Jul 31, 2006

Champ Car Dumps Korean Race

If you were planning your autumn vacation around a visit to the Champ Car race in South Korea, you better get in line for a refund of your airplane tickets. (You also might want to sign up for counseling.) For the second straight year Champ Car scheduled a race in Ansan, South Korea, and then was forced to yank it from the schedule.

In a terse announcement, the Champ Car World Series announced that "the inaugural Ansan Champ Car Grand Prix scheduled for October 15-17 in Ansan, South Korea, has been removed from the series calendar."  The announcement went on to say, "A number of factors have combined to prevent the series from holding the race on the yet-to-be-completed track in Ansan." Since the Koreans have now had two years to complete the yet-to-be-completed track at Ansan, one might legitimately begin to wonder if it will ever be completed.  While the failure to have a facility was the biggest factor in the cancellation, there were other reported problems, including very limited access to the track for the hordes of spectators who were expected and, of course, the government red tape involved in putting a race in a new venue, which is said to be especially onerous in Korea.

"It is regrettable that this event in Korea has failed despite our repeated efforts to bring it to fruition," said Champ Car World Series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven. "We will not allow this setback to detract from what has been a very successful season."

The very successful season now has matching gaping holes in its schedule.  The first is the month-long delay between the August 27 Montreal race and the September 24 Road America race in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  The second month-long lull now occurs between Road America and the October 22 race in Surfers Paradise, Australia.  The Korean race was designed to fill that gap and spread the costs of traveling halfway around the world over two events versus just one, but the cancellation of the Ansan event kills both objectives.  Still, Champ Car says it is still interested in Asia.

"Despite the unfortunate situation regarding the Korea event, we intend to further develop our presence in Asia and the Pacific Rim," Kalkhoven said, "and are continuing to build toward our goal of conducting world-class events in these regions."