Oval Champion & Road Champion

[Bob Riebe]

Bob....Tony handed them the IRL to run for him, and they blew it. Simple as that. They lost track of the winner in Texas and it was shown on national TV what happens when AJ Foyt thinks he has won.....

Scoring and timing the race are really npretty simple. I did it for 23 years..and what USAC did in that one event crystalized why CART lost faith in their stewardship of the sport, and Tony did also....so spare me the defense of the United States Auto Club.

You are twenty years beyond what I was talking about, try to stay with the conversation. By that time USAC was just a shadow of what it once was.

That incident, and its content, has/had NOTHING to do with why CART existed, at ANY time or manner.

It has been stated many time the death of that BOD, which took USAC to England, and as was written in Autoweek, was good enough to also allow USAC stock cars to challenge NASCAR for quality stock car racing, was the only reason CART was not swept away quickly.
The people who replaced them were mostly clue-less.

[NaBUru38]

you will continue to have american-born drivers having a hard time with road racing while their foreign-born competitors will be getting better at ovals

Of course, because car racers from all over the world drive open-wheelers, but only North Americans drive those ugly stock cars. That's why you find so few foreigners in Nascar and so many foreigners in IndyCar. Some of the best drivers of the world make it to IndyCar - that should be a compliment to Americans who make it too.

[anthonyvop]

That is an obtuse statement, sorta like saying-- the Indianapolis 500, is the reason, the Indianapolis 500, has become a pathetic shadow.

Exactly.

[Mark in Oshawa]

You are twenty years beyond what I was talking about, try to stay with the conversation. By that time USAC was just a shadow of what it once was.

That incident, and its content, has/had NOTHING to do with why CART existed, at ANY time or manner.

It has been stated many time the death of that BOD, which took USAC to England, and as was written in Autoweek, was good enough to also allow USAC stock cars to challenge NASCAR for quality stock car racing, was the only reason CART was not swept away quickly.
The people who replaced them were mostly clue-less.

CART management clueless? Maybe in a world where they couldn't afford to make the mistakes they did. If they were clueless, so was Tony. As for USAC, I was talking about how they were handed the keys to run the series and rewrite the "wrong" that was perpetrated by that rotten Gurney and his buddies and promptly in 2 years made such a hash of things that they proved why they were outwitted the first time.

[Bob Riebe]

CART management clueless? Maybe in a world where they couldn't afford to make the mistakes they did. If they were clueless, so was Tony. As for USAC, I was talking about how they were handed the keys to run the series and rewrite the "wrong" that was perpetrated by that rotten Gurney and his buddies and promptly in 2 years made such a hash of things that they proved why they were outwitted the first time.

USAC was given nothing, other than timing and scoring.
What they had with IRL, was nothing compared to what they once were.
They would RUN nothing, George ran the show and by creating CART II, he has come very close to running it into the ground.

George had Indy and his new races; CART had all that USAC had built since the end of AAA; to say that CART was not a greater failure than George is not logical.
Of course, had CART never come to be, does not mean open wheel racing would not be the joke it is now anyway, but that is pure speculation.

[px400r]

George had Indy and his new races; CART had all that USAC had built since the end of AAA; to say that CART was not a greater failure than George is not logical.

Yeah- as if CART inherited Long Beach and all the other road races from USAC. Tony George's venture has never seen a profit or the kind of commercial success CART had in the 80's and 90's.

CART might have imploded, but at least it made money for it's owners.

To say that George was a greater success than CART is delusional.

[garyshell]

To say that George was a greater success than CART is delusional.

All in how you measure success. He was greater success in one sense as he was the last man standing, at least until his sister's knee capped him. Not how you or I would measure success, but clearly he and others would.

Gary

[Bob Riebe]

To say that George was a greater success than CART is delusional.

CART is long dead; George, or at least the IRL is still running.

Your idea of success is perverse.

The fact that automotive companies do not give a damn about open wheel racing, save sprint cars where Detroit still produces engines just for that show, in this point, the IRL is, at present, just as clueless as CART was.
That may be what kills U.S. open wheel racing, and if it survives, leaves Indy as a stand alone race.
Of course the short track boys once had a growing- stand alone- super race at Phoenix, and that is now dead so....

[px400r]

CART is long dead; George, or at least the IRL is still running.

Your idea of success is perverse.

Husband: Honey, I burned the roast. It's just a small hunk of burned out meat.

Wife: That's all right dear, at least dinner is ready.