Champ Car has been consistent in one respect over the last few years: It has consistently failed to complete its published race schedule.
When the promoter of the inaugural Grand Prix Arizona announced the cancellation of the event Aug. 30, it became the eighth CART or Champ Car World Series event that failed to come off as planned since 2001 and the fifth in the last three seasons under the current ownership.
How many IndyCar Series or NASCAR races have been cancelled in that time period?
Less than a year ago, Champ Car was crowing about two new crown jewel street races in America that would open and close the season. But after the inaugural Vegas Grand Prix failed to perform up to financial expectations, promoters Dale Jensen and Brad Yonover  decided to prematurely pull the plug on Phoenix before they took another bath.
The Vegas and Phoenix races both lost title sponsorship from credit card processor First Data Independent Sales when the VISA brand would not allow its name to be associated with the events.
Additional sponsorship never materialized, and with fewer than 1,000 tickets sold, there was little or no fan support.
At least the Phoenix ticketholders got three months notice, and they’ll get their money back. Patrons who expected to see a CART race at Texas Motor Speedway in April 2001 didn’t, after that race was called off for safety reasons two hours prior to the posted start time.
Over the last two years, Champ Car has announced races at Ansan and Seoul, South Korea, that were never run. This year, China was scheduled in May, then “postponed” into 2008. Denver is another race that is on a “postponement” hiatus, but don’t count on it actually returning in 2009.
But just when you want to get all gloomy about Champ Car, they put on an event like the Bavaria Grand Prix at Assen.
Four thousand miles from home, on a road course light years ahead of any in the United States in terms of presentation and amenities, Champ Car suddenly looked like a professional show.
Significantly, the 60,000-plus fans on hand at Assen paid retail price for their tickets.
The full house at the famous motorcycle circuit was not the result of massive corporate ticket buys for employee giveaways or market-research purposes.
Justin Wilson was the winner of a pretty decent race, topping a popular podium that included drivers from a pair of Champ Car’s less well-funded teams.
Bruno Junqueira looked like he might win Dale Coyne Racing’s first race before a software glitch relegated him to third. It was his second podium in as many weeks.
And second place was a great reward — albeit a week late — for Conquest Racing owner Eric Bachelart and Jan Heylen, both Belgians. 
Heylen had his highly anticipated home race at Zolder ruined by Dan Clarke, but he consistently showed Sunday that it was possible to pass at Assen.
The fact that Junqueira and Heylen were able to legitimately run at the front shows that the Panoz DP01 spec car is doing everything series management hoped for.
It’s still unfortunate that teams are not allowed to do any meaningful development on the basic package, no matter how good it is.
Champ Car management has hinted that the series will grow increasingly more international in the future. If so, let’s hope for more home runs like Assen and fewer strikeouts like Korea and China ... or Phoenix, for that matter.