Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: CART drops Wisconsin race, cites lack of payments

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

CART has dropped the Grand Prix of Road America from its 2003 Champ Car schedule because the series claimed the race organizers failed to make required payments for both of last year's and this year's events.

CART issued a statement that said the Elkhart Lake, Wis. track failed to pay the balance of last year's sanctioning fee and the first installment of this year's agreement. Last month, CART filed suit against Road America for failing to honor the sanctioning agreement.

CART added that Road America officials "rejected a reduced and revised financial arrangement that was offered by Champ Car management as a settlement of the lawsuit.

"As a result, the series was forced to remove this year's race from its schedule in order to give its teams, sponsors and broadcast partners proper time to adjust travel and logistics schedules."

A Road America spokesperson told the Associated Press that the track negotiated in good faith and met all of its financial obligations under its arrangement with CART. The series said that it had received no money from the track as of the end of business last Friday.

CART said it would consider returning to Road America in the future "providing a satisfactory and professionally responsible business arrangement can be reached with an appropriate race promoter."

The loss of the Road America race leaves CART with an 18-race Champ Car schedule. The series also dropped a race at Chicago Motor Speedway from the schedule last month.

"We are pleased to have taken these steps to secure the Miami race for the foreseeable future," CART president and CEO Chris Pook said.

"As I have often said, I believe Miami to be the gateway to what is a very important Latin American market for us and the fact that we can showcase our teams, drivers and sponsors in this market is a key point for us and for our future."

Event organizers estimated that 85,000 spectators attended the inaugural Grand Prix Americas over the course of three days last October.

Wilson is the first racecar driver to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. Wilson and his manager, former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer, issued a 34-page prospectus that offers investors a possibility to double their money and then receive a 10 percent return on their investment through 2012.

"I am very disappointed," da Matta said. "The only thing to do now is to put this behind me and go to Malaysia. It is a good thing that the next race is in 15 days and that I don't have to wait through another four months of testing for the next Grand Prix."