The Hawaiian Super Prix was a proposed CART FedEx Championship Series exhibition race scheduled for Saturday November 13, 1999.
[1] Lack of revenue, poor decisions and missteps by management and series officials, and labor dispute[2] involving local stevedores were cited as causes.
[3] Indy car racing had never visited Hawaii before, but had achieved success with other events across the Pacific Ocean at Australia and Japan.
A history of outsiders and "carpetbaggers" coming to Hawaii to put on major events had made winning local support difficult.
[4] 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.
The idea for a major Hawaiian auto racing event began as early as 1993, with Dick Rutherford as the promoter.
[1] Rutherford initially envisioned a large-scale, championship-style finale for the CART series, however, the Hawaiian Super Prix would not be a true, points-paying championship race.
The Super Prix would be a post-season invitation-only exhibition race, with large cash prizes the primary draw.
The last time the CART series held a non-points all-star exhibition event was 1992, with the final running of the Marlboro Challenge.
The sixteen-car field would be an invitation-only grid, with the top 12 drivers from the 1999 CART points standings, along with four at-large participants.
The wide nature of the track, particularly the backstretch, would resemble the characteristics of Cleveland, the popular race held at Burke Lakefront Airport.
However, CART officials eventually vetoed the idea of an outsider coming in and potentially beating the series regulars.
[9] The halftime show was planned to be an elaborate, glitzy, star-studded entertainment program, along the lines of the Super Bowl.
[7] Along with popular music acts, an air show, a Hawaiian Tropic beauty contest, and a $1 million prize giveaway for a lucky television viewer were planned.
A concert the night before was to feature LeAnn Rimes, Sugar Ray and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Compared to other events at the time, the Hawaiian Super Prix would have the largest cash prize in motorsports history.
Immediately after the race was announced on February 25, 1999, some experts and pundits in the industry were skeptical about its potential success, and some considered it "doomed from the start".
[11] With the lack of interest among the corporate world, including advertisers already linked to the sport, skepticism about the well-being of the event began to grow.
The Hawaiian Super Prix thus did not have a television contract when it was announced, and promoters planned to air it on Showtime pay-per-view, which caused a considerable amount of controversy and complaints from fans who were unwilling to pay the expected $19.95 for the broadcast.
The only races in recent history that were covered on PPV were a few NASCAR Winston Cup events at Pocono, for a brief time in 1986–1987, which was considered unsuccessful.
Also creating a conflict was the upcoming pay-per-view coverage of the Holyfield–Lewis II match in Las Vegas, which was to occur the same day.
Further hurting the marketing efforts, ABC/ESPN refused to allow the producers the rights to video footage of their CART broadcasts, and did not acknowledge the existence of the Super Prix during their own telecasts since they were not going to cover the event.
[4] Further complicating the tight schedule was an untimely labor dispute[2] and pending strike involving the local stevedores.
[4] It was estimated that even if the event was not cancelled, since the labor dispute was not settled until October 25, that less than half of the grandstands would have been finished by race day.
An infomercial ran on a local station, but subsequent reruns were cancelled when the event's finances started drying up.
At that point, they would not have enough no money left to pay the advertised purse, the sanctioning fee, and final construction contract costs.