Schedule conflicts will hurt planning for the Grand Prix on Feb. 22, officials say.
By LEANORA MINAI
Published December 2, 2003
[Times file photo: Brendan Fitterer]
Paul Tracy won the 2003 St. Petersburg Grand Prix.
ST. PETERSBURG - The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which attracted 50,000 racing fans to the downtown waterfront earlier this year, has been postponed indefinitely.
The St. Petersburg race was scheduled for Feb. 22 as the season-opener for Championship Auto Racing Teams, or CART.
But scheduling conflicts created by the proposed sale of the cash-strapped auto racing series interfered with planning for the event, said CART officials.
Mayor Rick Baker said Monday he is hopeful the race will continue in St. Petersburg in 2004. He will talk with racing officials after a Dec. 18 meeting when shareholders are expected to vote on a buyout.
"From what I've heard, there continues to be high excitement for the St. Pete race," Baker said. "Our hope is that once they complete the process of taking it private, we'll have the opportunity of sitting down with them."
Baker said that while he is optimistic the race will return in 2004, he cannot make any promises.
"I don't think we can say "definite' until we see what happens after the completion of taking CART private," Baker said.
With St. Petersburg out of the picture for February, CART is aiming for an April 18 debut in Long Beach, Calif., a decision made in large part because of the series' uncertain future.
"Our teams need a certain amount of time to properly prepare themselves for a racing season," CART president Chris Pook said in a statement released Monday evening.
The Indianapolis-based CART series has suffered financial problems for several years and is hoping to complete a sale to Open Wheel Racing LLC this month, possibly as soon as Dec. 18.
Open Wheel, formed by three CART team owners, has offered $7.4 million - about 56 cents a share - for all of CART's outstanding stock.
If that sale does not go through, CART officials said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month that the series will run out of money and "will be required to cease operations and cancel the 2004 season."
A short transition period between the approved sale of the series and the start of next year's racing may not allow teams - many which have limited financial backing - to adequately address sponsorship issues before the St. Petersburg race.
CART officials said they intend to reschedule the St. Petersburg race for sometime in 2004. Calls placed to several race teams were not immediately returned late Monday.
In April of this year, race promoter Dover Motorsports revealed that it lost money on the St. Petersburg race.
The race, which featured Indy-style cars zooming along at speeds faster than 200 mph, kicked off the Champ Car season for CART.
Drivers praised the course, which ran along 1.8 miles of the city's waterfront. Organizers said the event drew an estimated three-day total of 50,000 spectators, which was about half as many as some race officials had hoped for.
The city of St. Petersburg agreed to allow organizers to run the race on city streets annually for five years and spent $85,000 improving rough roads. But the city has no direct stake in how the race performs financially.
CART's financial downfall started in 1996, when the Indy Racing League - now a rival series which has lured away several CART officials, drivers, owners, engine suppliers and sponsors - was created.
The troubles have never been worse for the series than they are now. CART revealed in SEC filings that it lost more than $75-million in the first nine months of the year alone, a deficit accumulated primarily by paying for TV time and helping fund its teams.
St. Petersburg is one of two Florida races on the proposed CART schedule for 2004, although neither now has a set date. Series officials were unable to declare a firm date for next year's Grand Prix of the Americas in Miami because of other unrelated scheduling conflicts.
It was unknown Monday if CART officials are considering running the St. Petersburg and Miami races in succession. The Miami event has been held in early fall each of the last two years, and CART executives have often said that staging popular events in Florida would be an asset to the series' long-term success.
- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
