In a difficult economic climate, success is all about competitive advantage. CART has several competitive advantages, it is just that it has taken a while to realise what they are and a little longer still to start using them.
One of the key 'edges' that CART possesses is the oval element of the calendar, that truly unique combination in open-wheel racing of road/street course and ovals. Recently Chris Pook has led CART wisely in an attempt to carve out a market niche and differentiate itself from the increasingly confused IRL series. While the IRL claims to be US-based it is off to Japan in April, and while it claims to be oval-only, differentials to allow road racing are in development - indicating a confused series much like CART was. But to completely move ChampCars away from the oval element of the series, its heritage in many respects, would do the series and its future a great disservice.
Many of the most recent converts to CART, particularly those fans from Europe took an interest in CART during its so-called golden era of the 1990s. The series offered so much more than F1: better looking cars, more exciting and closer racing (ably demonstrated by the concept that someone not from the front row of the grid could win), and the seemingly bizarre combination of road/street circuits and ferocious ovals. But a lot has happened since CART was at the height of its powers.
Most notably the series has, as everyone is perhaps getting a little tired of hearing, escaped an almost certain death but attentions must turn to the future in order to reclaim former glories. CART and ChampCars have a bright future but this will be diminished if the oval element of the series is allowed to pass straight to the IRL without some fight. The IRL is, though it will not admit it publicly, thinking about road courses in the future. It is therefore essential on this front that CART becomes synonymous with open-wheel road/oval racing before the IRL does and, with the Indy 500 still in its back pocket, crushes CART.
CART must keep the ovals to prevent the IRL from having an easy path to dominance in North America and at some stage in the future, on parts of the international stage. Without the ovals, CART will be effectively resigning itself to becoming the lapdog of F1, and instead of using ovals will rely on the muscle of the world's top racing series to help it fight off the IRL. But to form an imbalanced alliance with F1 would be to waste what is in simple terms the best open-wheel racing series in the world. The unique combination of tracks, the parity between teams and cars and the close racing that typifies CART could all be lost if ChampCars becomes an F1 feeder series.
ChampCars will most likely become the lapdog of F1. Chris Pook will in the process both save and destroy the series, safeguarding a future for ChampCars but that future will be as nothing more than a glorified junior formulae. The alternative is for CART to keep its ovals, thumb its nose at F1 and start using its competitive advantage. And maybe, if CART started work now, by the time the major manufacturers leave F1 they won't have to set up their own championship; a ready-made series with real racing, cosmopolitan tracks and international coverage could already be in existence.
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