Chaparral66
13th February 2008, 06:17
David Phillips of Racer Magazine and SPEEDTV.com has this to say about this merger coming together so quickly:
Written by: David Phillips
RACER Magazine 02/12/2008 - 05:03 PM
Pittsburgh, Pa.
If you think merger/bankruptcy talk is hard on Champ Car teams, what about their Atlantic brethren? A friend of mine named Paul Rieffle called the other day for my take on the Champ Car/Indy Racing League merger/reunification acquisition/bankruptcy rumors. Neither Paul Gentilozzi, Tony George, Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven or Dan Pettit would know Rieffle if they tripped over him, but I’ve known Paul since the 1970s when we raced Formula Ford 1600s together . . . or more accurately, since we race Formula Fords on the same tracks at the same time, as Paul was generally considerably further up the road than me.
For the past 10 or 15 years, Rieffle has prepped his small fleet of FF2000s for various “arrive and drive” clients at his RSPORT (catchy name, that) shop near Pittsburgh. As you can imagine, one of his leading sources of revenue is the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland since he and some of his drivers can do one-off sponsorship deals at the only Champ Car event (in this country anyway) within a day’s drive of Western Pennsylvania with FF2000 as a support race.
So as you can also imagine, Rieffle is viewing the goings-on between Champ Car and the IRL with particular interest, given that the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland does not figure on most of the presumptive “unified” schedules making the rounds in cyberspace.
Now, RSPORT isn’t about to go belly-up if the 2008 Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland goes the way of the 2005 (or 2006) Champ Car Prix of Ansan. But Paul Rieffle will take a hit. So will his clients. And they’re the lucky ones.
As Robin Miller noted, Carl Haas Automobiles has millions tied up in spares for the Panoz DP01 chassis that figure to be boat anchors if—as appears likely—a unified series is all Dallara-Hondas all the time. And that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of those who stand to take it in the shorts should a rush to merger or a Champ Car meltdown transpire.
Panoz invested millions in the DP01 and, as with any mass-produced chassis, lost money in the first year and probably won’t begin to break even before Year Three of the contract. How about Hewland, which supplied the transmissions to the DP01s? Or BBS. which supplied DP01 wheels?
What of the promoters, vendors, hotel and motel operators, newspapers, caterers and scores more who stand to lose out should 3/4 of the CCWS be canceled in one fell swoop? And what of the black eye that will leave—not just on Champ Car but on open-wheel racing as a whole—from Houston to Mont-Tremblant?
What of the Champ Car team owners who spent millions acquiring those Panoz DP01s and building up their spares? In particular, what about Eric Bachelart who diligently worked his way into a position for his Conquest Racing to field two fully backed cars for the 2008 Champ Car World Series, with the assistance of new partner Anthony Blumberg?
What about Swift Engineering which, like Panoz, invested heavily in its new Champ Car Atlantic chassis in ’06 and has just spent millions building up its allotment of spares for the coming season. And what of a Mazda, which has enthusiastically backed the Champ Car Atlantic Series as the crown jewel of its extensive “grass roots” road racing program? And what about the Champ Car Atlantic teams which have spent upwards of a million dollars (and in some cases more) acquiring those Swifts and associated spare parts, not to mention employing hundreds of mechanics, engineers and managers? Alternately, should Champ Car Atlantic emerge as the support series, what will happen to the Indy Pro Series teams that have invested like amounts of money in their Dallara chassis?
Back to my friend.
“What I’m facing is paltry compared to what the Atlantic teams are up against,” Rieffle says. “My heart goes out to them. Or, take a guy who worked for me last year as an apprentice engineer. He’s 22 or 23, a great kid who I’d hire in a second if I could afford it. He got a job over the winter with an Atlantic team and I just got an e-mail from him saying he didn’t know if he’s gonna have a job this year after all. Now, he’s an open-wheel junkie, but this is probably going to leave a bad taste in his mouth. If he can’t earn a living in open-wheel racing he’s probably gonna find a job working for Caterpillar or Kennworth.”
Or NASCAR . . .
Look, nobody has written more or more often about the need for the Champ Car and Indy Racing League Powers That Be to check their egos, come to an agreement on their substantive differences and unify American open-wheel racing than me. But I am also on the record as believing the only scenario worse than a continuing split would be for the reunification to happen precipitously as the result of one series or the other failing.
One could hope the talk of Champ Car declaring bankruptcy is just that, talk. But given the dire financial straights facing Champ Car—and the track record of its owners who, after all, formed Champ Car on the bones of the bankrupt Championship Auto Racing Teams—I wouldn’t bet the mortgage on it.
There’s another train of thought advanced by an operative associated with the merger/reunification movement who says, “We’ve got to get it done for 2008. If all we get is an agreement to do it in 2009, that gives it a whole year to fall apart.”
Given the results of previous unification efforts, you can’t deny his logic. Still, it’s clear a shotgun reunion between Champ Car and the IRL—whether resulting from bankruptcy or a rush to merge—will result in chaos. And not just among the Champ Car teams and their suppliers.
As Paul Tracy observed the other day, “You toss a rock in the middle of a pond and it causes a ripple, but by the time it reaches the shore it’s a tsunami.”
If there is still a chance to effect a merger in an organized, phased-in fashion for 2009, the sport and thousands of people affected by reunification—from the guys at Panoz and Swift to the team owners in Champ Car, Champ Car Atlantic, IPS and even FF2000—would be infinitely better served by it. If, however, a merger results from (or in) the bankruptcy of Champ Car, I dare say I will not be alone in saying “a pox on the Champ Car owners” who, ultimately, will bear the responsibility for the resulting tsunami unleashed upon the sport.
David Phillips is a Senior Writer for RACER magazine. For details about the current issue, visit http://www.racer.com.
This excellent column by the always thoughtful Phillips reinforces what I've been saying on other threads about this thing going through too quickly. We all want one open wheel series, but to do it this way may mean a result that is even worse than what we have now. This quote by Gordon Kirby on his website supports both Phillips' and my view:
In fact, the past few weeks' desperate attempts to bring to the two series together underlines the complete lack of any business plan and the utter incompetence of both groups. Neither of them has any understanding or appreciation for the complexities of motor racing. Nor do they care about the fans who they have treated with such contempt for so many years. Attempting to stitch together a rushed and poorly thought-out merger was bound to result in many mistakes and further invite the rapacious effects of the laws of unintended consequences. And of course, the history of corporate mergers is full of stories of failure. --Gordon Kirby, GordonKirby.com
I'd rather we stay apart for another year, maybe race together at Indy to give fans a preview of what to expect, and use this year to work out an agreement we can all live with. Shotgun marriages like this mean someone's gonna bleed at some point.
Written by: David Phillips
RACER Magazine 02/12/2008 - 05:03 PM
Pittsburgh, Pa.
If you think merger/bankruptcy talk is hard on Champ Car teams, what about their Atlantic brethren? A friend of mine named Paul Rieffle called the other day for my take on the Champ Car/Indy Racing League merger/reunification acquisition/bankruptcy rumors. Neither Paul Gentilozzi, Tony George, Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven or Dan Pettit would know Rieffle if they tripped over him, but I’ve known Paul since the 1970s when we raced Formula Ford 1600s together . . . or more accurately, since we race Formula Fords on the same tracks at the same time, as Paul was generally considerably further up the road than me.
For the past 10 or 15 years, Rieffle has prepped his small fleet of FF2000s for various “arrive and drive” clients at his RSPORT (catchy name, that) shop near Pittsburgh. As you can imagine, one of his leading sources of revenue is the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland since he and some of his drivers can do one-off sponsorship deals at the only Champ Car event (in this country anyway) within a day’s drive of Western Pennsylvania with FF2000 as a support race.
So as you can also imagine, Rieffle is viewing the goings-on between Champ Car and the IRL with particular interest, given that the Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland does not figure on most of the presumptive “unified” schedules making the rounds in cyberspace.
Now, RSPORT isn’t about to go belly-up if the 2008 Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland goes the way of the 2005 (or 2006) Champ Car Prix of Ansan. But Paul Rieffle will take a hit. So will his clients. And they’re the lucky ones.
As Robin Miller noted, Carl Haas Automobiles has millions tied up in spares for the Panoz DP01 chassis that figure to be boat anchors if—as appears likely—a unified series is all Dallara-Hondas all the time. And that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of those who stand to take it in the shorts should a rush to merger or a Champ Car meltdown transpire.
Panoz invested millions in the DP01 and, as with any mass-produced chassis, lost money in the first year and probably won’t begin to break even before Year Three of the contract. How about Hewland, which supplied the transmissions to the DP01s? Or BBS. which supplied DP01 wheels?
What of the promoters, vendors, hotel and motel operators, newspapers, caterers and scores more who stand to lose out should 3/4 of the CCWS be canceled in one fell swoop? And what of the black eye that will leave—not just on Champ Car but on open-wheel racing as a whole—from Houston to Mont-Tremblant?
What of the Champ Car team owners who spent millions acquiring those Panoz DP01s and building up their spares? In particular, what about Eric Bachelart who diligently worked his way into a position for his Conquest Racing to field two fully backed cars for the 2008 Champ Car World Series, with the assistance of new partner Anthony Blumberg?
What about Swift Engineering which, like Panoz, invested heavily in its new Champ Car Atlantic chassis in ’06 and has just spent millions building up its allotment of spares for the coming season. And what of a Mazda, which has enthusiastically backed the Champ Car Atlantic Series as the crown jewel of its extensive “grass roots” road racing program? And what about the Champ Car Atlantic teams which have spent upwards of a million dollars (and in some cases more) acquiring those Swifts and associated spare parts, not to mention employing hundreds of mechanics, engineers and managers? Alternately, should Champ Car Atlantic emerge as the support series, what will happen to the Indy Pro Series teams that have invested like amounts of money in their Dallara chassis?
Back to my friend.
“What I’m facing is paltry compared to what the Atlantic teams are up against,” Rieffle says. “My heart goes out to them. Or, take a guy who worked for me last year as an apprentice engineer. He’s 22 or 23, a great kid who I’d hire in a second if I could afford it. He got a job over the winter with an Atlantic team and I just got an e-mail from him saying he didn’t know if he’s gonna have a job this year after all. Now, he’s an open-wheel junkie, but this is probably going to leave a bad taste in his mouth. If he can’t earn a living in open-wheel racing he’s probably gonna find a job working for Caterpillar or Kennworth.”
Or NASCAR . . .
Look, nobody has written more or more often about the need for the Champ Car and Indy Racing League Powers That Be to check their egos, come to an agreement on their substantive differences and unify American open-wheel racing than me. But I am also on the record as believing the only scenario worse than a continuing split would be for the reunification to happen precipitously as the result of one series or the other failing.
One could hope the talk of Champ Car declaring bankruptcy is just that, talk. But given the dire financial straights facing Champ Car—and the track record of its owners who, after all, formed Champ Car on the bones of the bankrupt Championship Auto Racing Teams—I wouldn’t bet the mortgage on it.
There’s another train of thought advanced by an operative associated with the merger/reunification movement who says, “We’ve got to get it done for 2008. If all we get is an agreement to do it in 2009, that gives it a whole year to fall apart.”
Given the results of previous unification efforts, you can’t deny his logic. Still, it’s clear a shotgun reunion between Champ Car and the IRL—whether resulting from bankruptcy or a rush to merge—will result in chaos. And not just among the Champ Car teams and their suppliers.
As Paul Tracy observed the other day, “You toss a rock in the middle of a pond and it causes a ripple, but by the time it reaches the shore it’s a tsunami.”
If there is still a chance to effect a merger in an organized, phased-in fashion for 2009, the sport and thousands of people affected by reunification—from the guys at Panoz and Swift to the team owners in Champ Car, Champ Car Atlantic, IPS and even FF2000—would be infinitely better served by it. If, however, a merger results from (or in) the bankruptcy of Champ Car, I dare say I will not be alone in saying “a pox on the Champ Car owners” who, ultimately, will bear the responsibility for the resulting tsunami unleashed upon the sport.
David Phillips is a Senior Writer for RACER magazine. For details about the current issue, visit http://www.racer.com.
This excellent column by the always thoughtful Phillips reinforces what I've been saying on other threads about this thing going through too quickly. We all want one open wheel series, but to do it this way may mean a result that is even worse than what we have now. This quote by Gordon Kirby on his website supports both Phillips' and my view:
In fact, the past few weeks' desperate attempts to bring to the two series together underlines the complete lack of any business plan and the utter incompetence of both groups. Neither of them has any understanding or appreciation for the complexities of motor racing. Nor do they care about the fans who they have treated with such contempt for so many years. Attempting to stitch together a rushed and poorly thought-out merger was bound to result in many mistakes and further invite the rapacious effects of the laws of unintended consequences. And of course, the history of corporate mergers is full of stories of failure. --Gordon Kirby, GordonKirby.com
I'd rather we stay apart for another year, maybe race together at Indy to give fans a preview of what to expect, and use this year to work out an agreement we can all live with. Shotgun marriages like this mean someone's gonna bleed at some point.