Wow! Rumor of not, this has got to be one of the funniest, most
hilarious things I have heard recently!

Hankook Tires? On a CART car?

ROTFLMAO!

In the wildest fantasies where CART manges somehow, by hook or by
crook (you can substitute Pook for crook if you want), to survive and
does start to use Hankook tires, can you just imagine the interviews?

"My "Jimmy" car was set-up real well and was comfortable the whole
day, and my "Jimmy" car crew was great and did fantastic stops, but
today it really was the Hankooks that were terrific. We’re lucky here
in the Hankook presents the Champ Car World Series powered by Ford
camp to have such a well-respected and racing savvy company like
Hankook for such great tires."

"Zee HAN-kooks were ze ‘ting today. Thee had sooo mooch greep and were
so con-seeestint we could go all day on zeem. I can’t weet to try a
zet on my Peugeot at home in France."

‘Oh, I think the Hankooks we are using now are much, much better than
the crap Bridgestones we used before, applesauce. Those circus clowns
at Bridgestone were always screwing us around, but now that I have
Hankook I almost feel like I have a secret ‘KooK’ in my ‘Hand" to
spray sauce all over the rest of the field with."

Oh, yeah, babeeeeeeeeeeeeee! CART is attracting the BIG names in
motorsport, fur sure Dude!

Hankook! HILARIOUS! In their press release about their discussions
with CART they even called CART a "League!"

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

That’s interesting. Rumor has it that it could be as soon as next
week.

Part of the rumor says Clare will be shown the door, too.

Guess CART is just starting the housecleaning. You know the next thing
will be for CART to lay the blame for all the red-ink and financial
carnage at Pook and his minions feet.

CART always makes sure they have a scapegoat.

Of course, Pook is joke as a leader and director of a racing series.
Save for one hit, he was a complete failure as a promoter, too. Even
his one hit lost money for most of its history, and every one of his
other promotions has been a money losing, financial disaster.

Tracy was quickest and on provisional pole, followed by Tags and Patrick C.

Manning was quickest in practice! Oh, to see this guy in a Lola!

Just for fun, and to play to the pro-CARTers out there who actually
think CART might survive to have a 2004 season, let’s look at what a
CART schedule for 2004 considering the following –

Well, it looks like CART is set to lose all three of its Canadian
events.

Most likely Laguan Seca, too.

Both races in Europe.

Most likely Mid-Ohio and Road America.

Could lose Denver, and maybe even Fontana.

So if they do lose all of those, what’s left? Let’s look.

1. St. Pete, Fl. (though they lost a ton and still owe money)
2. Monterrey, Mx
3. Long Beach, Ca. (and this could even be a maybe)
4. Milwaukee, Wi. (and this may be going, too)
5. Portland, Or. (though it is also in jeopardy)
6. Cleveland, Oh. (though it might be gone, too)
7. Denver, Co. (and even this one if in jeopardy, too)
8. Miami, Fl.
9. Mexico City, Mx.
10. Surfer’s Paradise, Au.

That’s it! 10 races!

Even if you hold out that Laguna and Fontana, that’s only 12 races.

Far less than even the IRL will have in 2004.

I’ll bet you can guess the ramifications of that short a schedule!

My, oh my, how the mighty have fallen.

According to Autoweek, Roger Penske says Carl Haas is going to be in
the IRL in 2004.

On page 42 of the August 4th print issue of Autoweek, in the
"Competiton" section under the "Flash" column, Roger Penske is
discussing Sam Hornish and where he might be driving in 2004, and it
is reported Penske said the following, as to where Hornishmight end up
driving –

"Carl Haas’ new IRL team is a possibility. Haas has not confirmed his
interest in fielding an IRL next season, but with CART in peril and
Hornish’s agent being John Capenegro, who also represents the
Andrettis, there are connections."

With Players gone, gone, gone from CART, other rumors suggest Forsythe
may shut down his CART operation completely, and it is almost a sure
bet that Rahal will be forced to jump completely over to the IRL.

If all that happens, there will literally be nothing left of what was
once CART, except for Derrick Walker and Pat Patrick, and that is if
Patrick doesn’t pull out and retire, which has also been widely
rumored.

Remember when Forsythe was claiming earlier this year that he had met
with Bernie Eccelstone and that it was less than 30 days from when
CART future would be all wrapped up and it could be announced?

What, that was back in, like, February or March, right?

This is a post I found over on the CART/MPH message board on Yahoo
financial pages. It is really quite interesting and thought provoking.

You can link to it if you wish by clicking on this link

http://finance.messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=FN&action=m&board=12406895&…

or this one

http://tinyurl.com/jgdk

or you can simply read it right here –

"CART eulogy
by: Townsend71_72 (M/Ellington, CT)  08/07/03 05:53 pm
Msg: 26010 of 26119

With CART’s passing I thought I’d take a look through some old press
releases and review some past CART success stories. I like to share
some with you now. Enjoy!

Mar 9, 1998
Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. Announces IPO

Nov 3, 1998
Neil Russell to Produce CART-Based TV Series

Feb 25, 1999
FedEx Championship Series Drivers Prime For Largest Purse In
Motorsports History At Inaugural Hawaiian Super Prix

Mar 20, 1999
CART and Quokka Sports Announce Partnership

Sep 14, 1999
Mayor White Announces Three-Year Grand Prix Deal Reached Between IMG
Motorsports and CART

Sep 28, 1999
International PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship Set for Aruba

Jan 6, 2000
Elf Race Fuels Named Official Fuel Supplier for CART FedEx
Championship Series

Feb 9, 2000
Stallone and Franchise Pictures Join CART to Make Film Featuring FedEx
Championship Series as Backdrop

Jul 11, 2000
CART Coming to Texas Motor Speedway in 2001

Jul 12, 2000
England’s Rockingham Motor Speedway to Host First-Ever British Round
of the Fedex Championship Series in September 2001.

Dec 4, 2000
CART Announces Heitzler As Sanctioning Body’s New President And Chief
Executive Officer

Feb 8, 2001
Championship Auto Racing Teams Exploring Rio 200 Options

Feb 9, 2001
Championship Auto Racing Teams Cancels Rio 200

Feb 14, 2001
CART Creates Los Angeles-Based Sports Entertainment Office; Lucas
Named To Oversee New Marketing Effort

Apr 25, 2001
Cart Reaches Out to Cruise Business for New Marketing Head; Henley
Tabbed to Run Cart’s Marketing Division

Jun 5, 2001
Heitzler Named Chairman of Cart Board of Directors

Aug 16, 2001
CART Announces Expanded TV Deal with CBS, FOX Cable Networks Group

Oct 16, 2001
CART, Texas Motor Speedway Reach Settlement Regarding April 29 Race

Dec 19, 2001
CART Board Of Directors Elects Motorsports Veteran Pook As Sanctioning
Body’s President And Chief Executive Officer; Announces New
Initiatives With Dover Downs Entertainment, Inc.

Apr 13, 2002
MG Rover Group And Cart Announce New Engine Supplier Relationship For
CART FedEx Championship Series Competition

Apr 14, 2002
CART Appoints Octagon Worldwide Strategic Partner

May 31, 2002
Championship Auto Racing Teams Responds To NYSE

Aug 17, 2002
Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. Announces Aggressive Plan To
Attract And Retain Race Teams For 2003 And Beyond

Jun 4, 2003
Mario Andretti And U.E. "Pat" Patrick Step Down From CART Champ Car
Board; Businessman Robert D. Biggs Seeks Election In July

For details see:
http://www.shareholder.com/cart/releases.cfm?Year=1998&category=  "

If Canadians are such big motorsports fans, then why did they let such
legislation get passed that has now effectively eliminated high-level
auto racing n their country?

I don’t get. You Canucks who post here are constantly ragging and
putting down the USA motorsports fans and telling us much more
supportive and astute Canucks are of the sport. Each of you claim to
know far more about all forms of racing than any American motorsports
fan. Many of you also spout off regarding how spectacularly
intelligent you are about world affairs and politics.

Yet, here you are, so smart, so brilliant, so astute, so
intellectually in tune with racing, so politically saavy, and all and
you somehow either were not politically active enough or just too
apathetic to see the ramifications of the Canadian tobacco
legislation.

Now you have lost Players as the one company that nurtured and
developed motorsports in your country.

And now you have lost the Canadian GP at Montreal.

It is most, most likely you are going to lose all THREE of your CART
races.

Since Tracy, Carpentier, and Tags are are actually on the Player’s
payroll until the end of the year, it is most likely you will lose
them racing in any series that crosses the border nto your own
country, so your currently most successful stars will be racing
anywhere but Canada.

How did you wonderfully brilliant and so vastly superior racing fans
allow this to happen in your own country?

He’s insane.

Interesting stats for the group.

Looks like a couple of us need to take a bit of a break from this place as
well.  :-)

http://tinyurl.com/j1o4

Beaner