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PHILLIPS: Tough Love
Written by: David Phillips
SPEEDtv.com   http://www.speedtv.com
03/12/2007
Pittsburgh, Pa.
 
While Bourdais was turning record laps, other Champ Car big names were awaiting better days from the sidelines. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos

Call last week's Spring Training event at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway Act III in Champ Car's program of tough love for the 2007 Champ Car World Series. As was apparent in previous tests at Sebring and MotorSports Ranch, having spent several years propping up financially challenged teams – not to mention running cars out of their own pockets – Champ Car co-owners Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi, Kevin Kalkhoven and Dan Pettit have concluded it's time the series and its teams (including their own) stood on their own two feet.

Not that they've thrown everyone to the wolves. Rather, instead of writing checks to keep some teams operating on a hand-to-mouth basis, they've invested in programs they believe will enable teams to become
self-sufficient. One such investment underwrote the design, construction and development of a new Panoz DP01 chassis which the series owners believe will result in reduced operating costs. Another is the time-buys with CBS, NBC and ABC/ESPN that will expose the series across a spectrum of major broadcast and cable networks, better enabling teams to sell the sponsorship deals that have been few and far between in the Champ Car World Series of late. And thanks to the new deal with Mazda as the series' official car – no series sponsorship or engine badge deal, mind you – that television package will (finally) be well supported by a major automotive player.

All well and good, in theory, but as one of the series owners conceded at Laguna Seca, they are somewhat taken aback by the lack of immediate return on their investment; surprised that team owners are still having difficulty selling sponsorship even with the new television package.

Evidently, it will take more than the promise of a broad television footprint to lure sponsors to the series; it will take, among other things, a track record of ratings, households reached, markets penetrated, etc. via that package to enable team sponsor hunters to sell their product and, just as importantly, for junior corporate personnel to "sell" the concept of Champ Car sponsorship to upper management.

Which is not to say there were no new sponsors at Laguna Seca. Lexington Energy Services, which debuted with Rocketsports in the final races of '06, is on board again this year, while Pay By Touch and Red Bull were much in evidence on the PKV cars – although one can't shake the suspicion Red Bull's presence is linked to the premature conclusion of Red Bull's F1 deals with a Cosworth Racing owned by Kalkhoven and Forsythe. Is it entirely coincidental that Kalkhoven's PKV Champ Cars and Forsythe's Atlantic cars carry Red Bull signage this year?

Nevertheless, it's clear even Forsythe, Gentilozzi, Kalkhoven and Pettit are racing on tight budgets in '07. Forsythe, of course, has only run one car in pre-season testing, one festooned with Indeck's logo (of which Mr. Forsythe is chairman and CEO). While some expect him to spring for a second car in time for the season opener at Las Vegas – David Martinez
being widely tipped as the driver – those I spoke with at Forsythe Championship Racing last week say they have not been informed of any plans for a second car.
Servia: among the outlaws this off-season. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos

Then there's the prospect of Gentilozzi and Pettit joining forces in a "technical" partnership between the Rocketsports and RuSPORT teams, the latter rescued from the brink of oblivion last fall. Presumably, the sponsorship from Lexington Services (in which Gentilozzi is an investor) and CDW (which has been associated with RuSPORT since '05) is providing some or all of the operating funds for the two cars . . . but no more. No second Rocketsports or RuSPORT car bankrolled by Gentilozzi or Pettit.

And how about that second PKV Panoz? The one now assigned to Tristan Gommendy, a former Macau F3 winner who had never turned a wheel in a Champ Car until last week – and who finished 2.5 seconds off the pace at Laguna Seca. Lest we forget, Oriol Servia set the pace in that same car at the Sebring test. Unlike Gommendy, of course, Servia has no personal money or sponsorship to bring to the table. Thus he spent the Laguna Seca test hanging with other proven Champ Car drivers like Dan Clarke, Mario Dominguez, Jan Heylen and Charles Zwolsman, while Zsolt Baumgartner, Robert Doornbos and Gommendy pedaled around – at least until they crashed (in the cases of Baumgartner and Doornbos) or fell out of the seat (in Gommendy's case).

Doornbos and Baumgartner were driving for Team Minardi USA, the team formerly known as CTE/HVM and acquired by former Minardi F1 owner Paul Stoddart late last year. Like the Red Bull sponsorship of PKV and Forsythe, there is more than meets the eye to Stoddart's ownership of the team. For example, there's the prospect of the Champ Car Fast Lap program (which afforded VIPs hot laps in Ford pace cars during down time at Champ Car events) being supplanted by a Champ Car two-seater program on steroids, namely the fleet of two-seater Minardi-Cosworth F1
cars Stoddart still owns.

The demise of the pace car fast lap program is widely believed to have contributed to Ford's decision to bring the curtain down on its relationships with Champ Car as series sponsor and Cosworth engine-badger. But that was evidently a price the owners of Champ Car were willing to pay in return for Stoddart bringing some much-needed financial stability to CTE/HVM.

The decisions by Ford and, in particular, Bridgestone not to renew their title sponsorships of the Champ Car World Series may well be their own version of tough love. In the coming weeks and months, Champ Car itself will be every bit as much under the gun to get new sponsors on the series logo and a new badge on the Cosworth XFE valve cover as teams will be to get new sponsors on their sidepods, wings and endplates. Turn about, after all, is fair play.

David Phillips is a Senior Writer for RACER magazine. To learn more about RACER, click here for subscription information.