So, what now?

It has been 12 days since the staff of the Champ Car World Series were handed their walking papers and 6 days since the official press conference and cliched photo op announcing the unification of American Open wheel. Add to that a handful of "official statements of support" hurriedly churned out by the pr reps of almost all of the former Champ Car teams, driver quotes filled with a mix of excitement and fatalistic realism of their season ahead, and the shocking but not surprising nor unexpected press release announcing the dissolution and subsequent non-participation of Forsythe Championship Racing, and you arrive where we are today... more confused than ever.

We are now, allegedly, (no "official" schedule has been confirmed as of yet) 26 days from the first green flag of the unified season. Of the 8 remaining former Champ Car teams, 3(?) have apparently turned in the required paper work to participate for the season. Of the stable of potential drivers who tested at Sebring, what seems like a lifetime ago, 5 are signed. (Wilson, Rahal, Power, Figge & Perera) 1 is signed but no longer has a team to drive for (Tracy) and the rest are doing the usual yearly demoralizing "pick me" song and dance up and down the paddock that has become a sad tradition.

Where there was once, and should be at this point in the season, a flurry of media soundbytes and press releases, there is now silence. Few if any of the former Champ Car teams have received let alone had the opportunity to test the Dallara chassis they will be contesting with from this point forward, and if they have, they are holding their cards very close to their vest at this point.

Little is known about the status of the Atlantics at this point either. While it was confirmed that the series would remain viable and run the season, again there have been no additional details released regarding the actual schedule or participants. Perhaps more will be revealed during the upcoming testing session still scheduled for Laguna Seca in 2 weeks.

The most unfortunate part is that the precariousness of the schedules and the vagueness of who will be participating in both series is leaving an already tentatively supportive & battle weary fanbase in limbo.

This is not a good start gentlemen. We are all well aware of the possibly insurmountable hurdles still to be cleared going forward, but if there is any hope of salvaging, let alone growing the unified series, there needs to be more of an effort put forth the inform the public and fill in the blanks, because at some point what little remains of the fickle fanbase will decide they have finally had enough, and all of this will have been for naught.

Source: Editorial

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