The buyers of Championship Auto Racing Teams
expressed confidence Wednesday that they can quickly bring the CART open-wheel
series out of bankruptcy and run the 2004 season with at least 15 races and 18
cars
source:
casperstartribune.net
The comments came hours after CART's buyers, Open Wheel Racing Series LLC,
announced a separate purchase of the Trans-Am sports car racing series, and a
day after CART filed for Chapter 11 protection under terms of Open Wheel's
buyout agreement.
Open Wheel's principal owners said in a teleconference that they expected
support from creditors and an Indianapolis-based bankruptcy judge's quick
approval of a reorganization plan that would put publicly traded CART under
private ownership.
Under the so-called "prepackaged" bankruptcy, Open Wheel will acquire all of
CART's assets -- including equipment as well as sponsorship, team and promotion
contracts -- while assuming some liabilities, including $2.7 million owed in
prize money to teams that took part in the 2003 season.
"This can be fast-tracked extremely quickly," said
Kevin Kalkhoven, co-owner of PK Racing and one of Open Wheel's three principal
owners. "We expect a response from the court literally in days ... This is
something that will be handled with speed and done extremely quickly."
The deal replaces an earlier proposal that would have allowed CART to avoid
bankruptcy, with Open Wheel paying $7.4 million for all of CART's outstanding
stock. Open Wheel replaced that deal with the new agreement after too few teams
committed for the 2004 season to meet the original purchase conditions.