CART race on hold until 2002

Thursday, June 15, 2000 | 10:22 a.m.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway wants to be added to the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) schedule, but likely will have to wait until the 2002 season for a date, according to auto racing industry sources.

CART's reported $2.5 million sanctioning fee for a race was believed to be holding up LVMS in its quest to add the open wheel racing series to its calendar. But sources told the Sun that the sanctioning fee "was no longer an issue."

It remains unlikely that Las Vegas would host a CART race next season because the series already plans to add a race in Monterrey, Mexico, and two in Europe in 2001.

"Las Vegas is an important market for us and (LVMS) is a good circuit, but timing may be another issue," said Bobby Rahal, a CART team owner and a key member on the series' board of directors.

"Las Vegas would be good for CART and CART, I believe, would be good for Las Vegas ... and if we agree to expand our schedule beyond 20 races, it's just a matter of time (before we add a race in Las Vegas)."

CART is running a 20-race schedule this season and, with the addition of three races, would have to trim some existing events from its schedule in order to remain at 20 races.

It was confirmed Wednesday that CART will drop its race at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis and the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Southern Florida may also be dropped. CART also is believed to be attempting to buy out of contracts at other venues that don't draw well.

"Right now we have an agreement that if we run more than 20 races, it would take the approval of all the owners," said Rahal, who fields cars in the FedEx Championship Series for drivers Max Papis and Kenny Brack.

"I can't say a whole lot about what we're doing, but our objective is to replace some of our weaker events with stronger events."

A race in Las Vegas, Rahal said, has the potential to be one of CART's marquee events.

"There is no question that the events that succeed for us are big-scale events -- events that go beyond the race itself," he said. "Las Vegas is big, by virtue of the city itself, and couldn't help but become one of the major events we'll have.

"Las Vegas certainly is an awfully strong candidate if we agree to go beyond 20 races. Like I said, it's just a matter of time."

Four full-time CART drivers make their home in Las Vegas: 1996 series champion Jimmy Vasser, Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani.

CART has not raced in Las Vegas since it held events in 1983 and 1984 on a modified oval on the Caesars Palace parking lot.

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