Speedway not giving up on CART

Tuesday, May 1, 2001 | 10:07 a.m.

The indefinite postponement of Sunday's Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) race at Texas Motor Speedway over drivers' safety concerns will have no impact on Las Vegas Motor Speedway's effort to secure a CART race next season, LVMS general manager Chris Powell said.

Immediately after CART called off Sunday's race, several news outlets, including ESPN's RPM2Night, reported that the move would "completely destroy" any potential partnership between CART and LVMS -- which is owned by the same company as Texas Motor Speedway.

Not so, Powell said Monday.

"Contrary to what (RPM2Night reported), it will not have a negative effect on our pursuit of (a CART) event here in Las Vegas," Powell said.

"The issue that concerned me today ... was that somebody was quoted as having said it had completely destroyed the relationship between CART and Las Vegas Motor Speedway and that is clearly not the truth."

Representatives from CART and Texas Motor Speedway met Monday to discuss the status of their three-year contract but have not announced when or if Sunday's race will be rescheduled or whether the open-wheel series will return to TMS in the future.

The Associated Press reported that TMS officials have asked CART to return the sanctioning and purse fee the track paid for the race, an amount TMS general manager Eddie Gossage said he wouldn't reveal.

Gossage said CART, while presenting some "creative ideas" of its own during the meetings, was provided several options to consider to resolve the immediate and long-term situation. He told the AP he hoped to hear something today, but said legal action remained an unwanted possibility.

Reports that CART was considering rescheduling the race later this year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway also were not accurate, according to Powell.

"That does not seem to be an option right now," Powell said.

CART elected not to race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway after drivers expressed concern over the excessive gravitational forces many of the drivers experienced at speeds in excess of 236 miles per hour on the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval.

CART's director of medical affairs, Dr. Steve Olvey, said drivers were in danger of becoming sick, disoriented or losing consciousness while driving for extended periods under loads of up to 5 1/2 G's.

Powell said that he and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. chairman and CEO Bruton Smith would continue holding talks with CART not only about staging a race here beginning in 2002, but about the possibility of CART moving its headquarters to Las Vegas.

Powell and Smith have spearheaded an effort to get state officials to pass a law that would give tax breaks to auto racing teams and sanctioning bodies that are based in Nevada.

"The situation that happened in Texas this weekend has had no effect on our pursuit of an event here in 2002 (or) the possibility of CART moving its headquarters here," Powell said.