Month of May and a loss of Momentum.

The two-week format was tried back in the late '90s and the race lost much luster because people were walking around talking about the "month of May" and it really wasn't. It diminished the magnitude of the race. So they went back.

The problem this year for continuity has unfortunately been weather, blowing up two practice days and a qualifying day en toto so far and it's raining today. Consistently good weather brings consistent news, whether good or bad. That is likely the "spike" overseas.....when it rains, nothing happens.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by anthonyvop

There is no reason that the 500 shouldn't be run as a regular 3 day race weekend.
Tradition use to be an excuse for the long drawn out process but tradition was tossed out years ago.
As long as the IRL clings to the idea of the "greatest spectacle in racing" then the other races in the series will just be a sidebar.

---

Hey, I know. Since you seem to consider Indy "just another race" and you don't see the point of devoting an entire month to it why don't you start a rival OW series to show TG how foolish he is? Perhaps stage a 500 mile event (at Michigan) on the same day as Indy to show the public that a race can be run in 3 days instead of 3 weeks and be just as good, just as important?

I began following the I500 in the early '70s and I would actually prefer a two-week format. I'd love to see bump day occur the day before the race. Talk about suspense! "Who get's to race come back and race tomorrow?" Three weeks seems too long to me in the era of micro attention spans.

IMHO I think the split tarnished the I500, not the two-week format. It's been back at three weeks for a long time now but the pole day / qualification crowds are still small. Before the split, wasn't pole day the second-highest-attended auto racing event in the world -- bested only by the I500 itself?

Ray

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by garyshell

Oh please, anthony take your hate speech back to the CCF forum. We get it you hate the IRL, there never should have been a unification etc. etc. etc. It's getting REALLY old.

I agree that much of the tradition was pushed to the curb, but now it is begining to make a comeback.

Gary

---

I don't hate the IRL!
I never said I hate the IRL!
Nobody has ever heard me say I hate the IRL!

I did say I dislike ovals!
I did say I consider Indy is just another oval race!
I did say that with all the concentration on Indy it diminishes the luster of the other races.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by anthonyvop

I don't hate the IRL!
I never said I hate the IRL!
Nobody has ever heard me say I hate the IRL!

I did say I dislike ovals!
I did say I consider Indy is just another oval race!
I did say that with all the concentration on Indy it diminishes the luster of the other races.

---

If you say so. Rememeber if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be...


Gary

No, Ray, it wasn't the second-highest. The Brickyard 400 was and is.

And anthonyvop, it waddles like a duck, too.

Special! Anybody that thinks the indy 500 is special is kidding themselves. Did any of you check out the grandstands during qualifying? How about the press and tv coverage. The charlotte race coverage dwarfs the coverage indy is getting. If it wasn't for danica getting gifted a win there would be even less coverage.

Face it, the damage tg has done to openwheel racing is going to take a long time to repair. The real winner in this split is NASCAR.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spiritone

Special! Anybody that thinks the indy 500 is special is kidding themselves. Did any of you check out the grandstands during qualifying? How about the press and tv coverage. The charlotte race coverage dwarfs the coverage indy is getting. If it wasn't for danica getting gifted a win there would be even less coverage.

Face it, the damage tg has done to openwheel racing is going to take a long time to repair. The real winner in this split is NASCAR.

---

Have YOU bothered to check the press and TV coverage before you started on this RANT? If you had bothered to do so I think you would find it is up signifcantly. Now that by no means puts it back to the pre split days, but is a lot better than it was.

As for the NASCAR coverage dwarfing it, gee did you figure that out all by yourself? Really that comes at such a shock. Thanks so much for letting us know. <shakes head>

Gary

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by millencolin

BOLLOCKS!

I have not seen a thing on tv celebrating the fact Ryan got on the front row. I watched the 6:00 news and the 7:00 news too the day that he got his front row spot... nothing! In fact, the only time Indycar makes it on tv is when there is a spectacular crash or if Will wins (obviously im going back into the champ car era too)

Heck, the race isnt even on free to air or basic foxtel! Its on ESPN australia, not good at all.

As for print coverage, i dont call making the news in a motorsport dedicated magazine good print coverage. I saw a tiny tiny paragraph in the Courier Mail about ryans efforts, a slightly bigger one for Will's win (he is a queenslander so extra coverage is a given for the Courier Mail) and thats it!

---

What news were you watching??

Was certainly on the news here in Sydney, and in the papers down here as well.

Not sure what you mean about the race only being shown on PayTV, it hasn't been shown on Ten since 2004

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by racer69

What news were you watching??

Was certainly on the news here in Sydney, and in the papers down here as well.

---

Can't say I've seen anything on it at all.

Quote:

---

Not sure what you mean about the race only being shown on PayTV, it hasn't been shown on Ten since 2004

---

Ten isn't pay TV. Also I didn't know Ten had any IndyCar coverage whatsoever.