Go to our forums to discuss this article Others by Mark Up until a few months ago CART was restricted by the FIA to only running on oval tracks outside of North America for fear of detracting from the Formula One series. And although the FIA would prefer CART become 'the' oval-track world championship, CART stands more to gain by not restricting itself to oval tracks. We examine what this can mean to CART, if they play their cards right. Except for Australia that was grandfathered in, CART abided by their agreement with the FIA to restrict their overseas races to oval tracks. Unfortunately, to date CART has had mediocre results at its overseas oval races.
Ovals are purely an American tradition.
Fans around the world better identify with road course racing. It is a major undertaking for CART to move all of its equipment to an overseas race. This years race in Motegi Japan was rained out on Saturday, but luckily for CART and the promoter, they were able to get the race in on Sunday, the designated rain date. I am not suggesting that CART move all its overseas races to road courses because of the threat of rain. Although one can use that as a valid argument, there is another reason that is far more important.