Month of May and a loss of Momentum.

Regardless of how anyone feels, apparently momentum is ok.

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=11431

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Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa

Daytona gets by on 2 weeks. Charlotte has their 2 weeks for the All Star and 600. No f1 event needs more than 4 days. Indy is special, but it isn't that radically different to adjust to, especially with a spec car now being run.

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Daytona is a shadow of what it once was.
The auto rags used to be full of articles covering Daytona Speed Weeks, which in a disjointed manner included everything from the bike race, 24 hrs., modifieds on the road course, to the Daytona 500; with others inbetween.
The early part of each year was full of activities at Daytona.

THAT is how it got its reputation.
Bob

Paul Newman, co-owner of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing: “It (reunification) was absolutely necessary for both groups. It’s tragic that it didn’t happen sooner but it’s good that it at least happened when it did. I think its going to be a great boost for both groups.

“It’s good to be back at Indianapolis. It brings back a lot of fond memories. We’ve won eight championships and come in second twice at Indianapolis but never won The 500. It’s wonderful to be running against Roger (Penske) and (Bobby) Rahal, and Michael (Andretti) and all those guys. It’s comfortable.

“My favorite tradition was that it took a whole month. Indy started at the first of May and you had your reservation at the (speedway) motel. If you wanted it (the room) for two days, you took it for the whole month or you wouldn’t get it and we’re going to work hard to get it back to that.”


rh

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Originally Posted by indycool

Maybe some don't understand the extent of things that happen during those three weeks. It starts off with a mini-marathon, one of the nation's largest, with 30,000 runners run by the "500" Festival. There are contests, activities, appearances throughout the month. Races? The Speedway added the Freedom 100 for Indy Lights cars, a previously unheard of second race at the Speedway during May. USAC and others hold racing programs for short track cars at IRP and the Indiana State Fairgrounds. There is the Lirttle 500 sprint car race at Anderson. There is a Community Day for autograph signing and children's activities. A major charity golf tournament is held on the Brickyard Crossing course during race week. Sponsors use that three-week period to entertain customers and employees in suites and motorhomes throughout the month and build significant promotions around it.

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What better example of the whole cause of the split then this? What does taking a month to practice, qualify and run a race have to do with any of that? Cars need to be on track in Indy in order to hold a golf tournament or events at state fairgounds? Can't you see your very attitute is that of one who essentially wants to hold the racing series and its famous race hostage in order to bolster happenings around the city of Indianapolis. You sound like Tony George circa 1995. The "tradition" of Indy is like a crucible that grinds up the rest of the sport in order to bolster itself. Does the 24 hours of Lemans or the Daytona 500 or Monaco minimize and denigrate the rest of the series it is joined to or the rest of motorsports like Indy does? Not at all. Neither the split nor now the end of the split has solved this problem.

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And for those who are coming at this from a CC perspective, most of what I've read from those teams was that they could get up to speed much easier during May with the increase in track time. I haven't read one complaint from teams about it now. The war is over for them.

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Yes, because they are using the month of May as testing time. What has that got to do with the one race? They could have tested for a month at Homestead instead to figure out the car. There is nothing magic about the asphault in Indy. it is the same as everywhere else, unless you are wearing rose colored glasses. Pick any random track out of a hat and make it a 1 month long event. After 5 years that will be a tradition too! If this format is actually so great then maybe the whole series should run this way and the IRL will only have about 5 races a year. :rolleyes:

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Hoop-98
"My favorite tradition was"

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Everybody loves Newman, but again his favorite "tradition". I dont see any analysis of how that is good for the sport in the future. If the IRL actually wants to be attractive to people under 30 for the future then every event needs to be decided in a timeframre in which a vistor can see the whole thing - a 4 day weekend. We are in the age of WEB2.0 and you want to drag out a single auto race for a month and expect people to follow it? That is an insane buisness plan for the future - no matter what has happened in the past.

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Originally Posted by CCWS77

What better example of the whole cause of the split then this? What does taking a month to practice, qualify and run a race have to do with any of that? Cars need to be on track in Indy in order to hold a golf tournament or events at state fairgounds? Can't you see your very attitute is that of one who essentially wants to hold the racing series and its famous race hostage in order to bolster happenings around the city of Indianapolis. You sound like Tony George circa 1995. The "tradition" of Indy is like a crucible that grinds up the rest of the sport in order to bolster itself. Does the 24 hours of Lemans or the Daytona 500 or Monaco minimize and denigrate the rest of the series it is joined to or the rest of motorsports like Indy does? Not at all. Neither the split nor now the end of the split has solved this problem.

Yes, because they are using the month of May as testing time. What has that got to do with the one race? They could have tested for a month at Homestead instead to figure out the car. There is nothing magic about the asphault in Indy. it is the same as everywhere else, unless you are wearing rose colored glasses. Pick any random track out of a hat and make it a 1 month long event. After 5 years that will be a tradition too! If this format is actually so great then maybe the whole series should run this way and the IRL will only have about 5 races a year. :rolleyes:

Everybody loves Newman, but again his favorite "tradition". I dont see any analysis of how that is good for the sport in the future. If the IRL actually wants to be attractive to people under 30 for the future then every event needs to be decided in a timeframre in which a vistor can see the whole thing - a 4 day weekend. We are in the age of WEB2.0 and you want to drag out a single auto race for a month and expect people to follow it? That is an insane buisness plan for the future - no matter what has happened in the past.

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It is worth $100s of Millions to the State of Indiana. Replace it.

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Originally Posted by tamburello

They did. It was called the ChampCar World Series. Surely you remember? And you remember what happened to it?

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Did you even read my post?

I was answering a post that said without Indy there would be no major open wheel series in the US.
I countered by stating that somebody would have started a series.

BTW CART was the established series. It was the IRL that was the upstart.

They did. It failed, twice and the first time it was an overall better product outside the month of may. You can try whatever you want, but if the fans don't pay attention, neither will the sponsors and you're going to have a lot of trouble bankrolling the operation.

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Originally Posted by tamburello

They did. It was called the ChampCar World Series. Surely you remember? And you remember what happened to it?

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

Did you even read my post?

I was answering a post that said without Indy there would be no major open wheel series in the US.
I countered by stating that somebody would have started a series.

BTW CART was the established series. It was the IRL that was the upstart.

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Which begs the question, did you read HIS post? He said it was called the ChampCar World series. Lest you forget, they were the ones who bought the CART assets to form a new series.

Gary

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Originally Posted by BenRoethig

They did. It failed, twice and the first time it was an overall better product outside the month of may. You can try whatever you want, but if the fans don't pay attention, neither will the sponsors and you're going to have a lot of trouble bankrolling the operation.

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it wasn't sponsors are fans that bankrolled the IRL it was Tony George.Another split can happen as long as some super rich guy is ready to lose money to prove a point.

Good to see MARk from OSHAWA on the forum. I always agree with you, valid points as ever. Haven't seen you on here for a while. Hope your well?

As you can see people here are still going on about the split 3 months after it ended. Its history, what is important now is how things move on. More publicity for the 500 will bring more publicity to the IRL as a series. It'll take time to get back to pre split days and for the European market to take note they need to sort out coverage here too....

Please can we drop the Split stuff now. TG broke away, TG won the war. Theguys an idiot, but he got it right this year at last. Lets all learn from this and if any rich guys come along with a new series, tell em to shove it.