Aw, I don't think so, nanders. Last I heard about Dr. Jack, he was into flying airplanes now in addition to his dental practice.
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Aw, I don't think so, nanders. Last I heard about Dr. Jack, he was into flying airplanes now in addition to his dental practice.
If the early reports hold true and the split really is at an end, I will celebrate heartily with my friends this week.
The best and most satisfying occasion this year will be the Indy 500, with a full and competitive field of racers, with Paul Tracy taking the chequered flag and drinking milk in the Winners circle!
That would be a wonderful story and make great copy.
I'd like to see it end as well, open wheel has lost too much ground to NASCAR. But now, we have to consider what kind of series we will have as result.Quote:
Originally Posted by FlatChatRacer
Chap, I think you're going to see a stable series which must, over time, gain more widespread attention, not from us hardcores on the boards, because we are very few in the big picture of things. I think the FINANCIALLY stable sites are going to get the dates and it's important that the promoters also grow with the series. It's important that the teams and drivers grow with the series.
When a schedule comes out, everybody isn't going to be happy, but in truth, not many of the CC sites were making money, either as track rentals or temporaries. So, not many of them will be included. A Road America was scheduled all over the CART map and never had a solid, stable date in its history, yet made it with CART when the series was together, and then was a track rental when CC went back. As much as I like Road America, it's likely to be awhile before it makes a deal again because it was treated badly by CART and CC just didn't draw there paying its own way. Laguna, the same way.
As much as I like Phoenix, when ISC took over, what was built in Phoenix with the Copper World Classic and a traditional March Indy car date got jacked around and both were minimized and pretty much killed. Hopefully, in time, the new "one" series will grow back to be popular there...and at Michigan.
So, I think almost everyone will find some little fault with whatever becomes of an '08 schedule, something they don't like, and the start of a stable schedule will come in '09, and that will most probably gore some oxen, too.
But finances, availability of schedule, television availability and promoter interest will be the benchmarks of what leads to a schedule....not 1, 10 or 100 of us saying on the boards that we need Road America or Phoenix or it's a disaster.
Unfortunately your are incorrect in your assumption that "Champcar deserves to survive in the merger, not die...." and "More time is needed ..."Quote:
Originally Posted by jimispeed
1) This is NOT a merger of equals - it is a surrender by the amigos after squandering very possible opportunity to succeed since buying the series in 2004.
2) CCWS is broke or close to it and cannot pay their bills now, no way they would even complete the 2008 season at this rate - there is NOT time to implement a long-term phase-in combination of the two series.
Not a TG fan here; but a businessman who knows "when to say when". Bite the bullet: take a few steps back, regroup (i.e suffer the crapwagons for a while), rebuild the popularity of the Indy 500, re-formualize the product (progessive cars & engines) in a year or two, attract new sponsors to a unified series, attract new venues (possibly some old CART locations), drop bad (possibly some old IRL locations) locations, attract some 'known' American drivers, increase TV exposure, increase marketing, and in about 10 years AOWR could (and I emphasize "could") be back on the road to success - the damage of the split has been so bad that it will take that long.
I am very sorry to see you and long-time valued fans and forum posters like Blancvino leave open wheel racing due to a petty hatred of TG or any other entity or individual.
CART first then CCWS had every chance to sieze the moment and bury the IRL but could not do so for two reasons: 1) They made all the wrong moves and I do mean "all", and 2) They did NOT have the Indy 500. It was inevitable.
Work your way through the five phases of grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance) and support the new effort - it cannot be any worse that what we've gone through the past 12 years.
The next few days should offer up some memorable quotes. Here is my favorite from last year:
"How long is my commitment (to CCWS)?" Kalkhoven replied. "How long is my life?"
So for me, "what happens next" includes finding a quote to top that!
Just for fun, I went back and read post #1 on this thread written almost 6 months ago.
It initiated a firestorm of debate, argument, attacks, support, and even a few "timeouts" for some posters who got too "involved" (we know who we are). At times it was erudite, and at times it was ridiculous, and almost always heated. It eventually became the second largest thread on this forum.
Some people agreed with the content of that post and some almost violently opposed the suggestions. One infamous poster joined the day of the message and now has over 900 posts, all of which could be summarized as "the IRL is dying and the racing in CCWS is great, long live the CCWS" and "link please". Well, from all of the links in the past few days, it looks like the racing in CCWS will be gone. So much for predictions.
After 6 months and over 1000 posts, we have now come full circle back to the beginning. Nearly every suggestion in that post has come true. The last line of that post was rather prophetic and now appears to have an answer.
"So, what happens next... now that blind faith or hatred won't work any more?"
We move on the the future as one major Open Wheel series. It's about time.
Just because a decision is made doesn't necessarily make it the right decision. I am very glad you are happy with the result though, and that you remembered to bring up this thread again to remind everyone of your wisdom. Especially when it comes from a neutral poster such as yourself who wants what is best for the sport.Quote:
Originally Posted by beachbum
IC, like I said on one of the other threads, I will try to keep an open mind about it. This first year will be tough if it happens, just establishing a level of trust between the two groups. This new group will have to work closely with the tracks, and not try to extort concessions as they have in the past. They will have to work with each one carefully and try to rebuild open wheel's reputation so that that tracks will want to have the new series stage an event, as oppose to pressuring them to accept unreasonable terms. They will have to work out a proper TV schedule where the events are easily available to viewers, live, or full tape delay at a reasonable timeframe. And, they will have to reach out to the fans in ways they have not been able to conceive up to now. The jury will be out on this for quite awhile, so the success of the new venture depends on their collective realization of that, and how they go about developing it.Quote:
Originally Posted by indycool
This is an asinine post. What we have here is TWO FAILED BUSINESSES combining into one entity that MIGHT survive. What wrecked both series is the greed and avarice of Honda and Toyota and the big winner was NASCAR. All open wheel fans were the losers. The error has always been the Inferior Racing League.Quote:
Originally Posted by ChaimWitz
As for me, I like my racing as technologically advanced and as genuine as possible; real competition not made-up fakery. If the Crapalaras aren't gone in 2009 you can forget me watching anything with the Indy tag on it, and I've been going to at least one race every year since 1993.
And let's hope the whole sport doesn't go Tango Uniform in the mean time.
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