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=8570

On November 15, Champ Car Owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerry Forsythe purchased Cosworth from Ford Motor Company which may have been one of the most important “accomplishments” of the season regarding the sustained health of our series. As some of you know, Champ Car owns over 90 engines originally built and now serviced by Cosworth, and when Cosworth was placed on the selling block, the nay-sayers quaked. So this acquisition brings the engine program all “in-house” in a very broad way of speaking. To have a look at what Messrs. Kalkhoven and Forsythe feel the opportunities are here, follow this link to their press conference transcript:

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=8568

Oh well now, a ray of sun just came in the window and the driving range calls. Some of you know we have received 17 inches of rain in Southern California in 15 days, so gotta take advantage of dry weather. Look in a few days for Part 2 of “What I know about the the 2005 Season,” and I’ll get into some news on teams and drivers as well as some of the changes for Race Control headed our way…

JHS