GK has his say

For many of the intervening years you would never have found Chris in such relaxed circumstances on the eve of the Long Beach race weekend. He was always a fireball of energy, out and about all over town, touring the track on his mini-bike, putting-out fires everywhere, talking interminably on the telephone. In the early days he worked almost 'round the clock making sure the track and operations side of the race were under control, let alone the shaky financial basis. But those days are now long gone.

"The tough times were 1976, '77 and '78," says Pook. "But the management team has matured and we have systems put in place so that things that caught us by surprise don't catch us by surprise."

Pook's organisation has a contract with the city of Long Beach to continue running the race at least until 2010. His contract with primary sponsor Toyota runs through 2005, as does his contract with CART.

"We're pretty solid and the city is enthused about it," says Chris. "The city will be entertaining some 400 people this weekend. The port authority is entertaining people, and the convention bureau is entertaining people. It's all working like a well-oiled machine, which I suppose after 27 years it should!"

Pook says the last 10 years at Long Beach have seen steady growth: "We were concerned about the downturn in the early Nineties just before the Gulf War, when the economy was down, but it's picked up and been on a roll since then and the event has become so strong it now has a life of its own."

He expects the usual crowd this year with close to 100,000 on Sunday and almost a quarter of a million people passing through the turnstiles over all three days.

"We'll do the same numbers as always, absolutely. I think maybe we're a little soft in the expo this year and in the some of the hospitality. But when the stock market loses the kind of momentum it has in the last 60 days, that's not a surprise. Our team is working well. It's all positive. We had a very good charity ball on Wednesday night. We raised US$63,000 for the Toyota celebrity ride for next year and a whole bunch of other money."

The political and publicity problems that CART famously faces don't present any problems for Pook.

"They don't affect us at all," he declares. "The strength of the event overcomes all that. I've got to say that we have seen this year a very changed, positive attitude from the CART operations people. They've been with us all week and it's been fun. Some of the issues we had before about how victory circle is presented, for example, have gone away. They're listening to ideas and concepts. So it's all very, very good. No complaints at all."

Pook says CART's new chairman Joe Heitzler participated in his operations meeting on Thursday morning, something that's never happened before.

"He showed up and was a participant and he saw how we approach things," said Pook. "He was given a warm welcome by everyone present, which was good. It was very reassuring. I haven't felt as enthusiastic in a long time about the operating side of the relationship with CART, and as you know, in spite all the challenges CART faces it does have considerable potential. It's a great racing show."

Through his parent company, Dover Downs Entertainment, Pook was commissioned by CART almost two years ago try to develop street races in eight major American cities - Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Phoenix, San Francisco and Denver. He's been successful in Denver and expects to formally announce details later this year of a new race in the Colorado capital.

"It will definitely happen next year," says Pook. "I'm very excited about Denver. The location we have by the new Pepsi Center is a dynamite location. It's very similar to what we've got here in Long Beach. The center is not as large as the Long Beach convention center but it gives you all the infrastructure that you need - the kitchens and restaurants and bathrooms - all those important elements. And the racetrack's going to be a really exciting racetrack. I'm very excited about it because it's a great market, and a new one untouched by racing."

Pook believes he's going to be successful in bringing street racing to at least one of the other seven cities CART has granted him the rights to: "There's considerable interest in Washington and considerable interest in New York and San Francisco. I think San Francisco would be an incredible place for a street race. Dover Downs has been very good to me. They've just said, 'You know what you're doing. Go out and get it done.' So I'm having a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying myself."

His life may be much more ordered and disciplined than it used to be, but America's great street racing impresario is showing no signs at all of slowing down.

In fact his influence on American motorsport in general, and CART specifically, looks likely to continue growing.