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Notes from the Champ Car World Series Race at Surfers Paradise, Australia

Notes taken during the ESPN 8 broadcast of the Champ Car Grand Prix of Australia at Surfers Paradise on October 20, 2007

Welcome to Surfers Paradise, the wild and woolly race of the year. Circus music is bound to break out at any time and the fans are insane. Bourdais has to finish 12th or higher to lock up the title. Last year Nelson Philipe with his flowing mane of hair won at age 20, the youngest ever to win.

Then he left the series on the theory that he should get paid to drive, not the other way around. Now he's back because he must have seen how well that worked out for him. Brings a sugar daddy sponsor with him so, POOF, he's in. Huh. I wonder if there's a connection there.

pressdog beer of the race is Sam Adams Octoberfest. Super awesome!

Münter Enhances Sidepod Worthiness By Being a Green Freak

Our girl Leilani Münter has taken her sidepod worthiness up a few notches by committing to purchase an acre of endangered forest for every Indy Pro race she runs.

Leilani has a degree in biology, swims with the dolphins and is plenty willing to hug trees. Her current sponsor, SMART Papers is a leader in recycled paper production.

Münter's site includes several environmentally focused elements, including Leilani's Earth Watch.

Read more about the green Müntalicous Hawaiian-German's envirofever here:

http://www.leilanimunter.com/07-10.4.htm

Champ Car Race Narrowly Misses a Zero TV Rating

Champ Car's quest for the illusive zero TV rating was spoiled last weekend by a 58-year-old housewife in suburban Memphis.

News reports that Mrs. Katherine Pemberton of suburban Memphis accidentally had ESPN Classic on while cleaning her pet guinea pig's cage. That statistical blip derailed Champ Car's apparent drive to televise a race and have zero -- none, zilch, nada -- people watch it.

"Accidents happen," said one Champ Car official. "We plan to go back to the drawing board, come up with some more insane moves to turn off our dwindling fan base, and broadcast the Mexico City race, if it still happens, on local cable access in Bismark, ND at 3 a.m. We're pretty sure that get us the zero. The only danger is  someone tuning in looking for the weather."

Officials with the Bismark cable system said the plan is far from a done deal. "We're planning to run a tape replay of a City Council hearing on waste water treatment options at that time. Frankly, there's been more interest in that than the Champ Car thing, so we're torn. There's been some talk that Champ Car would do a time buy. We're in negotiations right now so I can't comment further on that."

Champ Car officials plan to lobby TV rating officials to make the rule that someone has to tune in for "more than seven minutes" in order to count on the rating meter.

I Have the Champ Car Australia Race on Tape

I may watch it today. I figured Champ Car made me wait SEVEN weeks to see it, a few more days for the notes won't kill anyone. The estimated 76 remaining Champ Car fans have probably long moved on with their lives.

Arni Makes a Video Featuring Him Driving a Car

Our boy Arni the Indy Insider has another installment featuring Arni rushing to a possibly non-existent test.

It could be, perhaps, a test for a paddle shifter. Arni is having major major off-season withdrawal. View the video HERE.

Champ Car's RuSport Goes Belly Up

One of the hottest properties in Champ Car apparently will be a free agent very soon, according to reports around the Web.

Justin Wilson (right), the World's Tallest Open-Wheel Driver, is quoted as saying his Champ Car team, RuSPORT, is shutting down soon.

Champ Car Goes Beyond Ride Buying to "Ride Renting"

In a cash grab that some sports fans found frightening, the Champ Car World Series has transitioned from ride buying to "ride renting."

"We call it the Go Kart Track Model," said one Champ Car insider. "If you got the cash, sure you can do a few laps."

Rumors Swirl that Champ Car May Actually Race this Weekend

It's only been seven weeks since the last race, but rumors swirled Tuesday that the series will race in Surfer's Paradise on Saturday at 11:30 p.m. Eastern. Best of all, it will be on ESPN Classic which has total subscription of an estimated 293 people.

I don't get ESPN Classic, so whether or not there are notes on Sunday depends on if I want to sit in front of my computer for two hours listening to Jan Beekhuis and Rick Benjamin call the race from studios in the states or not. Total coin flip there. I may have something more interesting to do, like go out and pick up all my dog's crap out of the backyard.

Ethanol Group Says No to Champ Car

According to an article from the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) member newsletter, the group has shot down Champ Car's proposal to convert to ethanol. I'm sure the Champ Car proposal included EPIC paying zillions for the privilege.

EPIC said no, but put out a newsletter article to their membership informing them of the sponsorship opportunity. The fact that probably all of the dozens of EPIC members' first reaction was "What's Champ Car?" was probably not a good sign. EPIC members include ethanol producers like the giant VeraSun and ethanol plant designers and builders like Poet and ICM inc. Poet and ICM are named sponsors on the IndyCar ethanolmobile.

Props to a poster called TeAM CraAOlA for busting out in the champcarfanatics.com forum. Read the EPIC newsletter article and the forum's reaction here.

Indy 500 Win Could be Golden Ticket to NASCAR

Winning the Indy 500 could be an automatic ticket to NASCAR according to a plan being floated this month.

"This is just formalizing what's been going on already," said one NASCAR insider. "Basically, today's drivers see winning the Indy 500 as a ticket to the Big Time, that being NASCAR. So we thought why not formalize it?"