Grapevine: CART Eye Spa as Rockingham Gives Up Event

Britain's Rockingham circuit will not host a CART race next year but Brands Hatch could be in the frame instead along with Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and Estoril in Portugal.

Rockingham organisers said in a statement on Monday that they had agreed with the U.S.-based series to be removed from the 2003 calendar.

"For 2003 at least, CART and Rockingham have jointly agreed to remove the event scheduled for May 3-4 from the championship calendar," the statement said. "The situation will be reviewed later next year regarding a return of the series to Rockingham in the future."

Rockingham chief executive Ashley Pover said Rockingham, which has hosted a round of the championship for the last two years, had decided that the 2003 event would be "fiscally unviable".

"We have currently less than five months to develop new marketing programmes and find sponsors. Frankly we don't have the resources to make that work. If we were to plan towards a future date, such as mid-season 2004, that would give more time to achieve the targets, which makes a lot more sense."

Sources said Rockingham was paying in the region of $4.0 million to host the CART race while making less than half that from ticket sales. Pover said Rockingham would now concentrate on other activities such as ASCAR, British superbikes and Formula Three.

Other Venues

The Guardian newspaper reported earlier that CART's board of management was close to finalising a deal to run races at the three European circuits on successive weekends next May.

There was no immediate comment from CART organisers but a spokeswoman for Brands Hatch owners Octagon confirmed that there had been informal talks about the southern English circuit hosting a round.

"We've been having some informal discussions with CART in the last week or two," said Ruth Wicks, adding that Brands Hatch would be interested in the series "if it were to become possible and we could make it all add up."

Brands Hatch, once a regular Formula One venue, hosted a CART race in 1978. Octagon also represent CART for sales of worldwide television rights and marketing. Spa-Francorchamps, one of the great Formula One circuits, has been dropped from next year's grand prix calendar due to a row over tobacco advertising while Estoril has not been used for Formula One since 1996.

CART boss Chris Pook and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone have been discussing closer alliances, with CART possibly acting as a feeder series for the grand prix championship. Europe hosted just one round of the CART championship this season, at Rockingham's purpose-built oval in central England in September, after Germany's Lausitzring EuroSpeedway filed for insolvency in June.