Robert Clarke frustrated, disappointed, burned out... retiring.

[Jag_Warrior]

Clarke expressed considerable frustration in working with the IRL. "I feel like we're moving forward but it's taking millimeters at a time," he said. "But it is moving forward and we're trying to keep our optimism up. While I'm looking more forward to my ultimate retirement, I'm concerned about it because I have put a considerable effort on a daily basis into trying to make the IRL better and when I leave, I don't see them doing it on their own. I'm not trying to flatter myself, but it's a fact that somebody has got to keep beating on them to move forward."

He tried another tack before deciding to throw in the towel. "I did a complete 180 and downshifted a couple of gears and moved into what we call plan B, which was to achieve everything you would have with unification, but without it. I couldn't get the IRL to do it themselves, so I developed an entire plan and presented it to them in late September.

"The plan included a road map of everything they need to reinvent the IRL into a new open-wheel series that would achieve all of these things without unification. But I wore myself out doing it. I kept pushing myself because of the glimmer of hope I saw. I stepped it up and pushed even harder.

"It's because of that to a significant degree that I'm going the direction that I am," Clarke added somewhat dolefully. "I have nothing left. I'm very disappointed that I didn't get any further than I did. Hopefully, there will be some lasting good impact."


I certainly don't agree with every decision made by Clarke over the years. But I do think that the guy put his heart & soul into open wheel racing. And much like Dan Davis, he's been met with frustration and people who can't see the forest for the dying trees.

For the full article:
http://www.gordonkirby.com/categories/columns/theway/2007/the_way_it_is_no102.html

[weeflyonthewall]

Can't blame the man for trying.

[mark123]

we all share his fustrations

[millencolin]

I would of liked to have seen that road map. It's good to see someone putting in the effort to attempt to save open wheel racing in the states. Pity the powers at be are too stubborn/proud to consider it

[Wraith]

The concept of creating a "new look" for open-wheel cars fails to understand that unlike quite a number of other series in the world, open-wheel cars are historically designed from a purely form-follows-function basis. The design is not to "look a certain way," but to accomplish a certain task. This rationality of design (which is based on hard data indicators of what the most aerodynamic designs for raw speed and manueverability are) is the major reason why open-wheel cars are often light-years ahead of other forms of the sport, on a technical level. There is historically no overall look to the OW machine: it is what has worked. If something else is better, prove it on the testing grounds; you'd quickly gain plenty of backers...if it would be the leading car.

[Chaparral66]

I would commend Mr. Clarke for trying to heal this thing. I imagine that he and Ford's Dan Davis had more than a few behind the scenes discussions about fixing open wheel and just ran into one brick wall after another by the principals of both series. It's a shame when pride and obsession completely blind people to the greater good.

[nitromaniac]

we all share his fustrations

He may have had enough of the IRL but he made a huge impact on the ALMS. His Acura teams were hot right out of the box. They won P2 class races,(Sebring)sat on overall poles(Houston) and had a chance to win nearly every ALMS event last year.They gave cars and teams that had been thouroughly developed,such as the Porche and the Audi, a run for their money, Not bad for a new venture. Nothing to hang your head about here.

[Roninho]

well, if the japanese manufacturers had agreed with each other not to spend like $75 million each a year on running a couple of engines in the IRL, but instead spend about 1/3rd of it they would have actually had a good roi on it, and there hadn't been a need for Toyota and Chevy for leaving the IRL in the first place.

Nothing personal against the guy and i have no idea how much influence he actually has with honda, but the big manufacturers did not and will not care about the future of whatever serie they are in, they care about their own roi.