The reasons for CART leaving Cleveland are vastly different from why the series is moving out of Belle Isle. Cleveland simply didn t want to pay the raised CART sanctioning fees, but has a solid facility at Burke Lakefront Airport that fans and drivers enjoy. Belle Isle is pretty but little else from the driver s point of view. But still, it's a difficult place to get in and out of, for the fans and the teams, you know. Being in a park on an island in the middle of the Detroit River, the track is simply not well suited to host the Champ Cars, or any other racing series.
Crews work in a grassy paddock that becomes unmanageable with the slightest amount of rain.
Many speculate that a proposed track at the Michigan State Fairgrounds is the only place that CART is considering, but Craig says that is not the case. Other facts that have been reported in the media recently are simply not true. Additionally, reports that we plan to move the event to a location in Minnesota are without any substance. At its inception, the race was run in the streets of downtown Detroit but Belle Isle offered a much faster course with qualifying speeds up from 88mph downtown to 106-108 on the island track. Also factored into the equation is the power of IMG Motorsports, who manages the Detroit event as well as the Cleveland and now Mid-Ohio races.