I hope something like this happens. While the new unified IRL & Champ
Car
arrangement is obviously good for the business(!!!) of American open
wheel
racing, it exists in the long shadow of CART and the Indianapolis 500
in
1995. Remarkably, today's IRL season is not much different in design
and ambition: road, street and oval races, foreign venues, engine
leasing - not mandatory but apparently being used by all teams - and
a number of foreign drivers.
The IRL interruption from 1995 on, has failed to "fix" any of these
"wrongs"
(as ordained in the IRL's argument for coming into being). The only
thing
that is fixed is that the relatively inarticulate owner/inheritor of
the
Speedway is now in charge. While we cannot deny him his due
for being born into his position, it is easy to imagine his presence
in the CART meetings
with a group of self-made millionaires, entrepreneurial team owners
who
were (as part of the CART charter) trying to promote a whole series/
season.
Yes, for you Tony George fans, he got what he wanted - not through
any innovative or "new" thinking, or marketing, but by insuring IMS'
fortunes
with a NASCAR (so much for the shrine of 'open wheel' racing) race,
and then
evicting the whole CART premise to force the idea of returning to what
TG saw as better (USAC) times.
The results of Tony's powerplay (and for some, ultimate "victory),"
are easy
to see. Everything you see in today's IRL comes from Tony doing what
he wanted.
Surprisingly, that includes a one-engine series, and more dramatically
as a long time (pre-1995) Indy attendee, a one-engine Indy. That
could change
with the unification with Champ Car...ah but wait, "Champ Car" was
never
a factor. They were that crummy one-engine, spec car series that
raced
on streets, road courses, and went out of the USA sometimes.... How
could
THEY bring anything good to the purity of the IRL operation? :-)
So while some savor the "unification" of all thing open wheel, it
remains
significantly damaged and diminished from 1995. That long shadow from
1995 makes it uninteresting to me, though I'm mildly curious to see
what evolves.
A Forsythe-driven DP-01 series sounds much more interesting to me,
even if
on a much smaller scale than the IRL's product.
Though his visionary leader****p and marketing savvy have "won" the
war, it wouldn't surprise if behind the scenes, much of the future
of the IRL will be influenced or even "led" by the old CART owners
who gave in to their sponsors or to Honda and Toyota in giving up
on CART. The happy ending for Tony would be
returning to the job he was born into: being the custodian of the Indy
500. In
that job, he's got some catching up to do.
-Sterling
On Mar 13, 10:46=A0pm, "just bob" <kilby...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Today I heard former regulars on the champ car circuit =A0in the Sebring
p=
ress
> room saying Forsythe might start a new series perhaps with the DP01 and
a
> engine from s****tscars. While Kalkhoven had about $400m when he saved
Cham=
p
> Car, according to research performed by writer Tim Tuttle (not the
source =
of
> the rumor, BTW), Forsythe should still be worth about $3b.
>
> Maybe just wishful thinking but it sure brightened up my day.
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