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The Hawaiian Super Prix was a CART FedEx Championship Series exhibition race scheduled for Saturday November 13, 1999. It was to be the final race of the 1999 FedEx Championship Series season, as well as the season ending event for 2000 and beyond. It was to be held on a temporary circuit at the Kalaeloa Airport on the island of Oahu, near Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. The invitation-only event was to utilize an all-star format featuring the top drivers on the circuit. The organizers advertised a remarkable $10 million purse - including $5 million to the winner, the largest single-day payout in the history of motorsports to date. Just 25 days prior to its scheduled running, the race was cancelled by the promoters. The lack of revenue, and a bevy of poor decisions and missteps by management and series officials, doomed the event. An untimely labor dispute and pending strike involving the local stevedores also created delays and threatened the event. The failure of the Hawaiian Super Prix is considered one of the sport's biggest flops, and was a PR "black eye" for the CART series. It was the series' second attempt at creating a marquee event intended to rival the IRL's Indianapolis 500 - the U.S. 500 being the first. The sanctioning body received a considerable amount of media criticism for the cancellation of the Super Prix, and local businesses and tourism reported considerable revenue losses. ==Background== Indy car racing had never visited the state of Hawaii before, but had achieved success with other events across the Pacific Ocean at Australia and Japan. Hawaii Raceway Park had been open since 1962, but no major stateside series had competed there. Major sporting events had a history of success and failure in Hawaii, with events such as the Pro Bowl, Aloha Bowl, and WFL all having ups and downs. The problematic history of outsiders and "carpetbaggers" coming to Hawaii to put on major events had made winning local support difficult.〔 Hawaii was also considered by some to be hostile to outside businesses.〔 The promoters were optimistic that a major automobile series could host a successful race in Hawaii, despite the remote location, especially given the favorable economic climate of the late 1990s, and strong tourism industry. A crowd of up to 100,000 spectators was estimated, with over 20,000 coming from the mainland. Despite initial skepticism〔 from city and state leaders, the event eventually gained local support. A potential of $80 million in tourist-based revenue〔 helped gain support. The idea for venturing outside the North American mainland for a CART event, and expanding their fanbase, started around 1989. Potential sites included the Caribbean and Asia. Logistics and travel costs were a large consideration, but the series made their first successful attempt in 1991 with the inaugural running of the Gold Coast Grand Prix at Surfers Paradise. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hawaiian Super Prix」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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