All-singing, all-dancing Trans-Am.(Competition)

At Denver the Trans-Am series announced Motorock LLC as its new title sponsor. Under a multi-year agreement, North America's oldest continuing road racing series now becomes the Motorock Trans-Am Tour for the BFGoodrich Tires Cup. The package included title sponsorship for the Denver Trans-Am race, and the addition of another date to this year's Trans-Am schedule, to be held in conjunction with the Miami CART event.

What's a Motorock? "A new generation of pop culture that blends cars, stars and guitars,'' says Motorock CEO Jamie Rose. Trans-Am races will be blended and joint-marketed with rock concerts and youth-oriented "lifestyle'' events, including sport-compact tuner car shows and merchandise expositions. "It's all about energy,'' Rose told AutoWeek. "Cars and music together are a natural.'' Rose announced Elton John is scheduled to perform at the first Motorock concert in Miami on Sept. 27, with additional acts to be added.

With Trans-Am CEO and CART team owner Paul Gentilozzi, and Toyota Atlantic team owner Carl Russo, Motorock LLC is also a partner in Big Bang Racing LLC. In turn, Big Bang Racing is one of the partners in Open Wheel Racing Series LLC, the group that recently offered to purchase CART Inc., take the series private, and infuse it with cash. Should CART's board of directors and shareholders accept the buyout offer, look for Motorock's music and lifestyle promotions to extend into that series as well. "If things work out in that direction as we plan, I would certainly see Motorock playing a role,'' said Gentilozzi.

Your vision may vary

Though CART's board has yet to approve the purchase offer from Open Wheel Racing, the suitors believe they are close to a deal. "We're confident that we'll hear from them sometime later this week,'' said Kevin Kalkhoven, venture capitalist, CART team owner and key member of OWR, which also includes Gentilozzi's group and CART team owner Gerald Forsythe. Forsythe is CART's largest single stockholder, with nearly 23 percent of the company's shares, now pledged to OWR.

At Denver, Big Bang partner Carl Russo offered his reasons for participating in the CART buyout attempt and his vision for the future. "The first goal is to take care of our fans, to strengthen CART, strengthen the show, support the fans who have supported the series. If you just let it die, you're going to lose many of them. That's goal No. 1. If we don't do that, all the other goals go away,'' Russo said.

And goal No. 2?