Link to press release http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15717

like i said on "indystar.com"

the only person they could find to put up with the evil sisters is someone who is used to walking through bull$hit all day........this is going to be a disaster!!! i hope that i have to eat my words.....but i bet i dont!

HE SAID HE HAS NEVER EVEN SEEN AN IRL RACE!

*** are they thinkin'?

Jesus, this is death by a thousand paper cuts!
Bring back is Gene Simons.....................Kiddin' just Kiddin'

Should be an interesting year for the "few" people that will be watching.

Maybe this guy was holding the right hand at the meetings. Gosh, how many guys does it take to replace Tony.

Lynn

I don't know whether Indy Racing can be saved or not. The grandson of Anton Hulman, Jr. had his chance and was not in the process of turning it into a more successful organization. In fact, as screwed up as it sounds, the sport maybe wouldn't survive at all, if it lost it's little tempermental, 100 lb meal ticket. Which it is in the process of doing, starting with the ARCA race @ Daytona.

Here you have this guy, Randy Bernard. He took over part of a sport that had been around forever and had never been commercially successful on a large scale and helped turn PBR into a multi hundred-million dollar, international enterprise. When he was 28 years old! I'm not saying this is the guy that'll be the savior of the sport, but considering his track record, I wouldn't bet against him.

Jerry

It does seem like a pretty big stage to be doing "on the job training". On the other hand, maybe he didn't know anything about bull riding before he took that job, which he seems to have done well at.

You would think they would have plugged in someone who is knowledgable about Indycar racing. But who knows, maybe a fresh set of eyes and ideas will turn out to be a good thing.

I wish him the best of luck. He has a big challenge ahead of him. Increasing car counts and crowds in this economy isn't going to be easy.

David.

This will be a disaster, probably, bigger than the kevin miller/usac debacle. The truth is, the irl doesn't have enough time left for "on the job" training. They need somebody who can make some absolutely correct decisions, immediately,with great knowledge of the racing business and its history.
The problem is that nobody with any knowledge of the racing business would touch this job with a 50 foot pole, so they have to find some guy who has never even heard of the irl.
They need to find someone, instantly, that understands that all of their obsession with promotion, hype and marketing is totally useless when the real problem is that THEIR PRODUCT SUCKS! Eight year old specracers with million dollar "guaranteed equal for all" specengines..... only two pro level teams winning 98% of all the race ...... only half a dozen pro level drivers

So, This guy built the "bullriders" up from "nothing".... Building from "nothing" is a whole lot easier than trying to build from the bottom of a very deep hole that is the irl. He would be better off burying the current irl at the bottom of that hole and start over from "nothing".

************************************************** *********
Good Luck!, Randy Bernard, I'm sure you are a swell guy, but you should have read about all of the previous cart, usac, indycar and irl CEOs, presidents, hucksters, dictators, frontmen, and mouthpieces
whose racing careers have be "eaten up" over the past 30+ years......... frasco, campanegro, stokkan, craig, pook, heitzler, ward, kalkhoven and, now, TG......... plus dozens of cart, indycar and irl marketing and PR hacks....
Having a little knowledge and studying a little history could have saved you from making a very bad career decision.

Maybe we need to start a "Bitter Old Racing Guy Forum" on here for guys like Mac. His post should fit in there nicely.

I agree with you on this. Guys the PBR did not totally come from nothing. They did have ESPN around for there big events in Vegas. And most big cities had rodeo's each year that were highly advertised. Yes there not apples to apples, but its not like he put the first man on a bull. I am going to look at this a much more simple way. Its time to think outside the box. The past is just about all used up. Time to move on. Maybe this guy can make things better. hopefully better things will trickle down below like it has in the PBR. One thing to remember, not only did he get the PBR up and rolling, but now there is a "support series" of sorts feeding new riders to the big show. There is a direct path. Once you reach the top, if you do not maintain a certain level you drop back down. This guy has never seen an indy car race..... well at least he has not seen several of the failurres from the past.

This is exactly what the IRL needs. We all sit here and think we know what this needs, or that needs to make it great. He's looking at it from a totally different perspective. He's going to be looking at "how can I put butts in the seats, and make the value of entertainment better" Becasue lets think about this, all racing is... is ENTERTAINMENT! People aren't going to the races, and people aren't watching them on TV becasue they aren't entertaining to watch. This guy said that he's knows TV, he knows promoting, two of the biggest lackluster things in all of racing.