Tony George wants to take over IndyCar

At this point I'd rather just see the series dry up and run the 500 as a stand-alone with an open rule book. Actually see some new concepts and different ideas running the same race, IndyCar as a whole just continues to fade more and more imo.

 

or you can ask yourself this... who wants TG back in this thread.... Nobody, so why assume otherwise?

All here seem to recognize he was the downfall of open wheel racing in the US with his "inspired business acumen" that divided at the sports most recent zenith.

 

And what is your experience in regards to the sport? What part of the sport have you worked in? What are your solutions to the problems?Instead of making a fool of yourself, why don't you offer some viable solutions to the problems. And by the way sport....I am meeting with people in the next several weeks pertain to the subject matter you speak of. At their request.

And if leadership has done such a fantastic job.......why was it shown the gate yesterday? Here....amuse yourself with this zippy!!!
http://www.indystar.com/article/20121028/SPORTS0107/121028028/IndyCar-Series-CEO-Randy-Bernard-ousted-board-directors-vote?odyssey=mod%7Cbreaking%7Ctext%7CIndyStar.com&gcheck=1&nclick_check=1

 

tough crowd

 

Belskus is the CEO of Hulman & Company which owns several companies including ClaberGirl (#1 US Baking Powder company), the IMS, The IRL, and several other ventures. It even has a heavy hand in managing the endowment for the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Read some of the best engineering and math programs in the nation)

25+ years with IMS, working his way up from nothing... I think it's safe to say at that point that he knows racing.

Belskus has always been Randys boss and is the guy that brought him in and the guy that fired him. He's the guy that will appoint a new IRL series president / CEO.

Read this, the board replaced Tony George (family member, brother, son, grandson) with Belskus.. who was Georges CFO..

 

Leadership wasn't shown the gate, leadership resides at IMS and with the Hulman Company Board (the family)

Randy B was the CEO of the IRL, which is owned by IMS, which is owned by the Hulman Company... Drum role.... which appointed Belskus, a 25 year IMS vet. The Hulman board members (mostly family & Hulman Company / IMS CEO) is actively involved in every aspect of the series, hence the group vote was probably brought to the table by...Belskus. The vote was meant to include the family, probably to show unity in their support for current CEO, as well as to let those that care know they are still part of the sport.

It's a family feud, how hard is that to understand? TG got kicked out by his own family and he came back trying to replace that very board. READ: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/10/29/tony-george-offer-to-buy-indycar-was-attempt-to-remove-board-directors/ Can you imagine running a major corporation with that kind of family dynamic..

It's always been that way with the Hulman / George family.. a very nice... and unique family.

Leadership has righted a sinking ship in as little as 2 years. Additionally the family made very tough decisions, but it seems to be paying off. Securing series sponsorships, new chasis providers, new engine manufactures, new body kits, etc... Randys time has come and gone. Good guy, but tension was apparent through out the entire season.

It's not perfect but this isn't something fixed so easily. It's a major business with lives at stake. Moves must be calculated and well thought out.

It's laughable to sit here and listen to you moan and bicker about how unpopular the sport is.. meanwhile you have ZERO clue as to the history and unbelievably complicated place the IRL sits in. Throwing out stupid simplistic things like "just add more HP, lets get these dudes going 250"... The last thing this sport needs is another death.


So yeah you can stop pretending to be anybody. Your internet tough guy gig isn't going to do anything. You are reaching because you have no information, JUST like the crappy columnists in the Indianapolis media. The only people you're meeting with are your old washed up mechanic buddies to sit around and drink to the good ole days.

 

But the point that people seem to be missing is that the drivers in Indycar are having fun.

And isn't that why we go racing in the first place?

 

Why should anyone here believe your opinion holds any merit? Why are you taking a "Keyboard Ninja" approach? Frankly your opinion would hold more weight if you were more mature and less of a self imposed 'Internet Tough Guy and Bully".

 

Sorry to be late to the thread, but here is my perspective.

The sport isn't close to what it was back in the CART days when I watched them at Mid-Ohio in the late 80's - BUT - is has gotten better from a racing standpoint lately and I do agree it is improved as a product after they sent sparkle toes (Danica) to NACE-CAR.

Having TG back in the sport would be a nightmare. We don't want that.

Everyone who compares it to F1 or other series' is idiotic. Even back when it was CART and doing well it wasn't going to compete with F1 on a world basis. That is like saying that USA Pro-soccer leagues will compete with the Premier League and the Bundesliga...it isn't trying to be that.

The series will be ok. It will take a generation to get it back, and the access to the drivers and cars is SO much better than most other racing series' that it will gain younger fans and American drivers that know they have no shot in the extremely anti-USA based F1 series.

Let's all say a prayer that TG doesn't get back in at that level and that we don't lose the marketing aspect that INDYCAR has gained with Buckin' Bronco Guy!

MB

 

Have you been in any of the IndyCar threads this year where this clown constantly craps all over the threads? Spouting off Uncle Rico "back in the day things were different" baloney.

It's a complex environment way more so than some moron running around calling people chief, gaylord, sport, chip, buddy, chotch suggesting we strap rockets to the back of cars for pure fan enjoyment.

And "Frankly" i don't two ****s what you think. I explained at a high level what is going on. If you can't comprehend that or want to ignore it fine, but don't stroll in here thinking this moron needs to be defended. If you'd like to counter anything i typed about the series and its ownership please feel free to jump in, id be happy to discuss.

This thread should be finished now as its even being published that this was just an attempt for Tony George to take back control of the board and get back at the people that kicked him off (some family)

I have zero tolerance for mis-information around the sport, Indy's "fine journalism" does enough of that for us.

 

That's where it will end up.

And you too can inherit a position in a company that had little competition and keep it afloat, as long as you surround yourself with good people.
As far as being somewhere and working yourself up for 25+ years, how is that anything new? I know lots of very smart guys that worked themselves into decent positions in industry - some deserved it, and an equal amount were real idiots that are good at fooling people.

BTST you act like you know it all and have all the answers, but do you really want a series with a spec chassis, spec body, spec engine, spec tire, spec bodywork? We have that today - it's called NASCAR.
You see, nobody cares TODAY about the 'family' that runs it nor the history of the sport IN THE SENSE that you cannot go back to the way it was. We WISH we could - take a poll and I bet most folks would vote for the March/Eagle/Lola/Penske - Illmor/Cosworth/Mercedes/Offy days, but we know that won't happen, that can't happen, and we also don't want to see 250 mph. I think most of us would be real happy with 210mph, what we want to see is cars or teams we can identify with, and that's not happening either.

So what's your answer?

What do YOU think is wrong with the sport?

Why is that?

How do you fix it?

CAN it be fixed?

What will it cost, in terms of both money and quality?

Is it worth it?

Somebody a lot smarter than you and I needs to fix it soon or a lot of tracks are going to close up. They need butts in the stands to keep the places open, and that isn't happening, it's getting worse.

How to you reformulate and recapture the magic?
My guess is you don't, and here's why:

Indycar racing, baseball, horse racing and boxing used to be the biggest sports in the USA, but today, not so much.
Why not?
The explosion of other sports, electronic sports (gameboy, nintendo, xbox, playstation), CABLE television - have all drawn away most of the young crowd, and now that young crowd is in their early 30's. I don't know about your area, but we used to go outside and play baseball, basketball, football, race our bicycles against each other, today you seldom see that. Smart phones, texting isn't helping, and that's all kids do TODAY.
We all used to either walk to schools or ride our bikes to school, today you rarely see a bike at a school. I live one mile from a school with 2,000 kids, I live on the main road to the residential neighborhood closest to it, one day I counted 20 (twenty) kids walk my way.

The kids are the future - how many of us are reading, speaking of our memories here on this thread from back when we were 8-10-12-14? I bet almost all of us. We remember our racing idols - you ask a kid today 'who won the Indy 500' and they will say 'the what?' Hell, you ask a 20-25-30 year old the same thing - 'name any Indy 500 winner from the last 20 years' and I bet they laugh at you.

It all starts when you are a kid, and it's clearly not happening there, for a lot of reasons.

 

All great questions above. I too would like to hear some thoughts on what, if anything, can be done to bring back the popularity of the sport.

I will say, as much as many (most?) of us dislike NASCAR, it is very popular in the US. This doesn't mean the answer is to copy NASCAR but don't completely discount it either. It is doing something right.

Whoa, hang on there. Obviously football (college and pro) is extremely popular in the US, it's a gazzilion dollar enterprise. Baseball is still somewhat popular, as is basketball. MMA fighting is pretty popular with 20-something males as is alternative sports like skateboarding, mountain biking and the like. As I mentioned before, NASCAR is very popular.

Making sweeping generalizations isn't a good way to find a solution. Looking individually at each sport and determining why it's succeeding (football, MMA, NASCAR) and why it's failing (horse racing, boxing, tennis, Indy) is the way to better understand the situation.

My first answer that has come to my mind (not the answer mind you) as to why one racing league is winning (NASCAR) and the other is loosing (Indy) is the nationality of the drivers. Rightly or wrongly, Americans typically identify better with American drivers. I know IRL tried to shift the balance to more American drivers and AFAIK, it didn't work out too good. So I don't know what the solution is but I do think that the foreign nationality of the drivers is a "problem" driving down the popularity of the league.

-F

 

That all makes sense. I agree, Indy needs to market itself better using the new marketing methods of the 21st century.

Something is appealing about NASCAR to many, many Americans. Is it the cars that somewhat resemble what's in the garage? Is it the good 'ole boy personalities behind the wheel? The crashes? I don't know.

-F

 

+2

 

I think karting, games and sims are great marketing for motorsports in the US.

People need to be lured in, especially Dads and sons. I meet karting kids whose Dads knew nothing about racing, but are glad to have their sons involved in something constructive, that they can share. Not sure US racing is good enough at outreach.

The WKA has a great intro to karting on its website. Even poor SCCA tries to boost younger members. The Road to Indy is a good idea - but step 1 requires a budget of $250k and puts you up against very sophisticated, well established teams. At that level, more scholarships and cash prizes are needed to build the sport. And a road to Indy is in some respects a road to nowhere, if no one cares about the IRL.

Yes, building from the top down is important. But I truly respect Mazda's contributions to the sport in the US, and all those who help build from the ground up.

Anything we can do to help young racers, and the shops who support them, is important. An awful lot of important shops and associated racing jobs survive on the patronage of affluent middle aged and older guys.

 

Consider the source. I offered valid links to support my argument. I have yet to see any that support his. As for behavior....again consider how it is being presented. As stated earlier, I will be meeting with people in a few weeks that will provide the necessary information to fill said gaps. Just got back online after dealing with the hurricane here in the Northeast. Once information becomes available, I will provide to those in a PM the details that I can offer. I am under a disclosure document presently.

 

One of the best programs is the NHRA Junior Dragster program. Not a ton of money to get started and lots of people making stuff for the cars. Good platform to build both racing skills and discipline. Most have come out of it and gone on to other classes in the NHRA & other forms of racing. Starting them young and giving them the skills to help deal with life and having fun along the way is a good thing all around. Mazda has done a good job building its brand because of its involvement in SCCA and other forms of racing. It is a good showcase that other manufacturers seemed not to have emphasized. In regards to Indy, would you consider the attendance & TV ratings to be an indicator as to the lack of interest in said series? As the rating and attendance continue to sink, I can't see any wanting to presently get involved with lack of leadership, escalating costs and for the most part, a very very low image in relation to NASCAR or NHRA. Both seem to have solid footing in their respective markets.

 

Taken into consideration, thanks.

Also I must apologize for my previous comment as it was uncalled for.

 

But it wasn't always that way.
Believe it or not, there was a time when motorsports was more popular than football(!)

Tony George started IRL *SPECIFICALLY* to get more americans in the seats, he was targeting sprint car drivers (ala Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart-types), but none of them have the clout (read: CASH) to buy a seat. For all his faults, Tony KNEW he needed american drivers, and that simply has not happened, overall. There are a few, but no true bonifide NAMES.

What do we remember about Indy racing while we were growing up?
We don't remember the cars or the races, we remember NAMES - AJ Foyt, Andretti, Unser, home grown guys. Rahal, Sneva, Mears, Rutherford... and no offense to Helio or Dario, but people today cannot relate.

People don't remember cars in nascar - they remember names as well: Petty, Allison, Pearson, Waltrip, Earnhardt, and it continues today with.... Earnhardt, Hamlin, Gordon, Stewart, Busch, Johnson - that's something Indycar does not have. And it's true - few remember races, they remember crashes, although they cannot remember when or where the crashes occurred.

I think you meant nascar is the only sport that can hold a candle to the NFL.

I will say Indycar will never come remotely close to being what it was even 20 years ago, and one big reason is sports editors won't cover it, not with the readership begging for more coverage of the 'big' sports.
Oh, they will when a race comes to town, and if it is the mainstay of the locale (read: Daytona, Charlotte, Indianapolis), other than that all you get is a 1" AP wire story, unless someone dies. That sucks.

I read a TON more crap EVERY DAY this past winter on Peyton Manning than I did on any form of racing.
Go look - ESPN.COM, Foxsports.com, Yahoo.com - you have to DIG to find anything about Indy racing - and you won't find much, but
the 'big' sports are everywhere.

Indy racing has had some 5 year sponsors - that didn't do much, if anything, to attract any increase in the audience.

The best race I have seen so far - and best by a mile - was the Bathurst 1000. Too bad they cannot replicate that here.
I am against having shorter races here - in fact, if I had my druthers, I'd have Twin 250's. Two races with 30 minutes (well, maybe 60 minutes to allow the spectators to pee, get more food and beer) - anyway, a 30 minute break between them. Winner of the first draws a pill to see how many cars they invert for the second race - 6-8-10-12.

I strongly disagree that nascar replaced indy racing because of the crashes - nascar replaced indy racing when they started going new venues - and because they have an event every weekend. Just like football. Keep that interest up.

 

It's all that, and it's always on (like football), it isn't boring (like baseball), and it doesn't insult our intelligence (like pro basketball). MY OPINION.

 

"What do we remember about Indy racing while we were growing up?
We don't remember the cars or the races, we remember NAMES - AJ Foyt, Andretti, Unser, home grown guys. Rahal, Sneva, Mears, Rutherford... and no offense to Helio or Dario, but people today cannot relate."


I respectfully disagree in part. People do remember the cars as much as the drivers. STP Turbine car/Parnelli Jones, Johnny Rutherford-Pennzoil Chaparral, Tom Sneva-Texaco Star March. My point is that the uniqueness of each car was mated to the driver that won the 500 and the innovation that came with the car. if you follow racing, you remember both. The sport drew people from many different angles, some for the drivers, some for the cars, some for the party atmosphere, etc. I will ask those of you who did follow the sport one question...What was the "snake pit" and what was the significance of it? Same for this question...What and where was the "Bog and what was it noted for?

 

I KNEW someone would come up with the turbine from 67-68, but my point was, the GENERAL sports public would know the names, not the cars, I didn't mean the 'if you follow racing' crowd so much.
I remember Donohue's Mclaren M16 because I sat in it a bunch of times, and of course the Gurney Eagles of 72-73-74-75, Mears Penske PC10B from 1982, and as far as your trivia questions go, all I know is the Bog was at Watkins Glen after the rains. And I may be wrong - which is my exact point - folks remember names more than anything.

 

You mean even better than NHL Hockey? (snicker-snicker.....)