Month of May and a loss of Momentum.

[FormerFF]

A whole month leaves too big of a hole in the schedule. Down here, pole day gets a little coverage, and the rest gets ignored until Memorial Day weekend. I'd like to see pole day qualifying the Saturday before, and have it for all 33 cars, then have bump day the next day. This way we could have another race in the early part of the month.

I sure am glad there's an ALMS race this Sunday, I'm starting to get itchy for some racing.

[anthonyvop]

There is no reason that the 500 shouldn't be run as a regular 3 day race weekend.
Tradition use to be an excuse for the long drawn out process but tradition was tossed out years ago.
As long as the IRL clings to the idea of the "greatest spectacle in racing" then the other races in the series will just be a sidebar.

[garyshell]

There is no reason that the 500 shouldn't be run as a regular 3 day race weekend.
Tradition use to be an excuse for the long drawn out process but tradition was tossed out years ago.
As long as the IRL clings to the idea of the "greatest spectacle in racing" then the other races in the series will just be a sidebar.

Oh please, anthony take your hate speech back to the CCF forum. We get it you hate the IRL, there never should have been a unification etc. etc. etc. It's getting REALLY old.

I agree that much of the tradition was pushed to the curb, but now it is begining to make a comeback.

Gary

[NickFalzone]

this is a dumb thread. Not your money, not your teams. What do you care how much they spend? Teams have been able to support the whole month of May in much worse financial times for the IRL than is in now. The dedication of time and money, the focus on this event is a large part of what makes it special.

[Sandfly]

this is a dumb thread. Not your money, not your teams. What do you care how much they spend? Teams have been able to support the whole month of May in much worse financial times for the IRL than is in now. The dedication of time and money, the focus on this event is a large part of what makes it special.

Because it is waste of time and money. Except for the local news media market there is no news during the week. Coupla hours of TV on the two qual weekends - and if it rains you get the silly rain topics. Sure the Indy market loves it - big money soaking the race crowd. Hoopla for the school kids and beauty queens, parade planners and "hoity toidy" big wigs in Indy

The expense and waste of time sitting around is not justifiable. They are in the racing business - not the sitting around business. Two weeks max. Lose the wasted time in the middle. That is all it deserves. Teams have been saying that since the 80's.

[F1boat]

To me Indy as it good as it is now. They say that it is like a separate championship and I like this. I would, however, change qualifying system to be in sessions like F-1, I mean, with knockout zones and qualifying between the top 10 at the end for Pole-Position.

[racer69]

As long as the IRL clings to the idea of the "greatest spectacle in racing" then the other races in the series will just be a sidebar.

Isn't that the whole point, Indy is "THE" event

Teams have been saying that since the 80's.

And as ever the 'Month of May' is unlikely to change

And that is good thing in my opinion


As for Australia the race has been getting good coverage in print & on TV. We have an Australian-born driver on pole, an Aussie in third & an Aussie who has a good shot at rookie of the year.

[mikiec]

Wasn't this one of the 'reasons' TG gave for forming the IRL? The argument from the CART teams that the 'month of May' should be shortened and in TG's eyes, diminish the spectacle/stature of the Indy500.

I think for us lot this side of the pond, it's just a Sky thing - they've had so much football to occupy their airtime with the end of the Premier League season, the Football League season and the play-offs as well as the Champions League final build up, plus the Guinness Premiership rugby season reaching its climax and not forgetting that Sky have got NASCAR now, so all their Sky Sports News bulletins are full of all that... plus cricket (yawn).

It would be better if Sky organised its sports channels more like it's done with its movie channels, with each one themed to a specific genre. So they could have Sky Motorsports and Sky Football as separate channels for example, but that's a subject for another thread, me thinks.

[millencolin]

As for Australia the race has been getting good coverage in print & on TV.

BOLLOCKS!

I have not seen a thing on tv celebrating the fact Ryan got on the front row. I watched the 6:00 news and the 7:00 news too the day that he got his front row spot... nothing! In fact, the only time Indycar makes it on tv is when there is a spectacular crash or if Will wins (obviously im going back into the champ car era too)

Heck, the race isnt even on free to air or basic foxtel! Its on ESPN australia, not good at all.

As for print coverage, i dont call making the news in a motorsport dedicated magazine good print coverage. I saw a tiny tiny paragraph in the Courier Mail about ryans efforts, a slightly bigger one for Will's win (he is a queenslander so extra coverage is a given for the Courier Mail) and thats it!

Since the merger has occured, Ive seen less coverage than for what I saw last year with Champ Car. maybe its due to the fact Will has won less, I'm not sure. But the coverage has been reduced. Coverage will naturally increase when Indy comes around (gold coast indy that is), as for now though, NASCAR gets more coverage and tv time (on Ten HD) than Indycars and the Indy500

[MAX_THRUST]

I'm glad I brought this up now. Interesting reading you all make....

Believe it or not I didn't realise pole had been set. Been away for a week and without internet access. So I had no idea who is where? Feel pretty stupid now, but it does validate my point that there is little information about the race. I do remember Sky years ago showing some pre race build up shows. Which I watched and loved.

I think the IRL have, as always been better at getting stories out more than CCWS ever did, but I'm not here about that, that's all done with now.

I do think two weeks build up today would be suffecient, as said earlier its not like you need a month to test how the Da;llara gets round the track. Probably the ssame set up as last year, just tweak it for the weather conditions.