Champ Car event would compete with NHRA

Thursday, May 11, 2006 | 7:25 a.m.

Chris Powell isn't thrilled that promoters are holding talks with city officials about staging a Champ Car World Series open-wheel race on the streets of downtown Las Vegas.

Powell, the general manager of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, is even less enthused that the tentative date for such a race would compete with the speedway's annual spring National Hot Rod Association race.

As a taxpayer, Powell is downright indignant that race organizers are seeking public funds to bring downtown streets up to Champ Car's specifications.

Champ Car officials actively have been seeking a race on city streets for at least two years but recently have shifted their focus from a race on the Strip to one downtown. Champ Car has paid a hefty fee to stage races on the 1.5-mile oval at the speedway the past two years but will not return to it this year.

"I think we've got a speedway in the city that is perfectly capable of hosting such an event - without the taxpayers being burdened with having to fund a race course for an outside promoter," Powell said. "The speedway was built with private funds, it was acquired (by current owner Speedway Motorsports Inc.) with private funds and it is undergoing tremendous improvements with private funding.

"I would be disappointed if our local governments chose to underwrite such an effort."

Powell also noted that the speedway pays for its own traffic control for its annual NASCAR weekend in March and smaller NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event in September.

Sutton Motorsports Productions, which is seeking an agreement with Las Vegas to stage the Champ Car race, is asking officials to commit to $3 million in improvements during the first two years of what promoters hope would be a five-year contract.

The working date for the inaugural race is April 6-8, 2007, which would put the race either on the same weekend or the weekend before the NHRA event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"That also would be troubling for us," Powell said of the proposed date for the Champ Car street race.

"Our NHRA events have been as strong as any on the entire NHRA circuit, and I think that Champ Car would be foolhardy to attempt to come in and compete with an established event such as our SummitRacing.com Nationals."

Powell said he would like to bring open-wheel racing back to the speedway if unifications talks between the two rival American open-wheel series - Champ Car and the Indy Racing League - result in a single healthy entity.

"I'm not giving up on open-wheel racing," Powell said. "I just think that in its current divided state, it's going to be very challenging to have a schedule full of healthy events."

Also noted

Dale Earnhardt's car number during his first NASCAR Winston Cup championship season (1980 for team owner Rod Osterlund).

Indianapolis 500 champions entered in this year's race: Al Unser Jr. (1992, 1994), Buddy Lazier (1996), Eddie Cheever (1998), Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002), Buddy Rice (2004) and Dan Wheldon (2005).