[ISF]

The two of our most beloved racing entities, USAC Silver Crown Championship Dirt Cars and Indy Car racing, appear to be on very shaky terrain.

If they turn Indy Car racing back into an owner run primarily non-oval series I swear I will be through with rear engined, American sanctioned open wheel racing.

They ruined it once with the inception of CART, and then they tried to revive it with the IRL, but in reality they nearly killed it, and now this.

Someone please tell me who I should blame all of this on? Was it USAC back in the late 1970's? Was it Penske & Co. through the CART years? Was it Tony George for trying to revive open wheel oval racing and American drivers? And now this, who do we blame this on?

I've got my opinions, but they are just that, opinions. I'm just a fan with no insight of the inner workings of these colossal failures. But, if I can see the drastic decline of the sport the powers that be sure as he!! do, too.

I'm sorry for the rant guys, but this stuff has been making me very sad for 30 years now and it seems to very seldom take a turn for the better over that time.

[Gregg]

I've been expecting the dismissal of Randy ever since the Indy 500. He tried hard, granted every idea wasn't the best but at least he was thinking outside the box. It just goes to show you can't fix stupid.

[Mud Packer]

Originally Posted by DAD All family owned business tend to fail after the death of the founder. Honest Dad himself

Somehow or another this seems like another of your remarks thrown out there without any basis to back it up. I work for a third generation, family owned business. In addition to being successful for over 80 years we also see many other second and third generation companies that are still in the marketplace doing business. If your comment had any validity to it, no company would make it past the original ownership. Where do you get your facts & figures?

[DAD]

Let's see now. We start the season off with the biggest race of the year. Follow that up with having our drivers race in several lesser divisions all over the country for the national championship as well as lesser division champs. Give them neat nick names like Fireball--Mad Russian---Smoke---The Intimidator. Promote our drivers from within the ranks and make rules that do not encourage mega sums of money to be invested in the race cars, Like no titanium frames, no carbon fiber tubs. Make left handed races only. The majority of the Indy league fans will not follow our group because they think counterclockwise is stupid, but I don't think we would miss all 5000 of them anyways.

Honest Dad himself

[DAD]

Originally Posted by Mud Packer Somehow or another this seems like another of your remarks thrown out there without any basis to back it up. I work for a third generation, family owned business. In addition to being successful for over 80 years we also see many other second and third generation companies that are still in the marketplace doing business. If your comment had any validity to it, no company would make it past the original ownership. Where do you get your facts & figures?

MOST DON'T

Your company is the exception rather than the rule. When you get a bunch of siblings in business together there will almost always be one that will throw the monkey wrench in the gears. I have watched it happen time and time again, maybe an only kid might succeed but 2 or more just don't usually work well together. At least not for me or a bunch of my friends in business.

Honest Dad himself

"The demise of Indy Car racing has been evolving since Brabham brought Cooper climax,"

I disagree. The 1960s and 1970s were a period of great growth in championship auto racing.

The demise of Indy Car racing, and USAC, has been evolving with the death of Tony Hulman, the creation of CART, the creation of the World of Outlaw Sprint Series, and the plane crash that killed most of the top leadership of USAC. This perfect storm of events in just a couple of years took advantage of the long-standing arrogance of those involved with USAC and the Speedway. They were kings of the world but quickly found themselves dethroned.

Without any of those four events, the resulting changes of the last 30 some years would not have been possible. Two -- CART and WoO -- took advantage of the other two.

[Mud Packer]

Originally Posted by bigmojo5 "The demise of Indy Car racing has been evolving since Brabham brought Cooper climax," I disagree. The 1960s and 1970s were a period of great growth in championship auto racing. The demise of Indy Car racing, and USAC, has been evolving with the death of Tony Hulman, the creation of CART, the creation of the World of Outlaw Sprint Series, and the plane crash that killed most of the top leadership of USAC. This perfect storm of events in just a couple of years took advantage of the long-standing arrogance of those involved with USAC and the Speedway. They were kings of the world but quickly found themselves dethroned. Without any of those four events, the resulting changes of the last 30 some years would not have been possible. Two -- CART and WoO -- took advantage of the other two.

Agreed!

[DAD]

Originally Posted by bigmojo5 "The demise of Indy Car racing has been evolving since Brabham brought Cooper climax," I disagree. The 1960s and 1970s were a period of great growth in championship auto racing. The demise of Indy Car racing, and USAC, has been evolving with the death of Tony Hulman, the creation of CART, the creation of the World of Outlaw Sprint Series, and the plane crash that killed most of the top leadership of USAC. This perfect storm of events in just a couple of years took advantage of the long-standing arrogance of those involved with USAC and the Speedway. They were kings of the world but quickly found themselves dethroned. Without any of those four events, the resulting changes of the last 30 some years would not have been possible. Two -- CART and WoO -- took advantage of the other two.

you left out NASCAR a formerly family owned business.

Honest Dad himself

[Danny Williams Sr.]

Just my .02 worth.

From my perch about one mile from the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway I can hear the fat lady singing.

The powers to be in Indy Car Racing have slowly killed a series that drew large crowds on ovals, street courses and natural road race circuits. Michigan International Speedway, Phoenix, Surfers Paradise, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Portland, Mid Ohio, Pocono, Indianapolis all had between 95-100% of their seats sold out every year.

What happened?

You can't fix Stupid and that's what you have at 16th. & Georgetown Road. Once Tony Hulman passed away in the late 1970's the rest of the Hulman & George family have managed to drag the Indianapolis 500 from the mountain top of motorsports to a place near the gutter of motorsports.

I know that I will not be spending anymore of my hard earned money on tickets to Indy Car Races, other than the Indy 500, next year. I tried to attend at least a couple, if not more, every year. But Milwaukee and Iowa Speedways will not be on my racing schedule next year.

[DAD]

Maybe Tony should buy out USAC. He should be able to get a pretty good deal on it. It is not what it was and could use new ideas to build it back up. Let the Indy car owners go do their own thing.

Honest Dad himself