Congrats Helio!!

[Chris R]

I am not a Dancing with the Stars sort of fan - although I did watch it last week out of racing curiosity... you cannot argue it is great exposure for AOWR.

I think Helio winning the shows highlights a couple of points:

1. If the Indy 500 winner can out vote a Spice Girl (ok, she might be passe - but they were huge in their day) - that is a good thing and maybe all hope is not yet lost...

2. Americans vote based on personality, not nationality - like Alex Zanardi before him, Helio has a great personality. If we want more Americans in AOWR someone needs to teach young Americans to have a personality....

3. The IRL does not necessarily need the girl factor to succeed. If Helio can win something like this he and other top drivers (regardless of gender or nationality) can make AOWR more popular if given the proper tools and support...

4. There is a tremendous potential fanbase of consumers that are more "sophiscated" than the average NASCAR or stick and ball fan - these arethe people AOWR needsto plug into...

Anyway, congrats to Helio - and kudos to the IRL for a marketing coup - now go do something with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Old3Fan]

Note to Tony George. Get off this continual slobbering about Danica and before her Sarah and concentrate on past and present WINNERS with PERSONALITIES. Whiney, pouty foot stomping doesn't hack it. Helio has gotten more PR for your IRL in 10 weeks than the past few years of pushing these women who I have to say have guts and can drive fast but have as yet not hacked it or WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[indycool]

Helio has brought more people into casual interest in racing with this than any other serial-type thing over a period of time. They got to see him and his partner for 10 weeks against celebrities of all kinds in a different activity and winning and the way he represented our sport was EXTREMELY well.

Sure, Indy and the IRL need to capitalize on it but they already are....Helio and Julianne are already booked on all kinds of talk shows, some of them today. It's likely that they'll get more exposure than Emmitt Smith did in winning the thing last year.

But Old3Fan, I disagree with your premise. Tony George did not plunk Danica Patrick in front of the field with seven laps to go in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 nor did he haul 19-year-old Sarah Fisher's butt through the first turn at Indy at 225 to qualify for the "500." Like Helio's performance, both personal and dancing in front of viewers and judges and people out west, that was their own doing.

[libra65]

I couldn't help noticing Tony George in the audience. He must be loving all the attention Helio is bringing to the IRL. I must admit, I like him as a dancer (I even voted for him) but I can't bring myself to root for him on the track. Oh, well. Congrats Helio & Julianne. Great job.

[AAReagles]

I am not a Dancing with the Stars sort of fan - although I did watch it last week out of racing curiosity... you cannot argue it is great exposure for AOWR.

Yeah, but where was the chain-link-track-fence for him to jump up on ? ;)


You're right, it's good exposure, however Bill France Jr. (along with his dad's works) is too good of a PR genuis to allow NASCAR to slip from it's popularity.

Which is why I am anxious for J. Villenueve and Montoya to illustrate their potentials next season. Though I am not a NASCAR fan, rather a GP/AOWR fan.

[Wraith]

4. There is a tremendous potential fanbase of consumers that are more "sophiscated" than the average NASCAR or stick and ball fan...

Some of us have always equated NASCAR with a football mindset rather than baseball, if that was the implication. Baseball (with its incredible statistical detail, and being half as old as America itself...etc.) is much more like classic motorsports, in my opinion.

I always found it hard to root for Helio because of how fast he won (and twice), versus other guys who'd 'paid a lot more dues.' Six years on from his second 500 win, though...it's gotten easier to be fine with it going to him, if it does. A personality like him winning DwtS is one of the best things possible for IRL.

[inimitablestoo]

I reckon Tony George can't have enjoyed the non-US 1-2. Mark my words, there'll be a breakaway dancing show on air next year, focusing on traditional American disciplines ;)

Good work Helio; now just remember not to do any spin-turns or leaps through the air when you're in the car next season. And he did better than V8 Supercar driver James Courtney in the Australian version of the show I believe.