LVMS, CART renew discussions about race

Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 | 11:10 a.m.

The on-again, off-again talks between Championship Auto Racing Teams and Las Vegas Motor Speedway are on again.

LVMS general manager Chris Powell confirmed Thursday that he and CART chairman and CEO Joe Heitzler have held discussions in the past week about bringing the open-wheel series to the 1.5-mile superspeedway beginning next year, but said an announcement regarding a race was not imminent.

"I have had some conversations with Joe Heitzler that have been mildly productive," Powell said, "but by no means are we close to making an announcement about a race date."

Powell said it was too early in the process to determine whether the sides could reach agreement in time to hold a race next season.

"It just as easily could be that we have a CART race as not," Powell said. "There are some issues that we have discussed that we are not in agreement on and there are some other issues that we have to discuss that we might disagree on.

"It's not that we're at odds as much as there just is still a lot more to be covered as far as doing a business agreement."

Talks between CART and LVMS broke off earlier this year when the sanctioning body postponed its April 29 race at Texas Motor Speedway on the morning of the race due to safety concerns. The postponement eventually led to TMS filing suit against CART to recoup sanctioning and purse fees paid to the series, as well as lost revenue.

Texas Motor Speedway is owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc., which also owns Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Although no settlement has been announced in the matter between TMS and CART, Powell said he had the blessing of SMI chairman Bruton Smith to resume negotiations with CART.

LVMS has been without a major open-wheel race since April 2000, when the speedway hosted its last Indy Racing League event. Other than the inaugural race in 1996, which drew 65,000 fans, the IRL event here failed to attract more than 30,000 people. An estimated 18,000 fans attended the 2000 race.

It is believed that Powell was close to landing a CART race for 2002, as well as the series' spring training, when the race at Texas was canceled.

Powell said that Heitzler initiated the latest round of talks.