Tony George wants to take over IndyCar

I remember fast gorgeous cars, and stiff competition about Indy racing when I was a pup. We now have none of the above.

As for the Snake pit and the Bog(at the glen), both were good for partying hard, getting muddy, seeing tits, and burning cars.


Ahhh, the good old days.

 

F- Tony George, that muther Fer screwed up CART with his BS! F-HIM.

 

What is that????NHL Hockey???? Where do they make that????

 

My point to this gentlemen was simply (and you both knew it) the value of several key areas all apply to the 500. As we know people all go for different reasons. The whole thing as been so diluted in favor of "political correctness" and "family values" it has made the sport a lesser one. As for me, I never saw anything that has compared to the Bus burning at the Bog during the 70's. As pointed out, people partied at both. Many go for that exact reason. For me, it was always the cars. Most who did follow CART followed for technology. But you still had a very strong following for the drivers. All in all, the series has diminished it self with in-fighting, power grabs and rather large ego's making it tough to stomach the entire soap opera we knew as Indy Car.

 

Really ????? care to try this: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/pruett-the-firing-of-indycar-ceo-randy-bernard-part-1/

 

Excellent article. Looking forward to Part 2...

 

Is this not what I stated?

 

The bottom line is....he got canned. Pure & simple. Like it or not, those who pay the bills live by the Golden Rule. "He who has the gold makes the rules.

 

No, a CEO has to have a long term vision & plan. He didn't. Racing is a sport that you must have an automotive/business background. When owners complain about costs, you had better listen. When this "spec" crap was put together it was to control costs, correct? It didn't happen. Owners were forced to buy equipment they really didn't want and then forced to pay outrageous prices for parts they could reproduce themselves for considerably less. Add all the other goodies and you had the makings for a show down at the OK Corral. Guess who won? And you still have part 2 coming. And as I stated.....this isn't over yet, not buy a long shot.

Happy Motoring !!

 

The "spec" series was designed to meet certain objectives. One was to control cost. The idea was that by capping the cost the teams could maintain profitability while reducing the amount of sponsorship dollars required to maintain a team. That, in effect was supposed to help American drivers secure funds and increase their participation. Didn't happen. Instead you got Milka Duno & Marty Roth. The "buy a ride" program. It was also designed to improve racing and competition. Anyone notice that basically the top three teams still run the roost? Doesn't matter that whether TG or RB at the helm, it in't working and fans have rejected it. And I absolutely agree about cheap open wheel....buy a Formula Ford. Even that will set you back $200k for a National SCCA level season.

 

FWIW, http://www.racer.com/fanbase-priority-for-indycar-future/article/266640/

 

Makes you giddy inside doesn't it?

 

Maybe Bernard should have had Bernie handle relationships with the owners. Then they would have learned how a real Machivellian iron fist works.

Jeff

 

Uh......anyone on here mention any of this?

 

Go back to the CART days...they need to stop this eco friendly BS, its RACING...they need to think about the product they're putting out there before they think about penny pinching..as it stands now the cars are ugly, slow and quiet...I've been going to CART and now indycar races my entire life...I remember when I was a kid 7-9 years old back in the late 90's how amazing the atmosphere was at the CART races I went to at the Milwaukee Mile, and Road America..massive crowds, tons of cool memorabilia...it was awesome. I've also been to 13 Grand Prix in my life and can honestly say I enjoyed those CART races just as much as any grand prix i've been to (sans monaco). The cars looked badass, sounded badass and could do 240 MPH. The drivers were excellent and there were a lot of cool variables to talk about before each race (which chassis was best suited to which tracks, the tires, engines, everything. At one point you had Swift, Reynard, Lola and Mercedes, Chevy, Ford, Toyota, and Honda. I remember waiting in line for hours to get autographs.

Now going to an Indycar race is depressing. No memorabilia to speak of (unless you want some ugly jersey with flames on it and a bunch of other nascar looking crap). Back in the early days of the split CART was lucrative for all of the reasons above...it didn't stay that way because eventually the mystique of the Indy 500 drew people away from CART. There was no "merger" A merger would have been if they kept the very cool Panoz DP01 and the existing antiquated Dallar chassis of Indycar was replaced by a competitor, making teams able to choose between the different chassis. Instead we have this mutant hideous v6 piece of crap....Man I miss the old days...

 

I read Part 1 and Part 2 befoe making my comment about Ecclestone.

RB may not have played nice enough with the owners but Hulman-George board had had the opportunity to stop the sniping way early but did not. The board could have said your issue is with RB and that talking with him was the resolution path. Interesting that the lack of a Competition Director position could well have been a decision that the board was not willing to authorize.

Jeff

 

true to a certain extent, greed is what brought CART down...back in 1998 when it went public CART was in great financial shape.....but the team owners wanting to slash costs made CART into a spec series...much like IRL...IRL won because they had the 500...now its kind of too late to do much of anything. The team owners love that they can save money on their crap spec racers...but no one is watching or going to the races....so i guess the "you can't have your cake and eat it too" mantra applies here.