German 500 cancelled.

Despite recent claims to the contrary, officials of the bankrupt EuroSpeedway in Lausitz have confirmed that they have had to cancel this year's German 500, leaving the CART 'European Tour' with just one stop...Rockingham.

Although various efforts have been undertaken over the course of the last two weeks to ensure that the event would continue, the organizers are not in a position to host the CART Champ Car event this year following EuroSpeedway Lausitz's insolvency filing earlier this month. Earlier this year, CART and the EuroSpeedway organizers had entered into a co-promotional, joint-venture agreement for the operation of the German 500.

"Germany is an important market and we are disappointed the race will not be held, but the only proposed solution was basically for us to write a large check on top of the financial commitment we had already made," said CART President & CEO Christopher R. Pook. "We will shift our European focus to other markets."

Last week, CART Vice President of Promoter Operations Tim Mayer met with EuroSpeedway officials in Germany. Despite positive efforts from the organizers, the State of Brandenburg and the receiver, the cancellation proved unavoidable.

CART will have a presence in the European market this season as the Rockingham 500 at Rockingham Motor Speedway, September 13 - 14, in England will continue as scheduled and CART is currently working closely with the event organizers to continue positive advance ticket and corporate sales. Track officials at the Northamptonshire oval have announced that they have sold nearly all of their allotment of corporate hospitality space and have also sold nearly half of its South Grandstand seats in the last two weeks.

The confirmation that CART will not make a second trip to the two-mile venue could be the final nail in the coffin for the troubled venue, blighted by poor fortune since it opened three years ago.

Torrential rain spoiled the first major international event (FIA GT/DTM) to be held at the track initially known as the Lausitzring in 2000 while a course worker had already been killed at a domestic Touring Car meeting when former Ferrari Formula One driver Michele Alboreto perished during a testing crash on the adjacent test course. Last year the inaugural CART event took place on the weekend following the September 11th tragedies and the fact that the race hadn't attracted a sponsor was forgotten when CART re-named the event The American Memorial. Although the race attracted an 80,000 strong crowd, sadly they were on hand to witness Alex Zanardi lose both his legs in a sickening accident, leaving another sour taste in the mouth.

The 2002 CART FedEx Championship looks set to remain at 19 rounds with a replacement event highly unlikely at this late stage.