Q&A: Chris Pook - part three.

New CART President and CEO Chris Pook was subject to a media grilling shortly after his appointment to the hot seat in the troubled US series.

Pook, originally from the UK, has been one of the most successful race promoters on the US race scene. He founded the renowned Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in 1975 and has built it into one of the crown jewels on the FedEx Championship Series calendar.

He most recently served as president and chief executive officer of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Here we continue our coverage of his extensive press conference:

Q: Do you foresee CART strengthening its relationship with ISC to try to run on some of the ISC ovals that have been dropped from?

CHRIS POOK: Clearly, we want to build our relationships. We don't want bad relationships with anybody. That's not what we are about. All of us in the motorsports business, we are in too small a segment of the marketplace to be throwing rocks at each other or yelling at each other and not getting along.

What happened with ISC was very unfortunate. I can't speak to it at all. It's not by business, not my watch. I was just a little old promoter at that time that those particular thing happened.

But are we going to outreach to ISC? Absolutely. Are we going to outreach to IRL? Absolutely. Are we going to outreach to American Le Mans series? Absolutely. Are we going to outreach to SECA? Absolutely. We are here to cooperate with folks and build relationships and move forward. We are not here to heave rocks and bury our head in the sand.

Q: There's talk of doing a possible joint race with the ALS in Miami; I would like to get your opinion on such an event. And will you be looking as a proposal?

CHRIS POOK: I will be looking at every single proposal that comes in the door.

Miami is a great market and we need to evaluate it carefully. We also need to be sure that what we've got on our plate we execute properly and we don't overextend ourselves here in the immediate future.

But the answer is: Yes, we will look at that, as we will with any promoter that wants to come in the door here and offer us a concept or idea or proposal. Absolutely.

Q: Do you feel there's enough time to do an event in April given where we are today?

CHRIS POOK: What capacity are you asking me that? As my ex-employment or current employment?

Q: I guess both. Do you think there's enough time to promote the event to be a CART race, as well as an ALS race, given the date?

CHRIS POOK: Lead time in putting on a circuit event, the single most important element there is. It's all about planning and execution. And when you do a temporary circuit event, do you it in somebody else's environment, a city's environment, you have to have the public sector totally on board with you as you go down the road to do the event.

So to try, in my opinion as--in my 20-some years, 27 years in a temporary circuit business, to go in and try to do a new temporary circuit event in four months would not be the most sensible thing for the promoter to do, let alone this company to involve itself with.

That's not to say in the future with the right planning and the right put-together, we would not be interested in doing it.

Q: Do you have any plans on running this business out of southern California, which is your home, or do you plan on moving to Detroit, or do you plan on moving the CART office?

CHRIS POOK: I'm staying in Troy.

Q: Do you see Las Vegas somewhere on the horizon for either an oval race at the Speedway or a street race?

CHRIS POOK: Some are on the horizon. A street race would be very hard there in Las Vegas. I can't tell you the number of times I've been to Las Vegas in the last 10 years to do street race concepts.

If we run on the oval, it will be at the pleasure of Mr. (Bruton) Smith and Speedway Motorsports.

Q: Seems like one of the things you stress is any venue you promote, you want the promoter to come to you with a proposal.

CHRIS POOK: Forgive me. No--no. What I'm saying is that I think that question was asked in line with the Preferred Promoter Status, and I was answering it in that context of the Preferred Promoter Status. We will identify--this company has identified markets it wants to go into, and as the timing is correct and our constituents are comfortable with it, we will then go after those markets, but we are not going to did it in a vacuum.

Q: What is your opinion, the most experienced promoter in the country with Las Vegas, do you think Las Vegas could support a race at the Speedway--it wasn't able to do that in the other open-wheel circuit.

CHRIS POOK: It's all in how it's promoted and how it's presented. I think that's the real question here. I think Las Vegas would be a fun place to go do an event. Whether or not--whether or not we could compete with the casinos and the machines and the tables; that is the question.

This is not like boxing. NASCAR has been very successful there and you've got to hand it to them. I believe the NHRA was successful with their event there.

I think we have to evaluate the market very carefully, and if we go to that market we would have to do it with; A, Smith's blessing; B, we would have to create some major strategic alliances within the Las Vegas casino community to make sure that we were getting folks out to the race and folks in the casino at the same time.

Q: Mr. (Joseph) Heitzler was very interested in eventually having a CART headquarters located in Las Vegas. Could you comment on your thoughts about that?

CHRIS POOK: I think Las Vegas would be a wonderful place for a headquarters. But we are in a motor racing business as a primary business, and I think we might be a bit of a loner sitting out there in Las Vegas in this type of business.