LVMS makes offer to attract CART

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001 | 10:29 a.m.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway officials have made a proposal to Championship Auto Racing Teams to hold a CART open-wheel race at the 1.5-mile superspeedway beginning next year.

LVMS general manager Chris Powell and CART chairman and CEO Joe Heitzler met Wednesday in the latest round of negotiations to bring the open-wheel series back to Las Vegas for the first time since 1984.

Powell would not say what the chances were the two sides could reach an agreement on his proposal.

"I won't try to put any kind of odds on it, I'll just say we had a nice discussion and I expect to hear from them soon," Powell said Wednesday evening.

While Powell stopped short of saying there was a deadline for the two sides to come to terms on a race for next year, he indicated that time was of the essence.

"I certainly think that if it's going to advance, it needs to advance at a fairly rapid pace simply because there certainly are issues for the 2002 season that need to be addressed," Powell said.

It is believed that CART would like to announce its 2002 schedule during this weekend's season-ending Marlboro 500 at California Motor Speedway. For that to happen, LVMS and CART would have to reach an agreement by Friday afternoon.

Asked if that was possible, Powell said, "I don't know if that's realistic or not."

According to Powell, he and CART have agreed upon a date for the race, although Powell would not divulge what that is. It is believed LVMS is looking for a date in May, prior to the Indianapolis 500.

"We know when we want to do it and it fits both us and them," Powell said.

LVMS has been without a major open-wheel race since April 2000, when the speedway hosted it's fifth and, apparently, final Indy Racing League event. An estimated 18,000 fans attended the 2000 race, which was won by part-time Henderson resident Al Unser Jr.

CART has not had a presence in Las Vegas since 1984, when the series staged races on a temporary road course in the Caesars Palace parking lot in 1983 and 1984.