WENDY GABERS: Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us today. I'd like to introduce Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkhoven two principals with the Open Wheel Racing Series who will discuss their recent CART asset purchase agreement as well as the plans to acquire Trans-Am Racing, LLC. Following a brief opening statement by Mr. Gentilozzi, Champ Car News Manager Eric Mauk will then invite members of the media to ask questions. Paul if you could, please give us a brief overview of the asset purchase agreement and what we can expect to see in the short term.

PAUL GENTILOZZI: Well Wendy thank you, I just want to thank all the ladies and gentleman who have joined us here today to talk about 2004. It's a few days before that but the primary point of our topic today is to talk about the future of the Champ Car World Series, where we're taking it and where we're going, and we'll even touch on what's going to happen in the next few days, which is the asset purchase of CART. I'd like my partner Kevin Kalkhoven to touch briefly on that because he certainly has a better knowledge base on that than I do.

KEVIN KALKHOVEN: Thanks everybody. Just briefly, the asset purchase is all the assets of CART, not of Champ Car, that are necessary to run the 2004 series. This includes contracts with the promoters, the teams, the sponsors and of course all the equipment that will be necessary. We will also, at the completion of the transaction, be responsible for all the Champ Car staff. In the meanwhile, we have an interim CEO, Dick Eidswick, who is helping Champ Car run the operation. If presented to the judge, the necessary information in Indianapolis we expect a response from the court literally in days. And it's our belief with the information that we've provided them, that this will be something that will be handled with speed and done extremely quickly. So we are looking forward to starting the 2004 series with the full expectation that the courts will be behind us.

Gentilozzi...I think that concludes it Wendy, and we're anxious to get started.

Gabers...Eric, perhaps you could start with questions.

ERIC MAUK...Thank you for joining the call today, I can't stress enough that media is encouraged to limit their questions to one question and a brief follow-up as we do have a very large contingent of media on the call today.

Question...For Kevin, in terms of purchasing all of the assets, was this more preferable to the original deal or is this something where you basically took what you could get at this point.

Kalkhoven... It is preferable. It is cleaner and it's faster and time was very much of the essence as we have to allow our sponsors and our teams to have confidence that things would take place in the 2004 season, and to do it without any legacy. So we think that this is the fastest and most expeditious way and one that will help us to start planning for the 2004 season as of yesterday.

Question...Have you thought about 2005 and where you'd like to see this series and have you thought about talking to the IRL?

Gentilozzi...We started this really, in any effective method of planning a new business you start with a long-range plan and work your way back to a short-range plan so that you understand your objectives. We have a clear vision of where we want to race, who we want to race with, in both '04 and '05 and beyond and we've had really lengthy discussions over the last four months, we know where our rules are for '04 and we are contemplating where our partnerships will be in '05, what the engines will be like, what the cars will be like, we've given those intense study and you have to make conclusions very early into this year to be able to make any impactful changes beyond that. But your question relative to the IRL is one we get a lot and I have the same answer. I consider Tony George a friend. I was around Tony when he first formed the IRL, I was involved there as an engine builder and as a part supplier and I was with Tony when he made his first visit to Dallara to get chassis built. I understand his vision and his enthusiasm toward what his product is. We have had occasion to talk recently about the philosophy of open-wheel racing in North America and around the world. They're always intriguing, engaging conversations but at this point it is just two guys talking.

Question...What about television? CART spent a lot of money to be on CBS last year. Is that going to be necessary to fulfill sponsorship and promoter commitments to be on CBS seven or eight times or do you see maybe a better way to do it with SPEED or Spike or something like that?

Gentilozzi...We've spent considerable time analyzing the cost of television, and where the audience is. For obvious reasons, if you spend a million dollars and you only get a few hundred thousand viewers, then you're not doing a good job in marketing your product. We've looked at all the available television avenues and the television programs, we have to realize that on the business side, it has changed dramatically in the overall impact of the company in the last three to five years. We went from an environment where we were getting paid for our television product and having our production paid, and somehow that slipped away through relationship issues and now we're back in the market trying to prove our value. For us to spend money on network for every event isn't practical, we've got to make our product good enough so that eventually, the networks want to pay us. We think for '04, we've done the best thing. We've gone to a mass-available cable channel. You know there are 105 million American homes with television and we needed to get to almost 90 million of them to have real impact for our sponsors. So we're in negotiations to finalize that agreement. We really couldn't sign it quite honestly, and we've had it done in concept, but we couldn't sign it until we had control. Now we're going to sign it in the next few days and announce it formally.

Question...Is CBS still in the picture?

Gentilozzi...Yes, we've had long, ongoing conversations. We're not compelled to do CBS programming but we're looking at each individual race and when the show can be broadcast and the impact of that market. The difference between a Spike and a CBS is about 15 million homes and if we can make a real value decision to get to those 15 million homes and to get to more viewership, then it's worthwhile. But I think the primary thing in our television programming is that we want to be on the same place, with a consistent broadcast time as many times as possible so that the fans don't have to hunt for you. That doesn't work. This is a commercial entity that relies on its exposure and we need consistency to do that.

Question...You released I think, a 19-race schedule for CART recently and I think St. Petersburg is up in the air. Do you expect to be able to fulfill 19 races with the latest deal or is that still a work in progress?

Gentilozzi...The schedule that we released had some compelling entries because of contractual obligations that were in place. This new process of course, exempts us from some of those obligations and allows us to really put forth a clean document and we'll put out a new one here in the next couple days, but the content will be very similar to what you saw. The overall count will be reduced from 19 to 16 and the major variance here could be one event. I don't see us adding any more than one event, for 17. The question relative to St. Petersburg is an important one. South Florida is a great market and has had a tradition of really welcoming Champ Car. When we knew the scheduling with Dover was so early in the year, our intention in making the deal we did was to take those assets, Dover had some conflict and couldn't operate the race later in the year when we though the window fit us better, so we made a business deal there to take the assets and we are now working hard with the City of St. Petersburg to schedule an event. At this point, we are investigating May but if it has to go to the Fall, we'll do it in the Fall. So there will be a rescheduling likely of St. Petersburg and we are going to end up with 16 events.

Question...Just a follow-up as it relates to Trans-Am. I understand that you expect to release your schedule the week of the 21st, do you expect a larger or smaller schedule for Trans-Am?

Gentilozzi...I think that the Trans-Am Series is optimized at 10 to 12 events, with 12 being kind of a round number. In our survey we projected 15 or so full-time contestants but the big thing about a series like Trans-Am is as it goes regionally around the country, we've seen SCCA GT1 competitors with good programs able to race one or two Southeast races or three or four West Coast races, bringing our fields up into the mid 20s. So they'll do 10 to 12 as I mentioned. The exceptions to the Champ Car schedule will be, we will successful last year racing at Sears Point with Winston Cup and we will conclude the season in Puerto Rico at a new race this year that was another huge success.

Question...In your discussions about the scheduling, obviously there is a lot of interest in the three Canadian races, will there be three Canadian races this year?

Gentilozzi...Absolutely.

Question...Are the Canadian races important to Champ Car?

Gentilozzi...Kevin and I have had long philosophical discussions about the essence of, not only is our champion Canadian and we have a lot of drivers from Canada in the series, we look at ourselves as not just an American series, we're primarily a North American series and our two Mexican races and our three Canadian races are extremely valuable and critical to our success as we go forward and we think that the reputation of Champ Car in North America is what makes those races good.

Question...So looking into the future, as long as there are tracks to race on in Canada, you would be happy to keep coming back here.

Gentilozzi...Absolutely, we want, our plan is definitely to keep racing there. We love racing there, it's a big success for us, and we think that it sets an international tone to our series that is a big asset.

Question...I wonder if you guys could talk a little bit about the branding and the title. Will the CART name continue or has that gone away. Will the Champ Car name continue, will the Champ Car World Series name continue?

Gentilozzi...There are three of us to vote on that and in all honesty, in all the business that we've done so far, we've had small discussions about the brand. It was talked about in philosophy about what we want to call it. I think that it's a safe assumption that our plan at this point is to call it the Champ Car World Series. I for one, just as an individual, having been around the series for so long, I understand the acronym CART, but I'm not sure that the general public really understands. When I get that occasional afternoon once a year when I get to go to the country club and I'm standing on the tee, my friends say "Oh yeah, aren't you into cars, what do you race?" If you aren't clear in your definition, there isn't a great understanding so we're setting the brand issue. We want to pick something that has history and certainly Champ Car has great history. That's what open-wheel racing was for decades in this country so we want to understand what the fans will accept and appreciate and what helps us communicate what we do but at this point I believe that we are going to go with the Champ Car World Series.

Kalkhoven...I concur with Paul on that. We recognize the legacy of Champ Car. I think the CART name is probably inappropriate right now.

Question...Will Bridgestone and Ford continue on next year in the same role that they had this year?

Gentilozzi...Yes.

Question...On the schedule is there any chance of putting anything else up front or is it pretty much set that you are going to open the year at Long Beach?

Gentilozzi...I think that it's a safe assumption that we are going to open the year at Long Beach. We've looked at other races that could be available to us the first of April but Long Beach is a premiere event. It's really the Kentucky Derby of Grand Prix racing anywhere in the U.S. and we're honored to be able to do that. We want to spool up or make more important, the notoriety of the series. We'll have a couple of great test session where we'll do a little television coverage in an effort to get the general public interested. We want to show the people side, we think that it will be a year of great conflict with great competition on the race track. Paul Tracy, our 2003 champion, has a great spirit and personality and there's a few guys in the series that want to diminish his notoriety. We're going to try and make the public aware of that and we're going to start the season in Long Beach, that's our plan.

Question...Are either of you gentlemen going to be attending the court proceedings here in Indianapolis or is that part of it pretty much in the hands of the attorneys now?

Kalkhoven...That's pretty much in the hands of the interim CEO Dick Eidswick. Our job at this moment is planning the 2004 series and we're looking forward to getting all the details wrapped up.

Gentilozzi...I think it's safe to say that courthouses are like dentist offices. You have to go once in a while but you really don't like it.

Question...Why is Gerald Forsythe not involved today in this teleconference?

Kalkhoven...First of all, let me just assure you that Gerry has been a very active participant in the whole process and has been firmly committed. He's the guy that has probably committed more money to the series than any other single human being. He is absolutely been part of everything that we've done. It just so happens that he was doing something else today and we decided that we had to try and communicate to you guys as quickly as possible and he was gracious enough to consent to allow us to get on with it.

Question...When this is done, will there be anything for the stockholders? Also, what can you tell us about your interim CEO?

Kalkhoven...The answer is, we believe so but this is really a question that youd have to ask the board of Champ Car. Remember, what we're doing here is, the public company is Champ Car which is the Delaware Corporation, and we're working with the assets of CART which is a Michigan Corporation. Our interim CEO is an interim CEO of CART, not of Champ Car so Dick Eidswick was brought on because we decided we needed someone with significant experience in running public companies and also someone with a financial background. He was chairman of the Michigan Venture Capital Association, has been CFO of a public corporation and CEO of two public corporations. We were very grateful to get Dick enrolled in this and he is the interim CEO, we will see what happens afterwards.

Question...I'm sure it must be exciting to be in a position where you can actually answer questions. Can you try and talk about the package that you expect to present in 2004 and going forward. There are a lot of elements with it in addition to the Champ Cars. Obviously there's the tie-in with the Trans-Am Series and there was also talk about negotiations with Formula BMW. I assume Toyota Atlantic continues to be part of it and lest we forget MotoRock. How do all of those fit into the program.

Gentilozzi...One of the things that we realize internally is that motorsports needs to be an entertainment venue that provides a package of entertainment with continuity. When you have continuity you control the quality of the product and race fans come to the track and pay varying amounts, but it's generally more than the amount of a theater ticket. They come for the day, they bring their family and they want to be entertained and they wanted to be entertained by a product that they perceive as being important or valuable. So in integrating, we have of course, the big show with the Champ Car World Series and then we have two series that have long national and international histories with what's currently called the Trans-Am and Toyota Atlantic Series. They've competed on somewhat of an equal level in recent years for notoriety and exposure, the Trans-Am Series of course is the oldest road racing series to be run on a continuous basis anywhere in the world and I'm proud to have had an involvement with that but as we look forward, we knew we needed production-based cars so that we had a significant amount of brand in there for people to be attracted to.

There are days when people want to come and cheer for Mustang, Corvette, Jaguar, BMW or Audi. They're fans of that and we see that in all forms of motorsports. So having products that were without that branding, we thought, was deficient. The Formula BMW people have been very patient in allowing us to get this deal done. We know that the right place to have this wonderful beginner series, to have it exposed on the North American continent was with the Champ Car Series. We'll finish those negotiations in the next few days and we hope to include the Formula BMW, which is very successful in England and Asia. We're trying to find the right other, and I'll use the word "tin top" support series that can bring another brand with its street cars into the weekend. We've used the analogy of the Toyota Celebrity Race in Long Beach. We have a class of World Challenge kind of cars that has perhaps 14 or 16 drivers that come to compete and then another four to six celebrities that can attract attention to the event. I think every year, the Celebrity race is exciting and fun and we enjoy the competition between the pros, celebrities who think theyre pros and good sportsman drivers from around the country. So we need a mix, we need a production-based series, we need a beginning open-wheel series, we need Atlantic, which is a great place to be for drivers that want to make a career and for drivers that want to move on. Ryan Hunter-Reay came from Atlantic and won his first race in his rookie year, the youngest American to ever win a Champ Car race, and then we'll move to the Trans-Am Series, which will bring multiple brands and factory hot rods and has been successful everywhere its been and then we'll move to the Champ Car World Series.

Question...And the MotoRock element of it?

Gentilozzi...MotoRock, we'll be able to do some media clarification here in the next few days. I think we saw proof-of-concept in the Miami event where we had Kid Rock and Elton John. We learned a lot, we were not necessarily clear because we didnt have a great understanding of that industry but we knew that there was an idea there that was exciting to fans and to sponsors and we've seen huge excitement there. We've restructured that, we will continue with the MotoRock name in a newly-structured business. We're meeting with a series of potential partners that have great experience in the music business that can bring expertise that we don't have. MotoRock will continue to play a part and the attention to young people will continue to play a part. I'd be a little malignant here if I didn't talk about the drifting thing. We've had great discussions with two of the drifting series and I think with some certainty, you'll see some drifting at several Champ Car events in 2004.

Question...Can you give us an update on the status of a race in Las Vegas?

Gentilozzi...That was a highly-discussed topic and there was as much misinformation surrounding this topic as anything. Were committed, Kevin and I and Gerry to racing in Las Vegas. We think that it's a venue that is valuable to us and that can provide huge marketing opportunities as we go forward. So I think with every safe assumption, we can tell you that we are going to be there. Of course the next question always is, "Where are you going to be"I can't tell you today. We know we haven't committed yet. In the next two weeks I'll be back in Las Vegas to make some final decisions about where we're going to race and on what kind of track. The open discussion is quite honestly, do we go to Las Vegas Motor Speedway which has had some difficulty promoting open-wheel racing? It's a city full of conflicts so if you're not in front of it, sometimes it is difficult to get people to come out to the speedway. We're convinced that with a joint effort there, we can change that. But we are also investigating doing an event in conjunction with a major casino in a facility adjacent to the Strip.

Question...Is that still possible for '04?

Gentilozzi...Yes, what it will require is a change of timing in the proposed event. There is a good possibility that you will see Las Vegas move off of that May date, certainly we have two wonderful opportunities to end our season, one would be Las Vegas, the other would be Mexico City, but we've had a lot of discussions about ending our year and completing our championship in one of those two cities.

Question...Are you planning on keeping headquarters in Indy or could that move to Las Vegas?

Gentilozzi...There was discussion about that and at this point we have decided for '04 that we are going to stay in Indianapolis. We have a commitment to our potential employees and so for now, we are there.

Question...CART lost anywhere from 80 to 100 million dollars last year. The series to date doesn't have a major sponsor. Several races from last year won't run, several look iffy, you have to pay for your TV, teams like Player's have lost their major sponsor, youre saying that you're going to pay less support to the teams, which was the major item of loss last year, something like 60 million I think, and it's probably too late for major sponsors that have already committed their promotional budgets for 2004 to commit to the series so I don't see where the money is going to come from. I hear that some of the tracks saying that they are going to pay less in sanction fees if you return next year. Are you guys prepared to lose another 50, 60, 100 million bucks?

Gentilozzi...You answered some of your own question. You talked about the support levels that went to teams. I can't make a business decision about whether they were just, whether they proved fruitful or whether they sustained the operation of the series. Those are questions that the last administration of the series knows the answer to. But I will tell you that we've spent significant amounts of time analyzing this business model. Literally months of looking at every dollar, where it went, was it necessary, was it valid. And we've also taken a long-term look at how the income stream diminished to the level it was, because it wasn't many years ago that this was a successful business. How did we lose that level of success? We lost it from the income side and from the expense side. So our plan is to manage both of those ratios. The individual aspects involve specifically, the cost and production cost of television and how we alter that. There are huge differences in those ratios when you look at where you are placed on television so we need to be cost-effective and efficient. If we spend a million dollars to put a race on television and a few hundred thousand people watch, we would have been better off to give them a ticket and a cab ride. We don't want to do that. We want to spend our money where it makes legitimate returns on investment and that's our plan. I can assure that we've done the math. Now, will our business lose money in '04? First of all, it's a private business so that's our business but I can tell you we're braced and planned with a budget that will have a deficit for '04. We also know what we have to manage in the equation to change that for '05 and '06. The succinct part of this is, did we buy it as enthusiasts to lose money? None of us, I can say, like to lose money, nor did we get to buy a fancy car because we lost money all the time, we know how to make money and have a plan here that takes us in that direction. We intimately know the business of the company that we are buying the assets of. We know how they got there, and hopefully we know how we won't get there.

Kalkhoven...Very simply, a lot of my personal background is in turning around companies like this. There is no great secret in how you do it. There is also no great secret in the fact that you have to be able to invest money to do be able to do that. Are we prepared to make that investment? The long-term belief is that open-wheel racing in the Americas and around other parts of the world can be an economic and viable product, particularly as the economy improves. This is not OPM, Other People's Money, this is our own personal commitment to make this work.

Question...Wonder if you could talk about your individual roles in making this thing happen and how you see it evolving in the future?

Gentilozzi...(Laughs) Kevin hypnotized me. I was the last guy involved. Kevin and Gerry had been having discussions, Kevin and I started talking about it at a serious level around the Toronto race. We had a couple of meetings and he had been working on it for quite some time prior to that. At that point I was content to play the role that I had. Right away, I of course had known about Kevin and the business success that he had and quite honestly felt that I could learn a lot by being involved and I have enjoyed the competition of doing this deal. That's really the level and extent of my involvement.

Kalkhoven...Paul of course is, for once in his life, modest and I assure you that it won't happen again (Laughs). The reality is that it was only after the announcement by Champ Car that they had engaged Bear Stearns to try and find alternative sources of financing that I started to look at this because, one, I became concerned about the series and two, it was so obvious after a short period of time that there weren't a lot of people that were going to come forward to try and rescue it. I talked to Gerry and people said that he was the guy that had given more of himself and his time and money to this series than anybody else. He has hardly taken any money out of the series, he's a guy that has kept his stock in and is the man who has behaved most ethically during the whole process. He looked further into it and I realized that while I had some financial expertise, that it was very important to get the race expertise and the series expertise that Paul had, I approached him mainly because we were the only bald-headed, bearded guys left (Laughs) and we have been working very solidly ever since. I have been leading the financial side of it, Paul has been leading the operational side of it, Gerry has been providing his background wisdom throughout the whole process and the three of us really have had a remarkable degree of solidarity, friendship and enthusiasm during this. Ive done a lot of deals in my life and this has certainly been one that has taxed all of us and our lawyers as weve gone through it. It's not just the three of us. We've also had a team of about another 10 or 11 people working on this from our side. Theres been a huge personal cost to all three of us but we are all committed to doing it. Each one of us has played different roles and it's worked well as a team.

Question...Can we expect to see an Australian driver in the series next year?

Gentilozzi...We'd love to have one. Kevin and I have had lengthy discussions with your Prime Minister and other politicians there and I'll let Kevin talk a little more but we have talked very much to that point and we're very anxious to do that.

Kalkhoven...Peter, as you remember we talked about this during the Surfers race. Obviously I had to wait until literally two days ago before I could start to work actively on that but I am committed to finding a national driver from Australia and taking him up certainly through the Atlantic ranks and then hopefully having a ride in Champ Cars very quickly. You know, one of the things that make an international series work well is when you've got drivers from each of those countries. One of the great successes in Mexico is our great Mexican drivers, clearly Canada is the same. We have U.S. drivers and new U.S. drivers coming in. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see a Wallaby coming in.

Question...I think you've kind of answered this but I guess the main thing I want to ask is a question that I get over and over again and thats for you guys, with the financial commitment that you are making, why is it worth it? It seems like we are talking about a continuation indefinitely about two separate open-wheel organizations in North America and can that be viable?

Gentilozzi...First of all, you have to have a macro view of open-wheel racing in the U.S. and have been around it for perhaps a decade. To have some idea of the infection you get from what Champ Car brings, it has been a huge part of motorsports. When you look at what has happened since 1996 and 97 after the split, until perhaps 2002 we've seen that perhaps Champ Car was competing for a leadership position in the minds of the motorsports fans of North America. When we include Canada and Mexico, Champ Car is a hugely successful form of racing but Champ Car was certainly in those two countries and was fighting with NASCAR in the U.S. The split really has diminished its ability to compete and has certainly affected the long term of open-wheel racing. We're convinced that the product that Champ Car is, that the kind of racing, the variety of race tracks, the association with that kind of racing sets it apart from competing today with the more traditional form of oval racing, which is NASCAR. So we know that that diversity attracts a different consumer, a different ticket buyer, thereby attracting a different type of manufacturer and sponsor. My attraction to this series is its reputation, its diversity and its potential to reach markets commercially that other forms cant reach. We don't want to be second at anything, we want to be the best and I think if you go back to 98, 99, 2000, Champ Car had a phenomenal series, if you go back to the recent championships of Nigel Mansell or Juan Montoya, around the world, people knew Champ Car and it brought great sponsors, great manufacturers. The element that has altered that in the last two years certainly was the transition of Honda and Toyota from Champ Car to the IRL. Let's just be blunt and honest here. It elevated the status of the IRL and perhaps did damage to Champ Car. We've repaired that damage, we have sufficient cars, Ford has been a wonderful participant along with Cosworth that is making it now, not just about one part of the car, but making the driver, car and engine package an important part of the competition. We're in this, in the end again, we think this is a better product and we think that it is at absolutely the lowest tide it could be and a good business plan will make it a plus again.

Question...Are there any legal hurdles that may crop up from any disgruntled stockholders that may crop up and put a crimp in your plans to go forward or has that all been taken care of?

Kalkhoven...Let me just go back once again and say that there aren't of CART, the shareholder of the Delaware Corporation are of Championship Auto Racing Teams. What we're doing is buying the assets of CART, which is a Michigan-based company. If the judge approves the transaction as the Board has accepted, then there is very little that represents a legal obstacle in our going forward.

Question...Can you give us a rundown of the teams that are going ahead in the series and which teams are possibly question marks?

Gentilozzi...Let me first address the fact that we are beyond confident that we'll have the required number of cars which is, on average, 18 cars to satisfy all of our promoter agreements. We're recommitted and confident to do that. In the next few days, we'll be releasing more information, more press releases now that we can do it about the teams that are coming back for next year and about the new teams that are coming into the series. So, we'll do that. We're telling you know that we have 18 cars and the only team that we're aware of at this point that is not coming back although the drivers look like they'll be coming back is, American Spirit Racing. They're in a shut-down mode and we don't know whether that is short-term or long-term. That's the only team that we are at this point that we are confident that are not coming back.

Question...I wanted to ask you, what is the status of the Miami race?

Gentilozzi...I guess Kevin wants me to answer that (Laughs). At this point, we are not purchasing the assets of the Miami race.

Question...So that race will probably drop off the schedule then?

Gentilozzi...Yes

Question...I'd like you to put your Rocketsports boss hat on for a moment and could you tell me where the negotiations are to bring Alex Tagliani back to Rocketsports.

Gentilozzi...Alex has spent the last two days at my house in Lansing, I had him locked in the basement (Laughs) We concluded our negotiations and we'd like to have a big press release about it but since you brought it up, I'm beaming with happiness to say that Alex and I have a deal done. There was really never any doubt in my mind that he would be coming back. I have huge respect for his desire and talent and he'll be driving one of the Rocketsports entries for next year. I'm confident, I've been working on him and I'm confident that he'll be looking in his mirrors at Tracy.

Question...What is the status of open-wheel's relationship with Fontana and as a follow-up, what are your long-term plans for oval racing?

Gentilozzi...First, if you read the documents, we have not purchased the contract for the Fontana race in 2004. That event is not in litigation, but litigation has been discussed and Champ Car and CART will own those assets, we won't be involved there. Second, we're going back to Milwaukee and I believe individually that the great part of the history of Champ Car champions has been the diversity that was part of our program. If you can win a championship, if you can come from Formula 1 like Nigel Mansell did and win on ovals and win on street courses and win on natural terrain road courses, you have to be at the top of the list of the greatest race drivers in the world. So we're going to try to continue that mix, and show the world that our drivers are the best. You hear all the time, great road course drivers and drivers from Formula 1 that talk about the dangers of oval racing and they don't want to do it because of this, that or the other, but we've been crowing great champions who have won on both types of venues for a long time. We're going to stay with that tradition when it fits the market and when it's a good business opportunity. There are places in the world that really want to see us race on ovals and I think we're glad to do that.

Question...What is Chris Pook's current role with the company and what do you see his role being in the future?

Kalkhoven...Chris is still CEO of Championship Auto Racing Teams, the Delaware Corporation. He's not part of the OWRS organization at all, he stays on as CEO of Champ.

Question...What is his contract? Is it still up in the air as to what the terms of it are or is that under the old corporation and he has nothing to do with this?

Kalkhoven...His contract is with Champ and we have no contract with Chris.

Question...Kevin, you alluded to some international races that you were looking at. Your long-range plan seems to be a little more of an international plan. Is that true or am I reading too much into it.

Kalkhoven...I think you're reading too much into it. First of all, the series has had an Americas bias and we want to get back to that. I am a great believer that this is not just a U.S. series, but an Americas or North American series. (Interruption) With countries like Korea, we can surely hold great races around the world where there is a strong interest in open-wheel racing. It's primarily oriented at the Americas though obviously if somebody comes along as in the case of Australia which seems a long way away but puts on an incredibly successful race, both in terms of its finance and in terms of its enthusiasm, we'd be foolish not to do it.

Question...Have both of you two committed to a second car for next year and can you talk about those at all and what drivers you might be looking at?

Gentilozzi...I think the car count issue, I talked about a little earlier, we are going to be doing press releases so that they have value in the market and so that they attract attention to what we're doing over the next few weeks. There is a great voyeurism out there about who is going to drive for where and of course that we have all learned that until its a signed deal and the check has cleared, you shouldn't talk about it. So at this point I doubt that we're willing to be very specific. Car count and the number of cars that myself, Kevin and Gerry will run will likely come out in the next few days.

Question...I was wondering if you could elaborate a little more on the Miami race and why you guys are not going to purchase the assets?

Gentilozzi...First of all, I don't know how long you have been in Miami as a reporter but I have raced there a long time and it's a wonderful event and we love going there. We made a business decision based on the infrastructure and overhead costs of having a race in the center of an urban environment as it was. We'd love to be in Miami, we want to be back there, we want to race there, you just have to be in a spot that we can be reasonable about costs. We're investigating some sites and we've had serious discussions about it and we think that it's valid but we just couldn't justify the purchase of those assets considering their obligations.

Question...What would it take to bring a race back to Miami?

Gentilozzi...Having a street race is great, but it really ties up a great part of the city and it compromised the race track so we first of all need a place where we can make a temporary circuit that is fun for the fans, easy to get to and exciting for the competitors. We need to get that done, then we need to balance the income side. The old race that was held adjacent to the current race location was a great race track. It had high speeds, had good access and didn't tie up a great deal of the city so we could adjust on some comprises as the city can. We were just put under the burden of having too many.

Question...In purchasing Trans-Am, can you tell me exactly what you purchased because I thought that Mr. Gentilozzi already had some of the promotional rights.

Gentilozzi...I never owned the name Trans-Am, the SCCA has always owned the name Trans-Am. When you talk about the marketing rights, what I did was I licensed the name Trans-Am in 2003 and could use it in any capacity I wanted. What OWRS has done is taken the assets of Trans-Am Racing LLC which was the company I used this year to run Trans-Am events and purchased the assets. We wanted to make that series part of our program. There is value in having a mix of product. What OWRS bought was not technically Trans-Am, we are still in discussion with SCCA about the continuation of the licensing of that name or the purchase of that name in total but we have not made that decision yet. We still have a few days to make it. Irregardless what happens relative to the name, the series will go forward. It may be using a different name, we hope not, but the series as we know it will continue to go forward on OWRS weekends.

ERIC MAUK...With that, we will close the media portion of the call and will ask the gentlemen if they would like to make any closing comments today.

Gentilozzi...First of all I want to comment on the wonderfully positive nature of all the media participants today. I've gotten literally hundreds of emails congratulating us, a little prematurely perhaps, but the media around the country has an affection for what we do and it shows in the attitude in the approach. We are going to have more of these and we're going to communicate as much as we can now that it is allowed for us and we promise to be very forthright about sharing our directions and our plans.

Kalkhoven...From me, as a relative newcomer into the series, the one thing that struck me when I first came into it was the passion and the love from the spectators and the teams of the sport. It's a privilege to be able to allow it to continue in 2004.

ERIC MAUK...Thank you gentlemen, a transcript of this will be provided to the media although it might not be until tomorrow morning as this was a very lengthy teleconference but a full transcript of everything that was said here today will be provided to the media. If you have any questions about the Champ Car World Series do not hesitate to contact the office at 317-715-4100 and as always you can follow all the information of the Champ Car World Series on the official website www.champcarworldseries.com. This brings an end to this teleconference, thank you for your participation and have a Happy Holiday.