Quote:
Originally Posted by Vukie
I'm 60, saw the Rex Mays Classic at Milwaukee in 1950's and 1960's, so I'm no youngster. I got the books, the Speed Age magazines and videos about the old days. The old days ain't coming back. Hell, the Silver Crown cars these days can't even sell out the Hoosier 100. Where are all of the fans?
Close to half of the drivers that raced the Indianapolis 500 back in the 1950's were killed racing. A point that is always forgotten in these discussions. Look forward or be left behind.
Modern Indy Cars don't have power steering.
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You saw some real good racing back then, and I bet you loved it to. I can still remember going with my dad to see Vukie race, I think at Big Salem, he was truly great. Times were not all that great back then. But American racers did have something to shoot for. If we could have the Silver Crown cars driven by Indy 500 drivers (maybe NASCAR drivers would work better) it wouldn't be any problem to fill the grand stands. Back then drivers raced for another destination besides a NASCAR ride. They wanted a drive a Champ car or better yet an Indy ride. IN the 50's champ cars and Indy cars were the same thing, and a young fresh kid just was not going to get a ride in one. It was kinda of funny but they expected you to be twenty one years old to race one of them things back then. I guess that had something to do with the life expectency of a race driver back then. They did not know anything about "emancipation" back then sometimes they lied. Today daddy can go see a judge and put his teenager right in a silver crown car. Granted they are not as dangerous today as yesteryear but some people today might look at it as child abuse.
I guess what I'm saying is there is no place but NASCAR for a good open wheel driver to advance up the ladder today. I would say that most really good drivers today don't evet think about Indy anymore, and that is a shame.
Could ther be a new "CHAMP" car and could it be a destination onto itself today for open wheel drivers. I would guess there would not be many Indy drivers that could compete in this class. Left turns only, dirt and pavement racing. Make the rules so as to get only the best of the best and make it so money could not buy your way in no matter what.
Honest Dad himself
