This is going to be a great event!!! Can not wait till the green flag waves...
NASCAR coming to Canada October 02, 2006
MONTREAL (CP) -- NASCAR is about to invade Canada.
The stock car racing series once centred in the American south will run a Busch Series event Aug. 4 at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, a track more used to the whine of sleek Formula One cars.
The two-day event announced Monday will see a Grand-Am Series race on Friday, Aug. 3, with the 750 horsepower Busch Series cars taking over the following day.
"It's a great setting and we're excited to be here next August," said NASCAR CEO Brian France, who flew in with top executives and a driver from each series for the announcement.
NASCAR has already placed Busch series events in Mexico and sees moving into Canada as a means to cover the entire North American market.
He said thousands of fans in Canada will get "a chance to see side-by-side stock car racing on their home soil."
NASCAR announced last week that it would put the Montreal event on its 35-race Busch Series schedule for 2007, but organizers delayed the official announcement until all details were resolved.
"Getting everything right on both ends was difficult, but we got the right outcome," added France, who has worked on the project for two years.
France was accompanied by vice-president John Saunders, Grand-Am president Roger Edmunson, Grand-Am driver David Donohue and Busch veteran Kenny Wallace.
The Busch Series, one level below the top-ranked Nextel Cup series, will race on the 4.361-kilometre (2.7-mile) road track that plays host to the hugely successful Canadian Grand Prix Formula One event.
But unlike Champ Car, which fizzled in five years on the track partly due to unfavourable comparisons with F1, the stock cars bring a different style of racing the promoters are confident will work.
Martin Spalding, who works with promoter Normand Legault, would not predict how many fans would turn out, but said he expects spectators from Ontario, the Maritimes and the northeastern United States for the race.
"Since the stories about it appeared in the media, we've had tons of e-mails, not only from Quebec and Ontario," he said.
The event has bumped Champ Cars off the track, but the Champ Car World Series has already lined up the Circuit Mont-Tremblant in St-Jovite, Que., 140 kilometres north of Montreal, for a race on July 1.
That gives the area three major motor racing dates next summer, including the Canadian Grand Prix in mid-June.
The Busch Series often has several drivers from the Nextel Cup in its events, but it will be tougher for star drivers to make the trip next summer.
The Montreal race will be held one day before the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway, more than 600 kilometres away in Long Pond, Pa.
But France expects several stars to make the trip because it is only a one-hour flight and sponsors will be eager to impress a new audience..
Drivers will want to make the trip to help ensure its success and to experience a new race on the F1 track, which will need work to lengthen the paddock and pit lane to accommodate 43 Busch cars -- more than double the grid in Formula One.
Some Canadian drivers are also expected in the field, including former Champ Car pilot Patrick Carpentier of Joliette, Que. and possibly former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, who is reportedly negotiating with the Ford NASCAR team after being dropped by the Sauber F1 squad.
"I'd expect the Canadian drivers to be better than the American drivers because they know the circuit," said Wallace. "When we went to Mexico, it was hard to keep up with the Mexican drivers, so I look forward to a Canadian driver winning -- if I can't win."
Another familiar participant in the race could be former F1 star Juan Pablo Montoya, who has joined the Ganassi NASCAR team.
It will be a different atmosphere than most U.S. Busch races, where fans camp at the racetracks. This track is near the heart of the city, making hotels and public transit the easiest options.
Champ Car attendance dwindled from 172,000 in its first late-August race weekend in Montreal in 2002 to 93,755 in 2005, before rebounding to 110,030 this year.
The F1 race regularly draws more than 300,000 for three days of racing at much higher ticket prices.
In June, the municipal government gave Legault's company exclusive rights to hold two race weekends per year at the track. He elected to drop Champ Cars for the Busch Series. He had already given up promoting the Champ Car event.
Only two events per year can be held at the track because it is in a busy city park close to downtown and due to noise considerations for nearby residents.
Montreal will replace a Busch race in Martinsville, Va.
Went to the Banquet 400 in Kansas City this weekend. Quite the spectacle. Tail gating for both the Busch and NASCAR race started at 5AM. Not sure about Montreal as a venue, though. Not enough Hillbillies to make this a true NASCAR experience.
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