CART opts out of US single-seater 'summit'

After a presentation by Ben Reiling, senior manager for motorsports marketing of The Coca Cola Company, on its cooperative drag racing venture between its 'PowerAde' brand and the NHRA, a round-table seminar on activating sponsorship featured Mark Driscoll (Ignition, Inc), Denny Young (Elevation Motorsports), Dana Arnold (Bombardier) and Mike Bucek (VP sales and business development for the Indy Racing League). A subsequent discussion about what teams can do to make their ownership more valuable was led by a panel comprising Doug Boles (Panther Racing), Tom Garfinkel (Chip Ganassi Racing), Kevin Savoree (Andretti Green Racing) and Ken Ungar (VP for business affairs of the IRL).

A panel discussion about brand extension for manufacturers was led by Dan Davis (Ford Racing Technology), Herb Fishel (GM Racing), Al Speyer (Bridgestone-Firestone North America) and Les Unger (Toyota Racing Development).

The final round-table discussion was about racing promotion, with Eddie Gossage (Texas Motor Speedway), Brett Shelton (Michigan International Speedway) and Chris Lencheski (founder of National Grand Prix Holdings, the Washington ALMS race promoter) on the panel.

The second day began with a presentation by National Speed Sport News publisher Chris Economaki, before Doug Sellars (Speed Channel) and Buddy McAtee (IMS Broadcasting) talked about the needs of their TV shows.

Ladder systems were next on the agenda, with Rollie Helmling (USAC), Steve Johnson (SCCA), Donn Gurney (Race Legends) and Roger Bailey (Infiniti Pro Series) at the table. Finally Dr Henry Bock (IRL), Dr Steve Olvey and Dr Terry Trammell (CART) and Dr John Melvin, all prominent in working to increase motorsport safety, took to the dais.

A full report of the Open-Wheel Racing Summit is available on the SportsBusiness Journal website.