Live blogging the press conference in Miami.... hit 'REFRESH' regularly to see updates to this post.
12:33 p.m.: Tony George is the first to speak, saying it is all about looking forward and not looking backward. "Last month when the calendar turned over to 2008, I was wondering to myself, 'can this happen?' And then I received a call that would make this the best year of my 48. It wouldn't have been possible without Kevin and Gerry coming to me to do what's best for the drivers, sponsors and fans..."
12:35: TG: We have a good shot at bring this thing together, albeit late in the year. This day is all about the fans who supported open wheel racing... Champ Car and the IRL.
12:36: Kevin Kalkhoven: I want to join Tony in expressing my satisfaction regarding what is happening with the unification. Tony and I have spoken for a long time to get here... but we are here. The winners today are the drivers, sponsors and fans... Unification isn't a magic bullet to get us forward.
12:37: KK: I'm going to be part of the new series with my own team and partner Jimmy Vasser... I'm also looking forward to being able to bring the series to Long Beach. We're going to have the final Champ Car-style race there this year before the switch to the Dallaras... To all our fans on both sides, it's been a long road but we're here and we're looking fwd. to an exciting '08 and beyond.
12:40: TG again: Very early on, we knew we would have to facilitate the change of the Champ Car teams to the Dallara package. We committed to help teams to transition, including two chassis. They would also be able to particpate in the team incentive programs outlined last fall. It's been a very rapid timeline as we only really reached agreement a few days ago. We're going to make an effort to add Edmonton and Australia to this year's IRL schedule, although details need to be worked out.
12:45: TG cont'd: We've gotten a great amount of help from all the IRL teams to help bring this thing about. I know the teams are excited about working with the Champ Car teams that are coming over to help them transition. Our job is to make them feel warm and welcome so that it seems like there's never been a season apart.... Newman-Haas will be assigned to Rahal-Letterman to work together... Ganassi has a very close relationship with Jimmy Vasser so the KV guys will look there to transition... As part of the agreement, we're going to be acquiring some of the tangible and non-tangible property of Champ Car. We're going to take on the medical transport trailer that has been a very important part of Champ Car's history as they're the ones who developed that concept.
12:48: KK returns to microphone: By uniting the sport, I hope that everyone recognizes - including the Champ Car fans - was that this was a conscious decision we took to develop North American motorsport in a positive way. I welcome the opp. to work with Chip and the Target-Ganassi team. I'm hoping the IRL fans will extend their hand to the Champ Car fans.
OPEN FLOOR TO QUESTIONS:
#1 Robin Miller on # of cars for the Champ Car teams:
TG: We are doing our best to assemble the chassis and to be as judicious as possible in allocating them. Our hope is to supply them with one new and one used car. Once we get into May, things will start to free up a bit but the near-term is the biggest challenge.
KK: Long Beach won't just be a Champ Car celebration, but a welcoming of what's coming. The Champ Car teams have already told me about the warm reception they've seen. Might see some cars come back (in a hurry) from Motegi and getting into a DP01 (in Long Beach).
#2: Was it (the war) worth it?
KK: Now is not the time to look back....
TG: Will you accept his answer as mine? (laughs)
3#: What will the series look like in the future?
TG: Probably a 20-race schedule with half of them on ovals. We've pretty much exhausted the number of ovals we could be at.... international opportunities are out there... Our [car] platform, we're going to be looking at all the available technologies... turbo-chargers may or may not be a part of that... We need to stabilize open-wheel racing for the next few years while we look at those issues and plans.
#4: Deadline for the schedule?
TG: We're working on that. We need to sort it out fairly quickly. It depends on how easy we're able to deal with all the issues... Everybody needs to know a plan ASAP. I'm hoping we can get through 2008 and make this a story about the fans... My goal is to bring everybody together. If you have happy fans, you're going to have happy teams and sponsors.
#5: CC events in consideration for '09 won't happen in '08. How do you keep interest in those events?:
TG: I don't have the answer to that. I try to offer suggestions but sometimes they're not received. The simple fact of the matter is that we have a lot of binding committments we have to honour and that doesn't give us a lot of room to do anything much different. We can't solve all the problems. We can try and offer solutions. I think it's taken a lot of give and take to get to this point and at some point there's got to be some give and take from others looking at the big picture. This thing is great for some and not so great for others in the short term.
#6: Atlantics?
KK: Atlantic will continue with a 12-race schedule. I think it's a very important thing.
re: Cosworth?: KK: Most of Cosworth's revenues are not racing related. Cosworth will continue and they have some amazing contracts for engine development for the future.
#7 Canadian events: Are Toronto and Mt. Tremblant definitely dead for '08 and will Edmonton be moved to September?
TG: Toronto I think is an event that was discussed and put on hold for this year for sure. You don't want to disenfranchise an event with that much history. Edmonton was a little bit easier to address because we had an available window of approximately when they were going to run their event this year. Montreal... you know... I don't know. I'm not privy to the commitment there, whether or not that is something that people have strong feelings about.
#8: What prompted this to happen now?
KK: Open wheel racing in North America wasn't going anywhere... Tony held out an olive branch and Gerry and myself decided it was the right thing to do.
Ends.... various driver and team press conferences reacting to the 'merger' will follow throughout the day at Miami.
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