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- St. Cloud, Florida
- aracefan
By: Eric Mauk (speedvision.com)
Miami, Fla., March 5
Championship Auto Racing Teams sent out an announcement Tuesday morning concerning a new event on the 2002 schedule, stating that it was going to join the American Le Mans Series at an October event on the streets of Miami.
Now it appears that at the very least, the race will have more than a few hurdles in front of it before a green flag flies anywhere near Miami in October.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Genden of the 11th Judicial Circuit Court ruled Monday afternoon that the City of Miami illegally granted Raceworks the right to run the Grand Prix of the Americas, and voided the contract for the race.
The ruling came on the basis of Judge Gendens determination that the city did not ask for competitive bids before granting the contract to Raceworks for the next 15 to 25 years. The Raceworks people are still going ahead with their preparations to host the street race as a company official told Speedtv.com Tuesday that "The situation is not as grave as some of the people are making it out to be."
The ruling came after inquiries from the Homestead-Miami Speedway and its owners International Speedway Corporation, which had fought to keep the race off of the Miami streets when it was first being put together at the end of 2001. HMS has since said that it wanted to bid on the race as well, something that the City of Miami is saying was not an issue as the contract is not a lease which would require bids to be taken but instead a license to use City property.
"The court agreed that the mere fact that they called it a license doesn't make it a license," Homestead-Miami Speedway attorney Jorge Lopez told the Associated Press. "This had every characteristic of a lease. The very specific laws of the city on competitive bidding apply."
The ruling means that the City of Miami must now take bids, one of which is expected to come from HMS and ISC. The fly in the ointment comes in the fact that ISC has much deeper ties with the ALMS rival Grand American Road Racing Association, as well as CART rival Indy Racing League.
Also of note is the fact that CART bought at least a piece of the Raceworks contract in order to get on board a contract that may now be worth little more than the paper it is printed on.
Tuesday morning, the uncertainty concerning the event and the contract claimed at least one victim as the Sports Car Club of America has announced that it was pulling its SPEED World Challenge GT series from the race weekend.
"There has been a lot of speculation regarding this event from the get-go, and the latest round of changes has forced us to withdraw the Speed World Challenge GT series from the event," said Mitch Wright, Vice President and General Manager of SCCA Pro Racing. "We apologize for the announcement which went out last week regarding GT that stated it was definitely on the event. At that point, that was the case. We're unsure of our status given new information that we have received, and will not continue to string our teams and sponsors along. It's unfortunate, but there will be no World Challenge on the streets of Miami in 2002."
The next step will likely come Thursday in a scheduled council meeting.
Miami, Fla., March 5
Championship Auto Racing Teams sent out an announcement Tuesday morning concerning a new event on the 2002 schedule, stating that it was going to join the American Le Mans Series at an October event on the streets of Miami.
Now it appears that at the very least, the race will have more than a few hurdles in front of it before a green flag flies anywhere near Miami in October.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Genden of the 11th Judicial Circuit Court ruled Monday afternoon that the City of Miami illegally granted Raceworks the right to run the Grand Prix of the Americas, and voided the contract for the race.
The ruling came on the basis of Judge Gendens determination that the city did not ask for competitive bids before granting the contract to Raceworks for the next 15 to 25 years. The Raceworks people are still going ahead with their preparations to host the street race as a company official told Speedtv.com Tuesday that "The situation is not as grave as some of the people are making it out to be."
The ruling came after inquiries from the Homestead-Miami Speedway and its owners International Speedway Corporation, which had fought to keep the race off of the Miami streets when it was first being put together at the end of 2001. HMS has since said that it wanted to bid on the race as well, something that the City of Miami is saying was not an issue as the contract is not a lease which would require bids to be taken but instead a license to use City property.
"The court agreed that the mere fact that they called it a license doesn't make it a license," Homestead-Miami Speedway attorney Jorge Lopez told the Associated Press. "This had every characteristic of a lease. The very specific laws of the city on competitive bidding apply."
The ruling means that the City of Miami must now take bids, one of which is expected to come from HMS and ISC. The fly in the ointment comes in the fact that ISC has much deeper ties with the ALMS rival Grand American Road Racing Association, as well as CART rival Indy Racing League.
Also of note is the fact that CART bought at least a piece of the Raceworks contract in order to get on board a contract that may now be worth little more than the paper it is printed on.
Tuesday morning, the uncertainty concerning the event and the contract claimed at least one victim as the Sports Car Club of America has announced that it was pulling its SPEED World Challenge GT series from the race weekend.
"There has been a lot of speculation regarding this event from the get-go, and the latest round of changes has forced us to withdraw the Speed World Challenge GT series from the event," said Mitch Wright, Vice President and General Manager of SCCA Pro Racing. "We apologize for the announcement which went out last week regarding GT that stated it was definitely on the event. At that point, that was the case. We're unsure of our status given new information that we have received, and will not continue to string our teams and sponsors along. It's unfortunate, but there will be no World Challenge on the streets of Miami in 2002."
The next step will likely come Thursday in a scheduled council meeting.
