The $10M CART Hawaiian Super Prix, scheduled for
November 11-13 in Honolulu, has been canceled due to the
inability to meet its financial obligations. CART Chair &
CEO Andrew Craig: "Despite this development, CART is
comfortable it will achieve the consensus analyst estimates
for the third and fourth quarters of 1999 and for the year
2000." Under terms of the agreement with the Hawaiian Super
Prix, a $5M surety bond with Frontier Insurance was posted
in February '99, with CART named as the beneficiary. CART
will proceed with exercising its rights under the surety
bond. CART said its ability to achieve third- and fourth-
quarter estimates does not take into account the one-time
gain resulting from the collection of the bond (CART).
FROM THE ISLAND: In Honolulu, Joe Edwards wrote that
the race "ran into financial problems in part by not being
able to land a title sponsor and by not securing a
lucrative" TV deal. Edwards also reported that in recent
weeks, Super Prix organizers "had sought" $15M in loans to
pay for the race and to "fund additional operational costs,"
but those loans "never materialized" (Honolulu STAR-
BULLETIN, 10/19). Meanwhile, CART shares "hit a yearly low"
yesterday, "dipping" to $19.68 and closing at $20.25, down
$1.75 from Monday's close (SPEEDNET, 10/19).
CART PATH: ESPN's Jon Beekhuis, on whether CART will
add any new tracks next season: "I do not expect that
they're going to add any racetracks, with the slight
possibility of Monterey, Mexico ... in 2000, but more likely
2001. Now the question they were talking about [in
Australia last week] is, 'Does CART put a race in May, or do
they leave May open, so that teams can buy equipment and go
race the Indy 500?' Right now, it appears as though there
might be as many as 10 cars from CART going to Indy next
year." Beekhuis said that CART can use the word "Indy" for
its Australia race because the "grandfather clause in the
[CART/IRL] agreement not to use the word 'Indy'" applies
only in the U.S. ("RPM 2Night," ESPN2, 10/19)....NASCAR
President Bill France, who "maintains hope of an eventual
unification" of open-wheel racing: "It certainly won't
happen now, or [2000], and maybe a little longer out. We do
have interest in open-wheel racing with (ISC), and we're
running five of them: one (IRL) and four CART races that we
inherited from Roger Penske." France: "If CART wants to
keep going overseas a lot, then it would probably keep going
the way it's going now. And although the IRL (has had
sparse crowds), the attendance at CART races hasn't been all
that great, either" (Skip Wood, USA TODAY, 10/20).
