Irl bozo's!
 

:7:where do they find these clowns? They can't get thru the first turn start! Then they ***** about the 2 abreast restarts! Sad sad bunch! :6::15::14:

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I was actually surprised they didn't do side by side starting before now. Also, two months until the next race?

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The next IndyCar race is in two weeks. April 10th at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., followed by April 17th at Long Beach, Calif.

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ABC isn't covering another one until Indy. Versus will be covering Barber on the 10th, Long Beach on the 17th and Brazil on May 1st.

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Man, they sure are a bunch of whinners! Geeeez! It is pathetic when you know they are going to cry everytime they see a microphone.

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The ONLY way that could have been any sadder a display would have been if they had all been driving these babys!:19:

http://assets.speedtv.com/images/eas...nt-final_m.jpg

At least there would have been no nose wings torn off!

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The level of nepotism in major league racing is nothing new but it can sure be irritating. Seeing Marco wreck can bring me right back to listening to Rusty Wallace talk as his son goes sliding through the grass yesterday afternoon. Whether its Daddy's Money Andretti or Daddy's Money Wallace it sure is fun watching them spend money.

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It's a shame they don't spend the money on someone who can actually drive though.

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Helio punts Marco at the start, bunch of whining about two abreast restarts, Danica hits everything but the pace car.

On the positive, Kanaan runs well (love the retro paint job), Simona drove well and Dallara sold a bunch of parts today.

Re: Irl bozo's!
 

Okay, since I don't follow IRL at all, didn't know that, thanks for the information.

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Simona can race. I like her. I switched to the VC/KU basketball game as soon as it came on but turned back to the last 12 laps. Simona battling Kanaan was the highlight of what was otherwise a snoozer. Four yellows in 13 laps is not good. Our short tracks at the local shows do waaaaay better than that and we don't even count yellow flag laps.

The 2006 Sumar Classic not withstanding.
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All of this road racing on the schedule is a complete turn off for me. I watch the ovals only. They've absolutely ruined the sport. Until they started adding the road courses (again) you couldn't pry me away from an Indy car race. Now, I could care-less which foreigner or rich-kid/female wins one of those parades.......I'll still go up to Indy for the social aspect of it but, it just isn't the same with all of that shiny exposed aluminum you can see scattered throughout the stands......BTW I honestly didn't know there was an Indy car race this past weekend...

The ticker on ESPN's bottom line this AM?
Tony Kanaan wins...Danica Patrick 12th
Seriously?
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Re: Irl bozo's!
 

...[/QUOTE]All of this road racing on the schedule is a complete turn off for me. I watch the ovals only. They've absolutely ruined the sport. Until they started adding the road courses (again) you couldn't pry me away from and Indy car race....[/QUOTE]

Although I've come to embrace the mixture of circle track and road courses on the IRL slate, I can't stand these idiotic street courses. Nothing like watching drivers in cars capable of 200+ mph "racing" single-file at less than 50 mph under green flag conditions thru some of these narrow corners.

Now, I could care-less which foreigner or rich-kid/female wins one of those parades.[/QUOTE]

This is where we're just going to have to agree to disagree. If folks are going to call drivers like Dario Franchitti or Tony Kanaan (who also have homes in Tennessee and Florida, respectively) "foreigners", then don't go trying to claim Mario Andretti as an Italian-American just because he ran sprint cars.

And why do you feel the need to take a shot at female drivers? I'd be willing to bet you didn't have a problem with Sarah Fisher running at Indy, so why do you have issues with someone like Simona De Silvestro? Because she left what happens to be her home in Switzerland, where racing isn't even legal?

Like pretty much everyone on here, I'd love to see more dirt track racers get a shot at Indy. But I'd also like to see them get that shot along with racers from other disciplines and series, say Formula 1, Australian V8 Supercars, etc.

Re: Irl bozo's!
 

All of this road racing on the schedule is a complete turn off for me. I watch the ovals only. They've absolutely ruined the sport. Until they started adding the road courses (again) you couldn't pry me away from and Indy car race....[/QUOTE]

Although I've come to embrace the mixture of circle track and road courses on the IRL slate, I can't stand these idiotic street courses. Nothing like watching drivers in cars capable of 200+ mph "racing" single-file at less than 50 mph under green flag conditions thru some of these narrow corners.

Now, I could care-less which foreigner or rich-kid/female wins one of those parades.[/QUOTE]

This is where we're just going to have to agree to disagree. If folks are going to call drivers like Dario Franchitti or Tony Kanaan (who also have homes in Tennessee and Florida, respectively) "foreigners", then don't go trying to claim Mario Andretti as an Italian-American just because he ran sprint cars.

And why do you feel the need to take a shot at female drivers? I'd be willing to bet you didn't have a problem with Sarah Fisher running at Indy, so why do you have issues with someone like Simona De Silvestro? Because she left what happens to be her home in Switzerland, where racing isn't even legal?

Like pretty much everyone on here, I'd love to see more dirt track racers get a shot at Indy. But I'd also like to see them get that shot along with racers from other disciplines and series, say Formula 1, Australian V8 Supercars, etc.[/QUOTE]

I admire your open-mindedness, illiNOISE, but the fact is, American race fans could care less about all of these obscure foreign drivers who have been given preference over American talent for all of the decent rides in the sport. The grandstands, TV ratings and, the lack of TV coverage (and a decent TV package) prove it. Until the geniuses up on 16th St. and the car owners figure this out, it's just going to be you and a hand full of other "open minded" fans watching this cr@p. They have to develop American stars in the sport from the grass roots level or it is doomed. The American public just hasn't warmed up to even the most successful of the foreign drivers. Case in point, Helio. He is more famous in this country for being Julianne Hough's winning partner on Dancing With the Stars than he is for being a 3-time Indy winner. This is a lot different than back in the 60's-80's when the best of Europe and South America came over here to compete against the established American Stars. I'm glad that you enjoy it, illiNOISE, but enjoy it while you can because if they continue to ignore the "American Factor" that puts fans in the seats and in front of TV sets, you won't get to enjoy it much longer....

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I know for a fact that Mario Andretti is a US Citizen. Not only that, he has represented the United States in many high profile events around the globe. He runs the Stars and Stripes on his helmet for Cripes Sakes!

These other two hobos? Are they US Citizens? Kanaans helmet and Dario's as well pays homage to their homelands. And neither one of these two twinks could out run Superduke on a dirt track.

But they are some sweet boys :26:

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Dario married an American girl, does that count for anything?:3:

REH

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Other than the last lap pass is the crap wagon race, what was the difference. I did actually enjoy yesterday's race. Hellio took out some really good cars on the start that is for sure. Yesterday's action was better than last year. The American development has started.

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Counts for a lot. He married a rich, pretty american girl. Isn't that the American dream? :2:

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Here has been my problem with IndyCars. Years ago they put Dave Steele in a Panther car. He was doing better lap times than Goodyear. The suspension broke on the car and he was along for the ride into the wall. The prevailing thought was Steele had his shot even though there was nothing he could do about the accident. Now we see this hack name Viso going on his fifth season now. He has torn up more equipment than possibly every short tracker that raced in the IRL put together. Yesterday as a lapped car he held up Simona in the latter stages of the race which is what I thought he would do given his history.

If Steele had his shot what about Viso?

I have no problems with a qualified foreigner running and Indy Car. I was pleased when Nelson Piquet came over to race the Indy 500 years ago. My problem is many of the foreign drivers they brought in in recent years could not approach the talent of a Piquet or a Fitipaldi. Most of them run IndyCars as on-the-job training not as a racer that has already built an impressive resume of racing and championships. Fact is I never heard of most of them so I suspect they couldn't draw flies to an American race track.

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I think the only thing anyone under 30 years old (people with more disposable income then me) knows about Mario Andretti is that his son owns 1/6 of the cars in the IRL (or whatever they call it today), his grandson takes up a good seat, they sold out a good driver for one with a big wallet and they have the American girl who does nothing to advance any car she races in.

I am going to try and watch all the races this year. I think the series has a chance, they race in 4 different countries and without all of them foreigners they can't pay the bills. All the rich American kids wanna race Nascar, can't blame the Brazillionaires for spending there money in Japan and Italy.

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Seems to me some of this "negative" energy could be more well spent being positive and working toward the betterment of a portion of the sport each of you REALLY enjoy.

I don't enjoy pro wrestling, boxing, cage fighting, bowling and don't waste my time viewing them on TV. I'd much rather cut the grass or change oil in the car.

I covered the St Petersburg Grand Prix and it was like just about every other motorsports event I've been to. There were some things I really liked and some I didn't. In this perspective, it was like any sprint or late model dirt race, asphalt oval or road course or straight line racing. I went to enjoy the elements I already knew ahead of time I would appreciate. And I did! I had a great time.

The other stuff didn't bother me at all. Again, from this perspective, it was like any other motorsport's event.

Y'all need to go back and re-read (or maybe read for the first time) the story Dave Argabright wrote about all of the negative attitude from dirt racing proponents.

JMHO,
Joe

Re: Irl bozo's!
 

I think they could solve a lot of their problems in Indycar if they would put the engines back in the front and replace those road races with dirt tracks!

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Here we go again, 40-50 year old argument....

The problem is they don't have a niche. Sprint cars and cars like them are unique. Top fuelers are unique. Stock cars are unique. Indy cars? Oh, hello F1! The guys who can't make it in F1 fall back on Indy cars.
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Re: Irl bozo's!
 

There is so much stuff that I disagree with, that I dont even know where to start. If you dont enjoy the road racing aspect of it, watch NASCAR. If you dont like the foreign aspect, blame NASCAR and a lack of American road racing talent. If NASCAR wasn't the big thing INDYCAR would have Robby Gordon, AJ Allmendinger, Tony Stewart and possibly Scott Speed and Ryan Newman to name a few. You complain about rich kids, but that is every form of racing I can think of. I guess being a pro INDYCAR and con Nascar or anything with doors or fenders my point is, you are on here crying worse than the people you are crying about. Instead of trying to point out everything thats wrong with something and why YOU want nothing to do with it, why not use those 5 minutes to go on you-tube and look up last years race from Chicago

Alot of so called race fans love to do nohing more than complain about it. Everyday its complaining and NASCAR, complaining about Indycar, complaining about winged sprint racing, complaining about modifieds. Do you guys even like auto racing at all?

I think any type of racing is great, and if its on TV than that's even better!
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Re: Irl bozo's!
 

they are qualified. They bring MONEY!

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I really don't care much anymore! The powers to be know nothing about racing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! American race fans want midget and sprint car divers working there way up to indy!!!!!!!!!!

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I attended the Sears Point race last year, so I don't just sit behind the keyboard and complain. I would like to see Indycar racing thrive, but the current product is not going to sell to the masses, heck it doesn't even sell to race fans. A large part of the problem is the drivers. I am an avid F1 fan, so foreign drivers can't really be an issue can they? The problem is that I don't believe that I am seeing the best drivers available. For a $50 ticket, I want to see the best! Watching the race at Sears Point, I knew that these guys and girls were not the best available drivers. Watch these people on the track and a lot of them are very ragged. I'm talking missed braking points, blown lines, overdriving the car and just an obvious lack of car control. Some are pretty good, I believe that Franchitti, Kanaan, Wheldon and Castroneves should be professional race drivers, but I also believe that Americas best Indycar driver is sitting a the house, that would be Paul Tracy. We have all seen Danica demonstrate that she has a definite talent shortcoming, as evidenced by the torn up stock cars she has been littering the track with. You can quote me all the top 10 and top 5 finishes in Indycar that you want, but that proves nothing because Indycar does not have 10 good drivers. So until one of these people can make the A at the Chili Bowl, I just can't believe that they are a great driver.
For the record, I don't like NASCAR either, but we all know that Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne and JJ Yeley are great drivers, so you gotta do something right to beat them.

Also don't pick this apart by saying I didn't mention this driver or that driver. Just go to one of these races and tell me that you get as excited by seeing these drivers race each other as you do seeing Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell race against each other. Heck I get more excited watching a weekly show at Lincoln Speedway (PA) because I'm pretty sure there is more talent in that field than in the Indy 500 starting line up.

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I think it takes alot of boldness to actually think you can tell who is a great driver and who isn't just by watching a wreck or two, especially if you haven't ever raced, or raced the kind of cars we are talking about. It's the old armchair quarterback talk again....
I think alot of the people on IOW wouldn't like anyone that never raced at Gas City, no matter if they were American or not. Too many people view IndyCar for what it isn't, rather than what it is.
As far as ride buying, Almost every sprint carr/midget ride I look into, you have to bring money. So what if you have to bring it to some teams in the IRL? Let the economy get much worse, and see more sponsors dropping from Nascar, and ride buying will become more prevalant there as well. ARCA has been that way for years.
I learned a long time ago, that sprint car and midget drivers aren't the only people that car drive race cars.
Oh, Rhody, Paul Tracy is Canadian.

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Puppy- I'm not talking the difference between good and great- I'm talking the difference between good and bad. It wasn't subtle, it was like watching someone on dirt try to run the bottom and end up spinning their tires in the middle, or try to run the cushion and jump it on 2 out of every 5 laps. And I know PT is Canadian, but it's in North America and he lives in Vegas now.
Yes I've raced. Dirt and Asphalt. Spent many years spinning wrenches on asphalt stock cars. I try to drive sprints and midgets now.

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I know I sound like a broken record but do away with the road courses they suck! They have had some great oval shows.

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The thing is, Foyt, the Unsers, Sneva, Marshman, Rutherford, Johncock, Ward, Parnelli, Andretti, Ruby etc. didn't need the engines moved back up to front to compete with the best that Formula I had offer at Indy. They all excelled in rear-engined cars. Why do today's American circle trackers need front engine cars to compete at Indy? The fact is, that today's cars are much more stable and easier to drive than the death traps that the aforementioned group of American drivers had to adapt to beginning in 1964. I have no doubt that todays short track stars would have no problem competing if they could get a quality ride. Problem is, most Indy car owners come from a road racing background, took the sport in that direction in the 80's, and want road racers in their cars. I loved seeing the Formula I stars come over here and run against Foyt, Al, Bobby and the rest of our stars. The problem is, were not getting those "types" of foreign racers anymore (marquee names from FI). We're getting obscure drivers from these minor road racing series in Europe and South America whom no one has ever heard of until they show up here in one of our top rides. They are taking the seats that American circle trackers should be given a shot at. The fact is, the current group of car owners doesn't want to take the time to develop our drivers and because the series is now heavily balanced to the road racing side of things, Americans are once again being shut out of the sport, as they were during the 90's in CART. The reason today's American short trackers aspire to NASCAR is because NECKCAR welcomed our young Jeff Gordons back then and the fans went with them to the Tin Tops. That meant the $$$$ also went there. That's why NASCAR went from a regional sport in the mid 80's to the juggarnaut it became in the 90's leaving openwheel racing in a state of decline that it has never recovered from. The leadership and ownership in Indy Car racing is nothing more than BLIND & STUPID!!!!!

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Cecil, you gotta be the smartest mole trapper/sprint car owner around.

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they need to back to michagan speedway that ways a great race.

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NOT EXACTLY!!!!!!!!

Roster for the USF2000 Series - Level 1 of the ladder structure to Indy Car Series
15 drivers>>>LINK
USA - 9
Canada - 1
Australia - 1
Ireland - 1
France - 1
Columbia - 1
Finland - 1

Roster of the Star Mazda Series - Level 2 of the ladder structure
18 drivers>>>LINK
USA - 9
Puerto Rico - 1
Canada - 2
Ireland - 1
France - 1
Brazil - 1
Venazuela - 1
Columbia - 1
Chile - 1

Roster of the Indy Lights Series - level 3 of the ladder structure
17 drivers>>>LINK
USA - 4
Canada -2
UK - 2
Ireland - 1
Norway - 1
Argentina - 1
Angola - 1
Brazil - 1
Venezuela - 1
Mexico - 1
Columbia - 1
Spain - 1

Roster of the Indy Car Series
26 drivers>>>LINK
USA - 7
Canada - 1
UK - 2
Scotland - 1
Australia - 2
New Zealand - 1
Brazil - 5
Switzerland - 1
France - 1
Spain - 1
Japan - 1
Columbia - 1
Venezuela - 1

Not quite as skewed to foreign drivers as many think especially in the development series.

Hmmm!!! Are the Canadians close enough to America for you? :9:

How about Puerto Rico(US territory), the UK, Scotland, Ireland? :8:

How about Australia and New Zealand where US sprint drivers sometimes go to race in the off season? :31:

HMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!! -- As JackWebb used to say, "Just the facts ma'am!" :14:

Re: Irl bozo's!
 

THanks for sharing this Racephoto. It's very interesting.....
I think we'll see that it's not as much of a "foreign" driver issue as it is a "road racing" issue....
The folks on IOW are not really road race fans.
But for the record, I grew up in the 70's as a Nascar fan, also saw alot of IndyCar races at Michigan In't. I was stuck in the "stock car" world for years, thinking there was NOTHING that could compare. Road racing esp. But later, I began to appreciate and watch and follow ALL types of motorsport. And guess what? THey are all different but great in thier own way. I eventually started racing myself, and it was Sprint cars that inspired me to do that, never did I have a urge to drive just watching the stockers, but when I started going to sprint car races, my life changed. But that doesnt mean that there aren't other series where the drivers are great too.
Ever watch any Star Mazda races on tv? Those guys really race! Same with the Speed GT races. It's good stuff. One has to take something for what is IS, not for what it ISN'T....:22:

Re: Irl bozo's!
 

AMERICAN SPRINT & MIDGETS CAR DRIVERS IN ANY AMERICAN BUILT CAR! (NO SPEC CARS) WITH AMERICAN BUILT 305ci STOCK BLOCKS! 10-1 COMPRESSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!