IROC comes to an official end, all assets to be liquidated
Quote selected text Published February 20th, 2008 in NASCAR News
The International Race of Champions (IROC series) officials announced today the All-Star auto racing series will liquidate all tools, equipment, race cars and memorabilia in a two-day public auction on March 7th and 8th at IROC headquarters in Tinton Falls, NJ. The IROC series has been dormant since the conclusion of the 2006 season due to lack of sponsorship.
IROC President Jay Signore said, “We’re all very sad to see IROC come to an end, but the competition for major corporate sponsorship is very tough and the car manufacturers have not shown any interest. We kept hope alive as long as we could but now it’s time to look forward and move on.”
Spanning four decades the IROC series left its mark in auto racing history staging 120 events at 16 different world-class race tracks across the United States and amassing a roster of over 125 of the biggest names in stock car, open wheel and road racing from throughout the world. Twenty-one of those greats have won the elite IROC championship along with the bragging rights of beating out the best of the best.
Signore concluded “We managed every aspect of the IROC series out of this building for the past 25-years and everything has to go in this auction. We have tools and equipment along with a dozen, or so, race ready IROC cars, driver uniforms, helmets, autographed pictures – there’s a lot of history here. It’s hard to see it all go, but we’ve had a great time with the IROC series and no regrets.”
For more information on the IROC liquidation contact Auction Liquidation Services at 800-563-9740. For more information regarding the International Race of Champions go to www.irocracing.com or contact George J. Signore at 732-542-4762.
[IROC PR]
Bookmark to:
- IROC to auction off assets
- IROC is apparently finished
- IROC still seeking sponsor
- IROC delays start of 2007 season, needs a sponsor
- Is this the end of the IROC Series?
I think I’ll take one of those cars…
The Race Of Champions is more fan friendly. It needs to run some events
here.
This is very sad news. IROC was the best of the best.
I sure will miss this event. I sure could use some of the
stuff they are auctioning off. It would be great for my race
team. We are looking for sponsorship as well and it sure isn’t
easy finding people or corps. to hand out money.
IROC will be missed.
Tony Stewart, and a couple investors (other cup drivers) buy the Name/Trademark of it and maybe the fleet of cars (although they are outdated now) and they go in with the IRL, NASCAR, Grand-Am, WoO, and/or USAC and run a 6 or 8 race schedule of races in conjunction with some of the bigger events of the series listed above, and the races would be run on Wednesday nights so they wouldn’t really interfere with any of the series/drivers. The Schedule could be as follows (during these race weeks).
1. Daytona 500
2. Indy 500
3. Eldora Dream
4. Long Beach GP
5. Sebring ALMS race
6. Knoxville Nationals OR Super Dirt Week
And then maybe 1 or 2 other race weekends.
Just an Idea/Dream/hope/wish/etc……
It’s sad to see any major series go. Yes, it was a major series. You could actually by an IROC style Camaro and so on. Drivers from all types of motorsports competing in identically prepared cars on different size tracks was a cool thought when it started. Just look at th list of drivers that raced in the series. It’s very impressive for the most part. Adios, old friend.
Little did I know I was watching the last Atlanta IROC race a few years ago when I was there
I know some folks didn’t like it, but I always loved it. Fisha, I hope you’re right and someone like Smoke comes in and buys up the series in an attempt to revive it!
I second Jeff to his statement. I was there at the final IROC race at Atlanta. If I remember correct, Truex won the race as Martin claimed another IROC title. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. Anyway, I sincerely hope that they can get it started back up sometime in the near future.
raceman94 wrote:
Truex did win the race, but it was Stewart that won the ‘06 Championship, I think.
Signore,you did an excellent job.The series was fun to watch.However NA$CAR made as much money as they could before dropping the series.(they could have sponsored the series)However before too long you will probably see a sale of cot as the fans will quickly get a belly full of these things running around in a line and no racing.
Sad to see an enjoyable series going away for good. Thank you Mr. Signore for such fine entertainment over the years. DX, Hamilton, NJ
sad to see it go but this is old news….kudos to autoracingsport for diggin up crap that was said like 2 months ago and trying to bank it as their news
NASCAR fan wrote:
well, i saw this press release in quite a few places yesterday and at the end of the story it says ‘IROC PR’ so it doesn’t look to me that ARS is trying to take credit for the story.
that pretty well insures that you’re wrong on every count.
NASCAR fan wrote:
Actually this is a new press release that was just released by IROC, and this one 99.99% confirms that IROC is (as we know it) is done because no manufactures or sponsors were interested. Whereas the last PR said that they are still hoping for a 2008 season and trying to get manufactures and sponsors interested.
You can blame whomever was in charge of marketing for this failure, too bad they dropped the ball when Crown Royal pulled out.
George, I’ve been in contact with them over the past month, and they didn’t drop the ball, the corporate world dropped the ball. They contacted over 10,000 companies, and 50 auto manufactures across the world, and Not one wanted to get involved, because (and I quote from an email I got from them) “The companies didn’t think they would get a big enough return on their investment”
Its a dead series has been for a decade the cup drivers dominated it an really no company will get involved because there is no return to be gained.
Good riddance.. That series was just for Mark Martin anyway… He no longer needs it… LOL
What are the 6 race-ready IROC cars? Camaros? Firebirds? Anyone know?
Thanks