What Happens Next?

[Papyrus]

What has happened will not change my minds and i know many who will not be changed by "the reality" you seem to be so happy with so get used to it and know that we will never forgive and forget becuz all ChampCar needed was more money and time before RM did the dirty deedz for the traitor. Honda was bailing and TG was failing and there was a consperacy and you know it so tell me how our series that had races with a crowds bigger than Indy and real drivers and more fans and multinational markets needs to be killed to make way for something with dancing drivers and bathing suits that we all know has hardly any real fans and no multinational markets. Those of you who hate "the reality" like I do needs to know that hope is glimmering and the people I speak with who have a plan that will give the true fans what we all seek and desire and will revenge what needs to be revenged so hang on tight yourself. Whats so hard to understand?

[indycool]

There's not enough bandwidth to respond to that, Papyrus. Hope you enjoy some racing somewhere free of conspiracies and money and with REAL big crowds and race in Bahrain and Kuwait and Nairobi.

[garyshell]

Papyrus = Paper???

"crowds bigger than Indy", oh please. As much as I have denigrated what has become of the Indy 500 even I don't believe that line for a second.

Please Paper, provide us with some numbers to back up that ridiculous assertion. Hell, I'll even take inflated numbers from the CCWS front office or a promoters office.

"What is so hard to understand?" Delusional people, who don't understand
simple grammar or punctuation.

Gary

[Ruben Barrios]

"we will never forgive and forget becuz all ChampCar needed was more money and time before RM did the dirty deedz for the traitor."

Right no question about it... it is all RM's fault...

(sarcasm off)

You are kidding right?

You are saying (in laymans terms) that it was a game of poker and RM told everyone that CCWS was bluffing just before TG was going to fold...

Is that why you call him a traitor... do you realize how stupid that makes the owners seem??

[Chaparral66]

Papyrus = Paper???

"crowds bigger than Indy", oh please. As much as I have denigrated what has become of the Indy 500 even I don't believe that line for a second.

Please Paper, provide us with some numbers to back up that ridiculous assertion. Hell, I'll even take inflated numbers from the CCWS front office or a promoters office.

"What is so hard to understand?" Delusional people, who don't understand
simple grammar or punctuation.

Gary

Gary, I doubt very seriously that Papyrus is "Paper". If you'll remember, Paper's essays were always well thought out and eloquently expressed opinions, with some solid eveidence to back it up. Papyrus' response was an emotional outburst.

Robin Miller was not the head of any conspiracy, Papyrus. The Amigos simply got tired of writing checks, and TG didn't (but TG had to hustle on this deal if Honda truly was going to bail after this year). That's the thing with most weathy people, they have this thing about holding on to their money. And if they can better keep it by spending someone else's money, so much the better.

Obviously you're not happy with this result and I understand that. Not everyone was going to be. But I think we have go with the cards we've been dealt and see where it leads. We should have a much better month of May than we've had in years and some true excitement to qualifying. If I have concerns as to how the unification came about, I have even greater concerns that during this war, NASCAR became the synonym of American racing and that's not good. We need to change that, to let everyone know that there is an alternative, and that work must start now.

[ChaimWitz]

Chaparral66, I think that Papyrus is just someone goofing on Pat (Paper) Ringly's fanatical postition on all things TG and CC. I also don't agree that Paper's posts on ****wagon.com are reasoned or well written. He is an unbendable extremist who for far too long had the ear of the Amigos and I hold he and his ilk on ****wagon.com partially responsible for prolonging the split by fueling their hate and delusion-based bluff.

It seems that the real "what happens next" happened in December. I do wonder what KK'a mindset was around the time the JDS Uniphase trial ended. I also wonder if he read these and other boards to get a sense of what we natives were all thinking. If he read this monster of a thread (I suspect he and Paulie G-String did) he no doubt got the picture that Sanguin was failing as a CCF thought policeman and the jig was up for the OWRS boys.

Here is what CBS Sportsline reported on how the unification (not a merger) came to be.

Please note who initiated the final unification conversation.

"Cold War ends, but Indy Car only heats up by getting on schedule

Feb. 28, 2008
By Pete Pistone
Special to CBSSports.com

Step 1 is complete, and the long overdue open-wheel unification is over.
Tony George and Kevin Kalkhoven should be commended for finally ending the madness that nearly killed American Indy Car racing.

"It was last fall on the anniversary of my grandfather's death that I was thinking to myself it really had been 30 years ago since the sport of open-wheel racing had been truly unified," George recalled. "Last month when the calendar turned over to 2008, I was wondering if it was possible this could ever happen.

"Lo and behold, I got a phone call that just made me feel really warm. I felt like this was going perhaps going to be the best year of my 48 to have a chance to do something that's very important to me and very close to me, and that is to help bring about the unification of open-wheel racing."
The phone call came from Kalkhoven, and despite several failed attempts to mend fences, this time it actually worked out.

But as both sides admitted in Wednesday's news conference to officially announce the creation of a single open-wheel series, the heavy lifting is about to begin.

"I've said many times that unification itself isn't some sort of magic bullet to be able to get us forward," Kalkhoven said. "It's going to take an awful lot of hard work, and that has already begun."

Let's hope so.

This season will be a hodgepodge to say the least, with three former Champ Car events -- Long Beach, Edmonton and Australia -- wedged into the existing IRL schedule.

The Champ Car teams planning to make the switch, which could be as many as nine operations and up to 12 drivers, will have to change engine and chassis packages pretty much on the fly. And the league, which promised free Dallara chassis and Honda engines to those teams, will need to scramble to find available and competitive equipment.

"The interest level is clearly high at this point in time," said Brian Barnhart, the IRL director of race operations. "You could see anywhere from eight to 12 cars on the grid beginning with the Homestead event. That's absolutely the best-case scenario we could be looking for."

To make that transition as smooth as possible, the IRL has assigned several of its teams to incoming Champ Car operations.

"Newman-Haas will be assigned to Rahal Letterman," said George, a match that will pair up N-H driver Graham Rahal with his father Bobby's IRL team.
"They have some common interests there and we wanted to align those team teams.

"The KV guys will be aligned with Target/Chip Ganassi, so it will be a smooth transition from that point."

But the decision that will ultimately decide the fate of the new unified series will be the schedule, which, according to George and Kalkhoven, will be developed from a clean sheet of paper in 2009.

Anchored by the Indianapolis 500 with several historic and popular tent poles throughout like Long Beach, Australia and Mexico City, the new series has a chance to create an exciting and eclectic schedule that could re-capture the interest of open-wheel fans.

"The Indianapolis 500, with all of its stature, and Long Beach will be two anchor points of what will be an incredibly interesting series," Kalkhoven said.

While Champ Car's direction was toward more road courses and street circuits, the IRL charted a course that was oval-track-heavy, an emphasis George is hoping to continue in the next evolution of the series.

"It's important to me to have a variety of ovals on the schedule," George said. "But international opportunities are out there. We need to look at building a schedule that makes sense from every perspective."

Speculation is a 20- to 22-race schedule will be the end result in 2009, and if George and Kalkhoven are smart, the high-speed oval racing that became the IRL's trademark will comprise a majority of the slate.

The incredible high-speed side-by-side racing at superspeedway ovals like Chicagoland Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway and Richmond International Raceway made the IRL one of the most exciting series in all of motorsports.

Building on that excitement and the oval-track tradition of Indy Car racing should be the foundation of the next era of the series. Only after a core of oval races are in place should the most popular road course and street circuit events be added, which would create one of the premier circuits in motorsports.

The first step has been taken and open-wheel teams can all come out of the storm clouds and race under one umbrella. Now it's up to George, Kalkhoven and Co. to not just keep Indy Car racing alive, but make it thrive.

"Having one series is for the best, not only for the drivers and the teams, but for the fans," said Helio Castroneves, who now has a chance to once again be known for his driving talent rather than his dancing skills. "It's about time.""

[ChaimWitz]

So, it seems that the vast majority of ChampCar's events were indeed losing money in a significant way. It is sad that most will not happen this year or perhaps ever again but it does illustrate what a brazen bluff The Amigos were running during these past four years.

In hindsight it looks to me like Paulie G-String did what he does best back in 2003. He took advantage of the anti-TG hatred he found in dark places on the web and in some corners of the ChampCar paddock. He then tapped into a bunch of delusional rich hobby boys ready and willing to be taken for an egoporn thrill ride. Now that their massive tax right offs no longer make sense, so goes the Champ Car World Series. Their combined arrogance, greed and spite were never going to end up creating anything other than the mess we have today. I have pointed this out to many people over the years. The "Amigos-Uber-Alles" types I spoke with had been completely seduced by the real Dark Side and they spewed back all the irrational things our dear departed Sanguin did before he went missing. Some called me nasty names and others did very damaging things to me personally because I chose not to believe or support all the all lies and spin.

Isn't it interesting how it all turned out? It was never about the racing (and the racing was good sometimes).

Do I feel vindicated? Hell yes!

From my perspective, the OWRS era was all about the ugly side of the human spirit. It is amusing how everyone from KK to Mark C. to certain posters here on these boards have changed their tunes now that reality has caught up with them. So to them, I offer some some advice that I myself will now heed: GET A LIFE!

So, this is probably my last post. Thanks to everyone I met here for caring so much about our beautiful sport. May the years ahead bring the healing and the success we all dream of. Shalom -- Chaim

[indycool]

I hope it is not your last post. It is time to hope that the scramble everyone in the sport must be doing right now will present a good series in '08 and a better one in '09 and set the stage for better TV ratings and more sponsorship.

[rpralon]

What happens next? nothing...

IRL still the same, maybe with more cars and more crashs...

Do you really wait something new from TG ???

[garyshell]

Isn't it interesting how it all turned out? It was never about the racing (and the racing was good sometimes).

Do I feel vindicated? Hell yes!
...

So, this is probably my last post.

So was your participation here about the racing or about the "argument"? Now that the "argument" has been more or less settled, you no longer want to participate? What about the racing? Don't loose sight of that! Don't go yet, stick around a while until the first few races are under our belts. Enjoy some bench racing again. You just might rekindle what it was that brought you here in the first place. Ya never know.

Gary