[luke]

Full article at theunionleader.com

For a series that was all but dead 18 months ago, the Champ Car World Series is showing some real signs of life.
In January 2004, team owners Kevin Kalkhoven, Gerald Forsythe and Paul Gentilozzi bought the assets of the bankrupt Championship Auto Racing Teams and announced to the world they were going to keep the nearly moribund open-wheel series going. There was betting in some knowledgeable circles that the new series wouldn't finish its first year. Some observers were certain the Champ Cars would never get to their first race.

Last week, halfway through the second year of the reborn series, more than 152,000 people showed up over three days for the inaugural San Jose Grand Prix, run through the downtown streets of California's third-largest city. It was just the latest in a string of hits for Champ Car, which is committed to making races on city streets or downtown airports its trademark. That was followed by a race in downtown Toronto's Exhibition Place that drew 160,000 people over three days and a race-day crowd of 73,155, and new events in Edmonton, Alberta, at City Center Airport, that drew 200,052, including 78,080 for the race, and San Jose's big turnout.

Great publicity