Has Champ Car run its course?

Lagging attendance, sponsorship has race’s 25th year in doubt

By jason vondersmith

The Portland Tribune, Jun 15, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Disappointing attendance at the rain-soaked Grand Prix of Portland could spell the end of the event, but Champ Car’s Steve Johnson says, “I don’t want to abandon this market.”

JONATHAN FERREY/GETTY IMAGES

Rain threatened and then damaged attendance at the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland.

When the skies parted, a decent crowd showed up last Sunday to watch the 24th running of the open-wheel race at Portland International Raceway. There didn’t appear to be more than 25,000 people in attendance, according to longtime observers. The announced three-day crowd of 70,211 would indicate that race organizers exaggerated the count.

It has been common practice to exaggerate attendance every year since 1984.

Mike Nealy, head of event promoter Global Events Group, says that four days before qualifying began last Friday, ticket sales were more than 10 percent ahead of last year.

“We ended up being flat,” he says. “From our standpoint, people don’t show (because of rain), it’s not our fault.”

Grandstands and PIR viewing areas sat half-empty for Sunday’s race.

“But Sunday was a doggone respectable turnout,” Nealy says.

Mark Wigginton, PIR manager, concurs. “Other than (rainy) Saturday, which was a disaster, our through-the-gate sales were up for Friday and Sunday,” he says. “It felt like the crowd on Sunday was about the same size or a little bigger than last year, and the numbers show that.”

Champ Car, which has helped fund the Portland race, wanted to see attendance of about 100,000. Champ Car Chief Executive Officer Steve Johnson and Nealy point to the lack of corporate sales as the chief reason why attendance came up short. Nealy says the emphasis for next year will be on more corporate and group sales.

Will there be a “next year” for what would be the 25th race?

Johnson says the series, the city and Global Events will talk about this year’s race and about signing another contract, and make the decision to come back or leave by the 2008 schedule release in September.

“We’ll have a feel for where we stand in about three weeks,” Nealy says. “As far as I know, they have not made a decision.”

Johnson also says three international and three U.S. venues have made pitches to play host to events. Some domestic cities that have expressed interest are Salt Lake City, Birmingham, Ala., and Philadelphia. Expansion in Europe has been talked about.

But does Champ Car drop a longstanding race for a new one? Portland’s first race took place in 1984, the same year that Long Beach hit the circuit, two years after the addition of Cleveland and Elkhart Lake, Wis., and two years before Toronto came on board.

All five races are still going, even though the series has gone through its share of venues over the years, evolving into strictly street-course and road-course racing.

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