Champ Car Looking At Ottawa Airbase, Done In Montreal

A Champ Car World Series race at Ottawa’s former Rockcliffe airbase is “under serious consideration to replace the Grand Prix of Montreal,” according to Dean McNulty of the TORONTO SUN. The series “already has two very successful airport tracks” in Cleveland and Edmonton (TORONTO SUN, 8/27). Champ Car President Steve Johnson said F1 Canadian Grand Prix promoter Normand Legault — who holds the rights to all racing on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve island track — has told Champ Car that he “doesn’t want it back.” Johnson: “We would like to be here; we believe we have built substantial equity for the city with our race. But we are not in discussions with Mr. Legault. ... If we return it will have to be somewhere other than Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.” Legault is “expected to announce [this] week that the NASCAR Busch Series will replace Champ Car in Montreal next season” (TORONTO SUN, 8/26).

CHECKERED PAST: In Montreal, Dave Stubbs wrote crowds at the Montreal Champ Car event “have dwindled, from a first-year, three-day weekend high of 172,000 [in ‘02] to last year’s low of 93,755. Apart from the usual Crescent St. festivities, there has been a conspicuous lack of racing buzz downtown this year.” One team owner “suggested on Champ Car’s official website that Legault had tried to sabotage the event to smooth the way for NASCAR.” That story was “quickly removed from the website.” But Stubbs wrote, “There simply weren’t enough [Champ Car fans] in Montreal. Legault is a businessman, and if it made economic sense for him to run Champ Car, he would” (Montreal GAZETTE, 8/26).