[Rapid Rick]

Perhaps would be a bigger story if Larson or Kyle Busch were in a seat in May.

[BrentTFunk]

Originally Posted by flagboy55 Well you're wrong. Pretty sure not even the great Tony Stewart would have had a chance at the speedway without it. CART ruined indy car. I'll take any fallout from changes that allowed, Jack Hewitt, Steve Kinser, Billy Boat and even Jeff Ward to compete at the speedway. Even if indy car's had vanished from the planet, I'll accept it as sacrifice for the opportunity for real race drivers to get a chance at the greatest race of all, just like it was intended when greats like Foyt, Unser, Rutherford, Jones, Sneva, and more ran there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the guy that says let's keep it all American, it's always been international. But the best indy car driver's of all time have come from American open wheel racing, and cart discounted them as no more than street stock racers.

When our guys ran the crowds were small and didn't support them.

[Aces&Eights]

Originally Posted by flagboy55 Are you saying that the IRL destroyed Indy car racing, Stevensville Mike?

I liked the IRL, don't care for CART.

[Blackduce]

The way to bring in the Americans would be to put he dirt cars back in the Championship for points. When we raced in the 60's and 70's that was super. 16 ovals, 5 dirt races and 5 road races. And the Non USA drivers went home after the 500. Then Penske got the dirt cars thrown out because he did not own a dirt car. And after that he won alot more races. Don't blame Tony for this. Tony did a hellva job. Sometimes sisters can give you guidelines, to keep peace. If you knew all the cronies he had to fight to save Indy car racing. You wouldn't be thinking like that. Just get the dirt cars back in.

Lynn

[davidm]

1970 the last year the Dirt Champ cars where part of the National Champion Schedule.

Date Race Track Miles Type Winner
3/28/70 Jimmy Bryan 150 Phoenix 150 PO Al Unser
4/4/70 Golden Gate 150 Sears Point 151.38 RC Dan Gurney
4/26/70 Trenton 200 Trenton 201 PO Lloyd Ruby
5/30/70 International 500 Mile Sweepstakes Indianapolis 500 PO Al Unser
6/7/70 Rex Mays Classic Milwaukee 150 PO Joe Leonard
6/14/70 Langhorne 150 Langhorne 150 PO Bobby Unser
6/28/70 Rocky Mountain 150 Castle Rock 151.62 RC Mario Andretti
7/4/70 Michigan Twin 200s MIS 200 PO Gary Bettenhausen
7/26/70 Indy 150 IRP 150 RC Al Unser
8/22/70 Tony Bettenhausen 100 Springfield 100 DO Al Unser
8/23/70 Tony Bettenhausen 200 Milwaukee 200 PO Al Unser
9/6/70 California 500 Ontario 500 PO Jim McElreath
9/7/70 Ted Horn Memorial DuQuoin 100 DO Al Unser
9/12/70 Hoosier Hundred ISF 100 DO Al Unser
9/19/70 Sedalia 100 Sedalia 100 DO Al Unser
10/3/70 Trenton 300 Trenton 264 PO Al Unser
10/4/70 Golden State 100 Sacramento 100 DO Al Unser
11/21/70 Bobby Ball 150 Phoenix 150 PO Swede Savage

Over 100 different drivers attempted to qualify for a race that season.

[Aces&Eights]

Originally Posted by Blackduce ... Then Penske got the dirt cars thrown out because he did not own a dirt car. And after that he won alot more races. .. Lynn

This is why I'm not a Penske fan, he essentially was CART(to me) and influenced the rules to his own favor, to build his brand.

[ISF]

I will reiterate a point that was made previously.

Right or wrong, for better or for worse, Tony George made it possible for me, and many, many others I suspect, to have the privilege and honor to watch Billy Boat, Steve Kinser, Donnie Beechler, Jack Hewitt and Jimmy Kite race in the Indy 500.

None of us have any way of knowing what would have happened if Tony George had not done what he did but it's a good bet that we wouldn't have had the pleasure of seeing the aforementioned drivers compete in the Indy 500.

Given NASCAR's exploding popularity during that period of history it's a safe assumption that interest in Indy Car racing was going to tank to some significant extent despite the split.

As far as this F1 guy racing at Indy, good for him and it's probably in some small way good for the 500. You want to see some real excitement? Just announce that Rico Abreu, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson have rides for the Indy 500. Now that would heighten interest a whole bunch.

[darnall]

I would love to see the rules tweaked for the 500..or every oval, to allow any IRL car from the last 3-4 rule packages to run with any naturally aspirated pushrod v-8 or DOHC 166ci turbo 4cylinder.

Every time a new spec car comes out 40-60 chassis become obsolete and only good for showcar purposes....and a couple years later you actually see classified ads on racingjunk for turnkey or roller indycars in the 40-100K range.

Surely Abreu Vineyards could hustle up enough help to buy a dallara showcar from some team for the same price one of their new sprintcar motors costs. Surely TRD could quickly come up with a different cam and the proper turbo to convert a couple of Kunz chilibowl winning motors to a suitable 500 package. Or the Hoffman team could find somebody willing to grab a roller and combine it with a motor out of the 69 sprintcar rotation.

I have no doubt there are a few businessmen in Indiana, IL, MO or CA that would be more than willing to drop 5 figures on a car to get to see Ballou, T-Mez, Shurenburg or DD try to work their way up from the 10th row at Indy.

I would never expect any kind of car grandfathering rule package to allow the old stuff to be equal to the current car and capable of winning...but I am absolutely sure there are 4-10 of our guys who could put a Don Ott 410 in somebody's old showcar and make the show ahead of 4-10 of the ride buyers nobodies ever heard of in a current teams 4th car. Also pretty sure they have enough savvy and racecraft to finish ahead of plenty other ride buyers that do qualify.

[davidm]

I'd like to see Don Ott's special "WoO Killer" motor he built for Fred Rahmer in an Indy car.

[sp6967]

all the dreamers, when indy car racing is a nightmare.