Champ Car race canceled

The face of open-wheel racing in America took a double hit Tuesday.

The first blow came when former Formula One champion Jacques Villeneuve joined NASCAR. Later in the day, the organizers of this year's Vegas Grand Prix announced the cancellation of the inaugural Grand Prix Arizona, which was scheduled for early December in Phoenix as the Champ Car World Series finale.

The races in Las Vegas and Phoenix are part of DDB Ventures, which is owned by Phoenix businessmen Bradley Yonover and Dale Jensen.

"An event of this magnitude requires considerable corporate support, and though we did establish some outstanding partnerships, there were simply not enough of these to create economic viability," Jensen said of Grand Prix Arizona in a released statement.

The news release said the cancellation will not affect the Las Vegas event, which is scheduled to open the 2008 Champ Car season on April 6-8.

Jim Freudenberg, the Vegas Grand Prix president and chief executive, was in Las Vegas on Tuesday to meet with city and business leaders to discuss the prospects of the three-day event returning next year.

"This will not reflect anything at all on (the Las Vegas race)," Freudenberg told the Review-Journal in a voice mail. "I've had a great day (in Las Vegas today). Things are going very, very well for next year here."

But a person involved in recent meetings with Vegas Grand Prix officials said many downtown hotels and businesses do not want the event back because it inconvenienced their regular customers.

One alternative location proposed, according to the source, who requested anonymity, would be a circuit centered around the Thomas & Mack Center that would utilize part of Tropicana Avenue and Swenson Street.

The current agreement with the Grand Prix is with the City of Las Vegas, though, and the Thomas & Mack area is under Clark County jurisdiction.

Villeneuve, meanwhile, will make seven starts this year for Bill Davis Racing in the NASCAR truck series. The first will be Sept. 22 in the Smith's Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The 1997 F1 champion said he picked NASCAR because it "is becoming stronger and stronger every year. So it's getting everybody's attention, even internationally."

Juan Pablo Montoya, another former F1 star, is a rookie in the Nextel Cup series.

Villeneuve's last season in a U.S.-based series was with CART in 1995, the year before the Indy Racing League was formed and split American open-wheel racing into two factions. CART now runs as the Champ Car World Series.

"I didn't look at IRL. I only concentrated on NASCAR," Villeneuve said in a teleconference. "After Formula One, when you want to carry on racing, you want it to be at a top level. And in North America, the top level is NASCAR."

Villeneuve last competed in F1 in 2006 and had not won in the international series since 1997.

It's also been reported that American Scott Speed could be moving to NASCAR after losing his job a few weeks ago as a driver with Toro Rosso in F1.

"It shows that our sport is being respected on a worldwide scale," reigning Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said. "It's unclear what Jacques will bring, and then if Scott Speed is able to come in and run as well, but it can't hurt. It's only good for our sport."

Villeneuve, a 36-year-old Canadian, won the 1995 Indianapolis 500 en route to capturing that season's CART championship.

He could make his first start in Cup before the end of the year and be in the series full time next year.