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[QUOTE=Brickyard;521597]"Penske and his ilk" were not behind the formula change that happened during that time. Roger Ward was the one who convinced Cooper and Brabham to test the European style rear engine car at Indy. It was pretty much done for the front engines at that point and the dirt that accompanied them....and guess who wrote the rules that allowed it?
Coming from a business standpoint, why would someone want to spend more money on something that by 1966 didn't even constitute a quarter of the schedule and wasn't even close to even fitting the current formula that ran the majority of races to include the biggest one? That's called common sense. If I'm an owner in 1968, which was Penske's first effort, I'm going to see the writing on the wall. Less than 14% of races are dirt oval, the norm for the formula is a European style rear engine car......you better believe I'm going to sock my money into something that will develop a driver for what of the majority of the schedule is. I would have also more than likely been on the side of advocated we drop dirt all together due to the cost associated with running so few races on that side. I can run one type of car that will run on all paved surfaces with minor modifications rather than having to build two types, one of which will only be used at most five times in a season and doesn't even fit the formula needed to be successful at the biggest race. Once again who wrote those rules and made up that schedule.....
Which leads me to the best Penske and his ilk story of them all....the 1994 Indy 500....you know, how that evil man from Shaker Heights, OH cheated his way to victory? Not really, even the tech director at that time admits his engine was well within regulation. He basically just took USAC's rule book and and beat them over the head with it.
The only constant in this world is change and when things evolve you either keep up or stay home and complain about the folks who kept up and whine about how they "got an advantage" or "forced their ways on everyone else". For some folks it's just easier to stay in their comfort zone and then complain about how everyone left them behind.
My opinion? We have a few that have never gotten over those nancy boy right and left turnin' furriners taking the God given right to run Indy from our hero dirt slingers. Like Mike Devin, former USAC tech director said in a book on the 1994 Penske engine,
“Those people who complained would turn right around and go to a baseball game where the nine guys on the field, maybe two of them are American and the other seven are from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, all different countries,” said Devin. “That doesn’t seem to be a problem. It’s just a fact of life.”[/QU
It is so typical of those who think as you do that we who feel we have lost something special that set us apart are xenophobic Neanderthals. You are correct that change is inevitable, but it is not always positive or progress.
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