This time of year marks two significant anniversaries in the history of the Champ Car World Series. source: ChampCarWorldSeries.com - David Phillips Just over a week ago, people rightly marked the 2006 Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by U.S. Bank as the silver anniversary of the series' first temporary circuit event. Not only did the 1982 Cleveland GP demonstrate that Champ Cars could put on exciting races at venues other than ovals and permanent road courses, it proved the concept of bringing the racing to the public -- rather than the other way around -- by drawing a big crowd in the heart of a major American urban center with no particular motorsports heritage. This week's return to the grounds Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto is another Champ Car landmark of sorts, for it was twenty years ago that the inaugural Molson Indy Toronto proved that Champ Cars were a big international draw. Previously, of course, the Champ Car World Series had raced at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City and Sanair Superspeedway in rural Quebec with mixed results. Those events attracted modest crowds and soon slipped beneath the waves. But the Toronto Molson Indy was different. First and foremost, of course, the event benefited from the innovative and enthusiastic promotion of title sponsor Molson. Second, like the race on the runways of Burke Lakefront Airport -- which takes place in the shadow of the downtown Cleveland skyline -- the Toronto race underlined the wisdom of taking the racing to the people; in this case, the people of Canada's largest city. Although Torontonians in the neighborhoods in and around the CNE voiced concerns about the noise that would be generated by the Champ Cars, those concerns proved largely groundless. Some of the locals were also worried about the prospects of a massive influx of spectators and vehicles to their neighborhood on what would ordinarily have been a quiet a summer weekend.
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