Back to the drawing board.

Well, I said the IRL had become CART. And at Richmond, the race was similar to some of the 1-mile oval bores CART had with the high down-force set-ups. CART eventually changed the aero set up, and the IRL better do something for Richmond. The IRL had some good races in the past at Richmond, but the current aero package needs serious tweaking.

The worst part of the race was when everyone was backed up behind Dunno and Simmons, and could not make it past. Not only was there no passing at the front, there was almost no passing at the rear, save for Dario lapping people, and Hornish trying to make ground up after his bad start. The decent crowd, who started tail-gating quite early in the day, deserved a much better show.

Dario had another great race, as "Squirrel" and the team continue to give him great cars.

And Milka...needs to be parked for good. There were at least three-four near big'ns on the front stretch, when she seemed to be getting off the gas coming off four, when everyone else was on the gas! She has never done anything well in open wheel cars, and certainly does not belong. Some one is going to get hurt. Let’s give Steve Challis someone good to work with (Alex Barron?). The team is capable of doing better.

Some old news is that Hornish will be in 'cup next year, with Weldon almost demanding to be there as well and Dario to retire, or race in sports cars. Look for Briscoe to take over for Hornish, and there are several drivers being discussed for Ganassi. AGR would not replace Dario, but expand their ALMS effort.

The word in the paddock remains that Haas will be in the series next year with Rahal and Wilson. The two questions are Wilson (re-united with his Rusport engineer?) and weather Paul Newman will accept this, start another CCWS team, or match the dollar amount Carl is being offered.

I think that the 1-mile ovals are not suitable for OW cars. They are maybe exciting to watch live on the track because everything is front of your eyes, but on TV i thing is boring. There are no high speeds (very high) and excitement is not so big.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fan-veteran

I think that the 1-mile ovals are not suitable for OW cars. They are maybe exciting to watch live on the track because everything is front of your eyes, but on TV i thing is boring. There are no high speeds (very high) and excitement is not so big.

---

You probably never saw some of the great CART races at Phoenix and Milwaukee in the early 90's. They were awesome! And, both CCWS and the IRL have had some good races at Milwaukee.

BTW, Richmond is less than a 1-mile (7/8ths) and as they had good racing in the past, the just need to tweak the specs for that kind fo track. Speedway wings anyone?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Starter

Wouldn't you say it's more the character of the track than the length? Open wheel cars show much better on tracks with less banking, which would be why Milwaukee is usually a good race. And I would agree that ovals where no braking is required is boring. It's an endurance contest and the luck of your pit stops vs yellows.

---

I agree that it is the character of each track, but length, banking, width, etc. all come into play. But Texas and some of the 1.5 miles tracks have steep banking, and put on great shows. Richmond has some pretty good banking, and use to put on some good shows, but the aero package needs to be tweaked in order to allow the cars to mix it up, or at least get by lapped traffic.

I also agree that a big lift and/or braking does allow some passing opportunities on ovals. It also separates the men, from the boys (women from the girls?).

With the high down force set up CART ran for a bit, even flat tracks like Milwaukee were parades. Each track presents its own unique challenges, and one can only hope the IRL takes a look at this years Richmond race, and changes the package for next year.

I've seen some really good races from the IRL at Richmond in the past, but definetly this years was bad. Obviously the setup they are using at Richmond and Iowa needs to be changed, in years past RIR was second only to Indy and Texas for putting on a great show.

Interesting scuttlebutt, EagleEye. I agree with you that Hornish is in Cup next year, probably in Ryan Newmans car, unless Penske decides to expand and keep Newman or hire Kyle Busch as well. His loss will be the biggest hit the IRL has ever taken.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EagleEye

Well, I said the IRL had become CART. And at Richmond, the race was similar to some of the 1-mile oval bores CART had with the high down-force set-ups. CART eventually changed the aero set up, and the IRL better do something for Richmond. The IRL had some good races in the past at Richmond, but the current aero package needs serious tweaking.

---

I don't know if it is the aero as much as it is the tires. The marbles were so bad that as the race went on the 2nd groove went away. Look at the start of the race when Wreckter made a bunch of outside passes, but then as the race went on the outside line went away. Look at Iowa, on Friday there was plenty of group racing & passing, but then on Sun the marbles became a problem and so did the passing. If it were an areo issue then Marco would not have been stuck on Dario's tail for the whole race. This is the same aero package that they have ran for the last 4 plus years.

As for Milka, I will say that a lot of it is her, but a lot of it is he car as well. I was watching her from turn 4 at Iowa and her car was pushing to beat hell. If you put he on a team with some indy car experience, she might not be a second off the pace.

"Wreckter"? LOL!

About the aero-issue:
Didn't they introduce a new rear-wing this year?

About Milka:
It's probably not the best idea to put a driver with zero openwheel experience and zero oval track time in an ICS-car operated by a sportscar team, not to forget she has no team mate.

About the race:
It was boring alright. What to do? There's always going to be boring races. Didn't Dixon lead the entire race once at Richmond? However if there really was only one availbable racing line for most of the race something MUST be done.

The same problem with grip was obvious in Indy500, to mention a few crashes when the drivers left the ideal path and were forced to the walls. I think they said that namely rubber rubbish on the track was the reason. And Milka drove not so bad on Indy i think, even managed to crash :) .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EagleEye

great cars.

The word in the paddock remains that Haas will be in the series next year with Rahal and Wilson. The two questions are Wilson (re-united with his Rusport engineer?) and weather Paul Newman will accept this, start another CCWS team, or match the dollar amount Carl is being offered.

---

will never happen....Rahal and Wilson have no desire to run in the IRL and both have said so....Rahal maybe just maybe run Indy unless Champcar runs several races in May (which reportly will happen). Haas is also the parts distributor for Panoz plus he will also need to buy out Lanigan not only Newman. Haas will also need to start from scratch as the majority of the team will not go with him to the IRL. NHL Racing also have started their search for a driver to replace Sebass who is going F1 and that search revolves around the Champcar series not the IRL. Won't happen unless Honda gives Haas tens of millions of dollars and Haas will have to turn his back on not only Newman but team members that he has been involved with since they started the team together. Haas also enjoys the international travel too much that the Champcar series affords him and he is very excited about not only the two European rounds this year but also the prospect of a second two race leg next year. Amazing how "the word" in the IRL paddock these days about Champcar ends up being 100% false.

More of a worry is that if the IRL doesn't come up with a second engine manufacture that Honda will leave per their contract agreement and the potential exodus of drivers wanting to leave the series for anywhere else because of the preferred treatment Danica and Marco get versus the rest of the drivers. Potentially the IRL could lose their three top drivers next year. Hornish to NASCAR, Dario to ALMS and Weldon going to NASCAR to a team other than Ganassi because of Ganassi's comments that he won't give Hornish a NASCAR ride next year.

One more thing is that Paul Newman and Carl Haas have been in talks with Mario Andretti who does want Marco in Champcar as it's his best chance to get to F1. Paul Newman has even made a comment that they may just have to run a third car for Marco. Does that sound like Haas packing up and going to the IRL? The chances of Marco to Champcar in 2008 is 50/50 as he is still under contract to his father but in 2009 the chances are more 90/10 unless Marco decides that he doesn't want to go to F1. Of course TG will throw millions of dollars Marco's way to prevent this from happening but in the end it will be Marco's desire to race in F1 or take TG's money and race in a 100% throttle only series with a few road races thrown in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FerrrariF1

will never happen....Rahal and Wilson have no desire to run in the IRL and both have said so....Rahal maybe just maybe run Indy unless Champcar runs several races in May (which reportly will happen).

---

You know, I heard the same story about Helio & Gil when Penske made the move, and look how that turned out.

It is kinda of like how all of these Indy car drivers want to come back to CC, and yet none of them do. (Remember how last fall it was a sure thing for Dario to go to RuSport)