Things I learned from the Firestone 550K

[garyshell]

To be fair, I see that Benny has been a member here since 2001. So at one time I'm guessing he was a pretty major fan. Now while it's easy enough to tell him to not let the door hit him on the way out, with the Indy 500 getting it's lowest TV rating in history this year (after earning the same "award" last year), maybe the series (if not the remaining fans) need to ask Benny what can be done to get him back. If you can't keep the old ones, how are you going to get the new ones? That applies to the IRL, as well as me and women.

I don't know. I'm just sayin'.

I understand your poiint, but how can someone who has only seen 25 laps all year tell you what needs to be changed? You have to know what exists first before you can criticise it or suggest what needs to be fixed.

Gary

[Jag_Warrior]

I understand your poiint, but how can someone who has only seen 25 laps all year tell you what needs to be changed? You have to know what exists first before you can criticise it or suggest what needs to be fixed.

Gary

You make a good point there. Maybe the question to Benny, and others who have stopped watching (a number that seems to be growing unfortunately), might be, what do they want that they don't believe is there anymore?

I got into a debate with a fellow who claimed to be an F1 fan turned NASCAR fan a few weeks back on another board. He said he stopped watching the races because there's never any passing and Michael Schumacher wins all the races anyway. So I told him that over the past two or three years there have been some epic battles on track, a good deal of (meaningful) passes and that Schumacher fellow just came out of retirement, but he's not doing much so far. If he really was (or had been) an F1 fan, maybe what I said will convince him to check out a race. If not, well, he probably wasn't really going to watch the races anyway. F1 can afford to do without his love though. But the IRL is kinda like me: can't afford to forget any birthdays or insult anybody's mother these days, cause we need all the lovin' we can get.

[bennybigb]

Thank you Jag_Warrior. You are correct, I used to be a MAJOR fan. I went to as many races as I could and watched and recorded every race that I could not attend. I am not from Indianapolis and I know nobody in the sport, I was simply a die hard fan. I brought many of my friends to the races and I was constantly trying to sell the sport to anyone who would listen, friends, co-workers, girl friends, family members, it didn’t matter.

I grew up being a fan, Indycar racing was a huge part of my life that is why I still lurk on the forums and still occasionally watch a few laps here and there. I am still waiting for IndyCar to make a comeback, but it won’t under the current rules. The IRL product is bad, this is not an opinion it is a fact. Look at your race attendance, look at your network TV numbers, people don’t care enough about the product to watch anymore.

Almost everything that made Indycar racing great is gone. If Indycar is going to rebuild here is what I think needs to happen, we need to get back to the proven formula that made IndyCar racing great.

The engines need to be turbo charged and they need to scream. Indycars need to sound fast.

The current chassis is terrible, it is ugly and it is slow. An Indycar chassis must be sleek, it must look fast even when it is parked.

We need additional engine choices, even if we don’t have additional manufactures, we need more variety. Be it a Honda, a Cosworth, an Ilmor, a Judd, or a Menard, it doesn’t matter we just need more choices.

We need open chassis rules to allow for competing chassis. Furthermore, we also need new chassis every year. I want to know if it is a Reynard 94 or Reynard 95, it needs to be listed. I want to see a midpack driver push his 2 or 3 year old chassis past a driver with a brand new chassis, even if it’s for 15th place. Even better if that driver can score a top ten finish with an unbadged privateer engine from Judd or Menard.

We need to get ride of pack racing. Pack racing is for Nascar, not Indycar. If you enjoy pack racing you are probably a Nascar fan and wouldn’t bother with an Indycar race anyway.

We need to get back to our traditional race tracks: Michigan, Cleveland, Road America, Laguna Seca, Portland, Milwaukee (the week after Indy!) I am sure I am missing a lot of others.

We need unbiased TV reporting. I hate the IRL cheerleading that goes on in the booth. If the call was bad, then say so. If Danica sucked in qualifying, then say it. If Ed Carpenter is a rent a rider, then say it. Don’t be an IRL cheerleader, I don’t want to watch a 2 hour long infomercial on how great the IRL is, talk about the good things and talk about the bad things. Don’t give Jack Arute or Scott Goodyear a microphone.

Please Please Please include Champ Car and CART and USAC stats in your record book. Why ignore Mario Andretti and Rick Mears and Emerson and Al Unser and Danny Sullivan, these are the guys that made your sport, and now you are going to ignore them????

Finally, please stop using the term IRL. The IRL signifies the complete destruction of the sport that so many people loved. People know what an Indycar is, but they don’t know what an IRL car is, and if they do know what an IRL car is, they are probably not impressed with it.

Feel free to flame away, I am sure many of you don’t agree with me, as you are still fans. But I am speaking for many of the fans that have left your sport. If you want to get some of the old fans back, I’d work on the above shortcomings of the league, otherwise here's to a new Indy 500 ratings record in 2011!

Thank you for your time,

Ben Beckwith
Indy Car fan from 1988 to 2008

[Mark in Oshawa]

And then people get on my case when I say the "PRODUCT IS THE PROBLEM"

Not me. The product on track is the problem for sure..I have been saying it too.

That said, your "Things I leaned" is pretty much universally how I feel too.

God Tony, there are days where your lucid moments are pretty darn good!

[Chris R]

I will fully second the last two posts. Benny makes some real good points as does Mark following up on Anthony's original post... Sometimes we can all get along

[Mark in Oshawa]

Thank you Jag_Warrior. You are correct, I used to be a MAJOR fan. I went to as many races as I could and watched and recorded every race that I could not attend. I am not from Indianapolis and I know nobody in the sport, I was simply a die hard fan. I brought many of my friends to the races and I was constantly trying to sell the sport to anyone who would listen, friends, co-workers, girl friends, family members, it didn’t matter.

I grew up being a fan, Indycar racing was a huge part of my life that is why I still lurk on the forums and still occasionally watch a few laps here and there. I am still waiting for IndyCar to make a comeback, but it won’t under the current rules. The IRL product is bad, this is not an opinion it is a fact. Look at your race attendance, look at your network TV numbers, people don’t care enough about the product to watch anymore.

Almost everything that made Indycar racing great is gone. If Indycar is going to rebuild here is what I think needs to happen, we need to get back to the proven formula that made IndyCar racing great.

The engines need to be turbo charged and they need to scream. Indycars need to sound fast.

The current chassis is terrible, it is ugly and it is slow. An Indycar chassis must be sleek, it must look fast even when it is parked.

We need additional engine choices, even if we don’t have additional manufactures, we need more variety. Be it a Honda, a Cosworth, an Ilmor, a Judd, or a Menard, it doesn’t matter we just need more choices.

We need open chassis rules to allow for competing chassis. Furthermore, we also need new chassis every year. I want to know if it is a Reynard 94 or Reynard 95, it needs to be listed. I want to see a midpack driver push his 2 or 3 year old chassis past a driver with a brand new chassis, even if it’s for 15th place. Even better if that driver can score a top ten finish with an unbadged privateer engine from Judd or Menard.

We need to get ride of pack racing. Pack racing is for Nascar, not Indycar. If you enjoy pack racing you are probably a Nascar fan and wouldn’t bother with an Indycar race anyway.

We need to get back to our traditional race tracks: Michigan, Cleveland, Road America, Laguna Seca, Portland, Milwaukee (the week after Indy!) I am sure I am missing a lot of others.

We need unbiased TV reporting. I hate the IRL cheerleading that goes on in the booth. If the call was bad, then say so. If Danica sucked in qualifying, then say it. If Ed Carpenter is a rent a rider, then say it. Don’t be an IRL cheerleader, I don’t want to watch a 2 hour long infomercial on how great the IRL is, talk about the good things and talk about the bad things. Don’t give Jack Arute or Scott Goodyear a microphone.

Please Please Please include Champ Car and CART and USAC stats in your record book. Why ignore Mario Andretti and Rick Mears and Emerson and Al Unser and Danny Sullivan, these are the guys that made your sport, and now you are going to ignore them????

Finally, please stop using the term IRL. The IRL signifies the complete destruction of the sport that so many people loved. People know what an Indycar is, but they don’t know what an IRL car is, and if they do know what an IRL car is, they are probably not impressed with it.

Feel free to flame away, I am sure many of you don’t agree with me, as you are still fans. But I am speaking for many of the fans that have left your sport. If you want to get some of the old fans back, I’d work on the above shortcomings of the league, otherwise here's to a new Indy 500 ratings record in 2011!

Thank you for your time,

Ben Beckwith
Indy Car fan from 1988 to 2008

Preaching to my choir brother AMEN!!!!

Come back ANY TIME....

[00steven]

drewdawg727
I have learned that no matter how much you people complain about practically every single race this year, you still watch it.


No, we don't still watch it. I haven't been to an IndyCar race since 2007 and I've watched maybe 25 laps of IndyCar racing on TV this year and I get VS. The IRL is terrible and it hasn't gotten better. I hope this whole "Vision" finally dies. Then and only then will we maybe get back to real racing with real racing cars.

I have been a casual fan of Indycar for years but, I decided to make the transition from casual to fan this season. And I have to say it has been some of the best racing I have seen. In fact, this past weekend my father and I were changing the channels between the NASCAR Nationwide series and the Indycar race at Texas and my dad (who has never seen a whole Indycar race) said after a while,"I can hardly even watch the Nationwide series after watching that". I was happy with his response.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I have been a casual fan of Indycar for years but, I decided to make the transition from casual to fan this season. And I have to say it has been some of the best racing I have seen. In fact, this past weekend my father and I were changing the channels between the NASCAR Nationwide series and the Indycar race at Texas and my dad (who has never seen a whole Indycar race) said after a while,"I can hardly even watch the Nationwide series after watching that". I was happy with his response.

Good for your dad I guess. I didn't get to see this race, I was at a family thing with no TV....

[00steven]

Good for your dad I guess. I didn't get to see this race, I was at a family thing with no TV....

I was just trying to make the point that the IRL can still attract new fans.