1/23/2004

IRL to Scavange CART Assets

It looks like the IRL is ready to kill, then pick over the bones of CART. These quotes are from Yahoo UK.  
"While we are aware of the interest shown by other parties, OWRS is committed to assuming all the liabilities associated with the bankruptcy," said Open Wheel partner Kevin Kalkhoven, co-owner of the PK Racing team. "The IRL wants to bury, OWRS wants to build. That's the difference."
IRL spokesman Fred Nation said the intent behind IRL's bid, "is to unify open wheel racing, and on the platform of the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway."
"The IRL's late-game involvement and its admission that it is not prepared to go road racing in 2004 has awakened years of mistrust and anger for the breach in open-wheel racing," said Paul Gentilozzi, owner of CART's Rocketsports Racing team and one of three principal partners of OWRS.
I think Gentilozzi wants CART as a bargaining chip to reunite CART with the IRL in 2005. That is, after he negotiates the best deal as far as money and the number of road courses that would be run.