Road America loses Champ Car fixture

CART issued the following statement yesterday: "Champ Car today announced that it is regretfully removing the Grand Prix of Road America from its 2003 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford schedule.

"In February, CART, Inc. filed suit against Road America for failure to pay the final installment on the agreed-upon sanctioning fee for last season's Champ Car event, as well as the first sanctioning fee payment for this season's race at the Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin track.

"The balance of last year's sanctioning money remained unpaid at the close of business Friday, March 7, and Road America was also unwilling to adhere to the current sanctioning agreement and failed to pay initial installments of this season's sanctioning fee. Furthermore, the Road America race organizers rejected a reduced and revised financial arrangement that was offered by Champ Car management as a settlement of the lawsuit. As a result, the series was forced to remove this year's race from its schedule in order to give its teams, sponsors and broadcast partners proper time to adjust travel and logistics schedules.

"The Champ Car World Series has competed on the 4.048-mile Road America road course since 1982 and the series had every intention of continuing the rich tradition of Champ Car racing on the circuit this season. Regrettably, the decision to remove the Grand Prix of Road America, Round 12 of the 2003 Champ Car World Series scheduled for August 1-3, was brought about by the continued refusal of the track to comply with its sanctioning agreement.

"In the future Champ Car would consider returning to the storied Wisconsin race circuit providing a satisfactory and professionally responsible business arrangement can be reached with an appropriate race promoter."