[LRP36]

Originally Posted by aussiemidgetfan the irl should not have existed in the first place. it is a scab, worthless and cause the downfall of a continuous 80 year+ history of national championship racing. the only way to rescue it now is to combine the elements of the failed champ car business to do so. As such they need to: -Allow the champ car chassis and engine-increasing weight or limiting turbo boost on the engine for equivalence (because the champ car is something like 3 seconds a lap quicker on a road course, and would be at least half that on an oval) -ADD to the schedule succesful champ car races: Long Beach, Toronto, Edmonton, Cleveland, Portland, Laguna Seca, Road America -Don't bother with Surfers Paradise cause the only people who go only care about the taxis. You can forget Houston too because it is a rubbish temporary circuit (its got no tradition ala LB/TO and its not wide and open ala Edmonton/Cleveland) -Drop St Petersburg, Infineon Raceway & Watkins Glen because nobody attends them. -Get Michigan back! The Michigan/US 500 is arguably the second most significant race in US Openwheel. To neglect the past would be foolish -Combine the IPS and Formula Atlantic by making the Atlantic a tad heavier. The old Atlantic chassis was quicker than an IPS car around Milwaukee, and the new one is faster still. And call it Formula Atlantic, because that name has historical significance whereas Infiniti Pro Series/Indy Pro Series/IRL Indy Series/whatever the bloody hell else they have called it doesn't. Anything less, and I can guarantee that little more interest will develop. Champ Car fans are not interested in watching a product that is just IRL (in case you havent noticed-we haven't for 12 years. Remember the crowds at the I500 compared to the US500 in 1996?). Champ car fans won't go The problem with champ car was not the on track product, it was not the attendance at the track. It was IMHO piss poor business management, pathetic PR and rubbish television deals (they should never have gone to ABC/ESPN). and I have always thought this-Jimmy Vasser the 1996 CART/National champion learnt his oval craft in iirc 3/4 midgets and his road racing through formula atlantic. maybe other short trackers should broaden their horizons? It isn't like foreigners and right hand turns are new-they date back to the 1960s and probably earlier. Mario Andretti raced Formula Junior, Sir Jack Brabham was a succesful midget driver before taking up Euro Formula 2 and then F1, if you don't think both these elementds assisted them-you are fooling yourselves.

Aussie fan you must be smoking some really good sh*t if you think that places like Long Beach, Toronto, Edmonton, Cleveland, Portland, Laguna Seca, Road America are what built champ car racing! :rolling You want to know what a real "Champ Car" is then look now further than the roots of the USAC Silver Crown Division! "Champ Car" racing was built around INDIANAPOLIS! The IRL a failure? Hardly! Yes they haven't lived up to the initial intent of the series to give grassroots racers a shot at Indy but they put on a better show than NASCAR and CART ever will. WHo wants to watch borrow a*s street racing where it is follow the leader all day long with the exception of maybe two or three cars passing somebody? Not me! RIP CARTand Champ Car!

[mikew]

Personally, I like oval racing and road course racing. I have been following sprint cars, IRL, F1 and sometimes champ car for a while now. Needless to say, my tastes are varied.

I am excited about the possible merger/CCWS bankruptcy. If only it could result in the perfect schedule. 10-12 ovals (bring back michigan), 1 or 2 street course races (Long Beach & St. Pete), and 6-8 road course races (laguna seca, road america, miller motorsports park, infineon, cleveland airport, road atlanta, mid-ohio, Barber..... lime rock, sebring....) The problem with some of these road courses (mid-ohio, lime rock...) is that they are ancient facilities that haven't invested much in updating the facilities. An emphasis on newer facilities would be good.

But in the meantime, I am jazzed about April 5 at Eldora and April 19 at L-burg. Can't wait to see the new track in action!!!! Ahh, spring is such a wonderful time of year. When the Colts dropped their home playoff game, I went up stairs and put on my clay covered eldora hat and announced "it's racing season."

[duel]

I don't think that there was ever a split. Seems to me that the IRL was formed with the teams that only ran the INDY 500 and a few start up teams that didn't have the $$$$$$$ or the desire to run with cart. Patrick and Penski hatched the idea (cart) at the small airport in Jackson Michigan to form their own club of owners when they did not like what USAC was doing. They did not even give USAC a chance to recover after the plane crash. Hence, the long memories, bad feelings towards cart that some of us still have. Yes, make no mistake that this war started the day cart was formed. Pat Patrick said in the Jackson paper that the IRL was just trying to get back what we took from them (USAC).:usac:

[mikew]

It's all a conspiracy. After the demise of Champ Car finally occurs, the IRL will hold a press conference announcing the disbanding of the IRL as a sanctioning body and that USAC will henceforth sanction all future IndyCar and IPS race. Then there will be a collective 'head smack' from the press in attendance. :doh:

USAC will then announce that the dwindling Silver Crown series will be folded in favor of running Dallara's on the 1 mile dirt ovals.

[smbpreformance]

2009 SC series will feature the new gen cars the old school cars and the panoz chassis' that are left over after champcar folds you will be required to run the same car on both dirt and pavement

What did the split accomplish? Tony George is now in control, which is what the split was about in the first place. He wanted a seat on the CART board and since he wasn't a team owner (Championship Auto Racing Teams), they told him no. He said, "Fine, I'll take my racetrack and go play by myself". End of story. It had NOTHING to do with American cars, drivers, or tracks. It was nothing more than a spoiled brat getting his way. So now we have the CART series of the 90's with TG at the helm. Which is what he wanted.

To quote GW "Mission Accomplished".

*oops, didn't see Sprintcar64's post. Just restated what he said. But it's worth repeating anyway.*

And for the record, tracks I'd like to see on the combined schedule: Phoenix, Dover, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Long Beach, Cleveland, Indy (of course), Iowa, Watkins Glen, Homestead, Daytona (road course), Michigan, Milwaukee, Texas, Pocono, Richmond, Vegas (oval), California (oval), Kentucky or Nashville but not both, and on a dream, Darlington.

[thebus79h]

I don't see this as a bad thing. Does it hurt me to see that the Jay Drakes and the Dave Darlands are still not going to get a shot, sure, it does, and it royally sucks. But how is getting possibly 20+ races a year a bad thing? I see this as huge progression, but the biggest thing I like is the purse structure. Now a team doesn't necessarily have to run up front in order to make all the money to survive. Hemelgarn didn't get out for any other reason than money, same with Schmidt, and the rest of them. Who knows, maybe Menard, Hemelgarn, Schmidt, Blair, and many others may come back because of this? Who knows, we can only hope.

[openwheelKT]

Looks like it's done:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...car-deal-done/

[ThrottleHead]

GREAT NEWS! Hopefully open wheel racing at that level can go about mending the fences and getting the crowds back it once used to have. Indy cars are my first love.... so this is news I have waited a long time to see. With NASCAR seeing it's ratings and crowds drop I think this could bode well for the IRL to move in and get some of those disenchanted with NASCAR into their fold. This year should be an EXCITING year!

[Dick Monahan]

Originally Posted by ThrottleHead GREAT NEWS! Hopefully open wheel racing at that level can go about mending the fences and getting the crowds back it once used to have. Indy cars are my first love.... so this is news I have waited a long time to see. With NASCAR seeing it's ratings and crowds drop I think this could bode well for the IRL to move in and get some of those disenchanted with NASCAR into their fold. This year should be an EXCITING year!

Dream on! I know a few people who might watch one on TV if there is nothing else on, but I don't know a soul who will go out of his way to attend one (except for the 500). I've been a race fan for over 50 years and have subscribed to at least one weekly racing paper for all that time. During the roadster era, I knew the drivers, and had seen them run in both champ cars and sprint cars. Now, although I rarely watch a Cup race (and then it's via TiVo so I can fast forward through the dull parts), I know the names of more Cup drivers that I have seen run sprints or midgets than IRL/CC drivers.

They have to do two things to pique my interest. 1) Race cars that can be built and maintained by mechanics (not engineers), and 2) hire drivers that I have seen run on short tracks.

Dick.