It has been announced that NASCAR will not race in Montreal next season after the race promoter Francois Dumontier of Octane Management Events Inc, filed for bankruptcy, with debts of $5 million. The firm is the sister company of Octane Racing Group Inc, the firm that is the promoter of the Grand Prix du Canada. It seems that the biggest creditor is a Dumontier family trust company, which is owed $3 million.
Octane Motorsports is best known as the promoter of the now-defunct Edmonton IndyCar race, but also promoted the NASCAR event in Montreal. F1, however, is treated as a separate business and one hopes that the demise of one Octane company will not bring down another.
Given that the sanctioning fee for NASCAR was probably the catering budget for the F1 media center (if that), it is probably a safe bet that the F1 race is scampering for funds. Unless, of course, the Canadian / Quebec / PQ government is willing to underwrite the fee, which of course is the **REAL** F1 business model?
Truly a disappointing development. As a fan of both F1 (first and foremost) and NASCAR, I had always viewed the Montreal event as a great gateway for introducing F1 fans to NASCAR. The race produced some good action as well, most notably when Carl Edwards pipped Marcos Ambrose at the last chicane to win a few years back.
It would be especially spectacular if the event could ever return as a Sprint Cup race, although a packed schedule would certainly make it difficult to see anytime soon. For as commercials and as progressive as NASCAR has become in recent decades, the old guard still sees the future of NASCAR as ovals and more ovals…
Sorry Joe, I can’t comment on this.
I have 260+ tv channels where I live. But I don’t know which one carries NASCAR. I’ve never tried to find out though…
Whenever I go to the US they tell me this is for residents of Georgia and Alabama and their neighbours.
“Whenever I go to the US they tell me this is for residents of Georgia and Alabama and their neighbours.”
Full disclosure — I gave up on covering NASCAR years ago. But in the interest of truth, I must reply to this statement.
Last time I was in Canada on a Sunday I had no trouble finding NASCAR in restaurants and bars. I realize that motor racing snobs love to poo poo NASCAR people and races as stupid (kinda like liberals treatment of conservatives world-wide) but the fact is that the vast majority of paying rides in North America are NASCAR rides (either oval or GrandAM/ALMS) , and the vast majority of sponsorship goes to NASCAR, and yeah, with the notable exception of the Indy 500, are NASCAR events. Hell, Talladega had their smallest crowd in a decade or more, and it still was bigger than the crowd at most F1 races.
Oh dear! But is this not like FOM owing Bambino $3M. As if a family trust could invest in the business of it’s benefactor, would that be incest?
So how rocky will this leave the Canadian GP? How “linked” are the finances of the sister companies?
I think it is more to do with the general state of the economy over there than a reflection on F1. The government has learned from past stupidity that it is best to maintain the Grand Prix and so they will kick in the money needed.
Thats sad news for Jacques Villeneuve, Montreal was the only track he was competitive in Nascar….well at least in the Nationwide Series.
Nascar walked away from Montreal earlier this week.
A real shame, Montreal is a great circuit.
You are completely misleading your readers and causing a prejudice to the Canadian GP promoter with your post on Montreal. Here are the true facts:
1. The Bankrupcy Protection filing (creditors will receive a proposal from the receiver) is for Octane Motorsports Events Inc., the company that has been promoting the Edmonton Indy for the last two years;
2. Octane Management Inc., another company, was promoting last year the NASCAR Nationwide race of Montreal. It has advised Nascar that it wasn’t renewing the sanctioning agreement for 2013 because the Natiowinde Series doesn’t have the power of attraction to make the event profitable. Octane Management Inc. asked for a Sprint Cup race and NASCAR rejected the request;
3. The Canadian Grand Prix is promoted by Octane Racing Group Inc. a different company;
4. The Edmonton situation has no financial impact on the two other companies financial situations.
Yours cordially,
.
I am well aware of the difference between the twp companies and it is clearly stated in the piece so I don’t see any reason to get your knickers in a twist over it.
However I would also like to hear how many suppliers are shared between the two companies and ask whether they will happy if they end up getting a few cents on the dollar…
Cordially.
Perhaps Mr. Prieur you could kindly identify yourself next time as the PR representative for Octane before launching into a great defense of your firm’s inability to secure a good financial footing. Although Joe knows exactly who you are – there may be a few here who are Google challenged and whom may actually buy into your argument of some ‘prejudice’ was done to your firm by this post. The truth of the matter is; it’s easy to keep going back to the pubic teat to support yourself when times are good economically. The economy tanked in Quebec and Government revenues are way down – one doesn’t need a crystal ball to see Government doors slammed in your faces.
Yours cordially and all that.
don’t I seem to remember that they already had difficulty in coming up with the money to stage the F1 race ?
ASN Canada Inc would award the contract to another group if anything were to happen to Dumontier’s holding company. This is what happens when you base your business model on Government support of your events. They could never get past this and have a fully self-sustaining private enterprise supported non F1 race events. F1 is the only race event that seems to warrant the three levels of Government support (rightly so) in this country and the branching out to include other motorsport events partly supported by the public was always a risk considering the current economic conditions. I think the public could buy into the benefits of Formula One receiving taxpayer assistance but it became a stretch to include other racing events when Government are turning down funding requests for amateur sports all the time. We are fortunate that Government here *still* fund our F1 event considering the funding pressures and controlling the debt arguments from the opposition in the Parliament.
I will be watching this closely. I recently moved back to Montreal after a few years in Toronto, Vancouver and other places. Finally I have the disposable income to visit a night with joe.
Would be a shame to miss out again.