Recently in his Q&A blog, Curt Cavin revealed how the intrepid one is grappling with the pesky IndyStar policy that doesn't allow him to quote unnamed sources. Not to be foiled by journalistic integrity, tonight Cavin checks in with former Honda honcho Robert Clarke, who has been serving as chaperone to Tony George and the fine folks at Honda this week.
Robert Clarke, the former president of U.S.-based Honda Performance Development, said today that he is optimistic merger talks with Champ Car can continue.A good meeting, eh? Mr George demured “Nothing is going to happen quickly, if at all,” which is a strange thing to say when things are happening so quickly. TrackSide Online adds some deja vu to this story.
“It was a good meeting, yes,” said Clarke, who joined George and IRL presidents Brian Barnhart and Terry Angstadt in the meeting.
“Am I optimistic? I don’t see any reason why not (to be).”
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TSO is also hearing unsubstantiated rumors that the CCWS will file for bankruptcy as early as this week. Again, we have not confirmed this and it's strictly a rumor right now, and frankly we aren't even 100% sure which entities that make up the ChampCar World Series would be included. Series owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerry Forsythe have significant assets that are racing related (like Cosworth, Long Beach, Toronto), that are probably not directly under the CCWS legal umbrella.Now just for fun let's add this bit from an AutoWeek article a few days ago (thanks to Indy Racing Revolution for the find).
Needless to say, this could (and will) get complicated.
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One Champ Car source went so far as to suggest the IRL is trying to “sabotage” Champ Car’s 2008 season and that there is no way negotiations can be completed by the Long Beach race in April. Still another source involved in contract negotiations with Champ Car said the negotiations were on schedule until a few days ago, when “the phones just sort of went dead at Champ Car.”So about this meeting. Was it anything like that one in "The Untouchables" where Al Capone kept talking about the new TEAM plan or some such thing? Yeah, that certainly was a good meeting.
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Let me know if Mr George has traded in his hammer for a baseball bat.
Jeff,
I LOVE this qoute:
One Champ Car source went so far as to suggest the IRL is trying to “sabotage” Champ Car’s 2008 season and that there is no way negotiations can be completed by the Long Beach race in April. Still another source involved in contract negotiations with Champ Car said the negotiations were on schedule until a few days ago, when “the phones just sort of went dead at Champ Car.”
I ,,,,,,, wonder if ,,,,,,, that source was ,,,,,,,,, the poster known as ,,,,,,, paper ,,,,,, from Champ Car Fanatics?
So I still say there's some official announcement on Wednesday. If you assume that Honda said OK to a Motegi date-switch that'll make the schedule work, then today Tony George will make a comprehensive offer, they'll argue into the night, tomorrow morning both sides will inform their constituents, and then they'll have a 1:00 PM press conference / announcement, either to tell everyone it's a done deal, or to tell everyone that both series are moving forward, with an eye towards revisiting the issue for 2009.