Who is going to drive the other 13 cars?

RGM Fan, "you know" TG is financing other entries how? Link?

The story I hear on Cabbie is that the guy ran out of time, is still interested, has leased a shop on Gasoline Alley and is trying to put together a program for next year...... I have not heard if or that he paid anything to anybody on any deal for whatever. Think you might be able to link that information, too?

Besides, wouldn't they PAYING somebody the $321,000 or whatever rather than RECEIVING it from TG or Honda or Firestone or Ethanol or whoever? Your theory makes no sense.

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Originally Posted by indycool

RGM Fan, "you know" TG is financing other entries how? Link?

The story I hear on Cabbie is that the guy ran out of time, is still interested, has leased a shop on Gasoline Alley and is trying to put together a program for next year...... I have not heard if or that he paid anything to anybody on any deal for whatever. Think you might be able to link that information, too?

Besides, wouldn't they PAYING somebody the $321,000 or whatever rather than RECEIVING it from TG or Honda or Firestone or Ethanol or whoever? Your theory makes no sense.

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A good number of the teams in the field are subsidized by Tony George. Nine of the teams don't have sponsors, including the Vision team, and Jaques Lazier is sponsored by an amature ice hockey team who's season is over and won't play a game for another five months. Does anyone really think a group of guys with day jobs scraped together $500,000 to sponsor a car? Also supposedly A1GP Team America is sponsoring Buddy Rice? How did Marty Roth find the extra cash to hire talent from CC? Someone is funding these cars and Graham Rahal, who would know, said TG is propping them up.

The only reason this is an issue is because CC is making a big deal about their teams being financially independent and IRL fans want to say that to. There is nothing wrong with subsidizing entries, its happened for years.

There are a lot of positive things going on this field new sponsors, one new qualified rookie and Mika Dunno, but seven teams come out of no where and you don't think that some of them are getting paid to show up? It's a good field, but I still think a few people set out to scam the system.

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Originally Posted by RGM Fan

How did Marty Roth find the extra cash to hire talent from CC?

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Marty Roth isn't hurting for money. That's why he got into this. As much as I'd love to say that TG is subsidizing him aswell, Marty Roth is going out and doing this himself. TG would find someone (much) more worthy to give money to as a grid filler.

Just how are they going to "scam the system?" THEY hafta pay under the program that was set up, not TG, as I said before.

Again, you said a good number of the teams were subsidized by TG as if this were a fact of some kind, with no backup information whatsoever. You were already told that Marty Roth is independent. IMO, you have no idea if or who might be subsidized.

Sponsors have come on to several of the Vision cars during the month -- Hitachi, for one. Playa del Racing is owned by marketing people who have raced when they can put something together and not raced when they can't, so whatever happened with the Indiana Ice probably has some trade or promotion involved.

And Graham Rahal, WHO WOULD KNOW? Gimme a break. Neither he nor his father would know any more about other teams' finances than other teams would know about his dad's. In fact, he probably doesn't even know the balance sheet of his dad's IRL team.

And if CC teams were financially independent, what was KK doing begging for free engines for a few unnamed CC guys to run Indy and acting like that would help Indy?

I'm not going to get in a flame war over this.

I'm repeating what I heard for a reliable source inside Gasoline Alley. You can believe whatever you want to believe.

The two things I would say though; One, there is a world of difference between not being subsidized and having a million dollars to spend on a two car team for a one-off race. Two, is the field stronger with Roth, Hearn, Moreno, Giebler, Dunno and J. Lazier or with Sebastien Bordais, Will Power, Paul Tracy, Robert Doornboss and Kathrine Legge? My feeling is more competitive cars would make for a stronger race.

For the record I'm not a fan of either series. I might be at Indy this weekend in fact. I never met to pick a fight about this, I thought I was just handing out information.

If he (TG) had the possibility to give equipemt to the CC teams (as offered by KK) so that they could run, wouldn't he rather do that than pay for these no-names so to say? Makes no sense.

Well, RGM, since your first source was Graham Rahal and now it's a "reliable source in Gasoline Alley," I'll take it for what it's worth.

"Subsidized" might be called "sponsorship" when you look at the sidepods of almost all of those cars at Indy. And Bourdais, etc., did not enter the race so it makes no difference.

No, Jimmy, your perspective makes no sense. If TG gave away engines to CC people to show up, how could he look IRL regulars, who paid for their engines, in the eye?

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Originally Posted by indycool

Well, RGM, since your first source was Graham Rahal and now it's a "reliable source in Gasoline Alley," I'll take it for what it's worth.

"Subsidized" might be called "sponsorship" when you look at the sidepods of almost all of those cars at Indy. And Bourdais, etc., did not enter the race so it makes no difference.

No, Jimmy, your perspective makes no sense. If TG gave away engines to CC people to show up, how could he look IRL regulars, who paid for their engines, in the eye?

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You missunderstand me. I was merely questioning RGM's info - if TG was going to pay people for showing up, why would he not take the CC deal instead of dragging out the ones that are claimed to be "subsidized"?

Oh, understand now, Jimmy.....

For the record I have heard from several sources that TG is subsidizing teams. All I feel safe in saying is I come from a family with ties to both series in open wheel and we chat, a lot.

I realize that a lot of you are fans and what you might not realize is that a garage is like a high school. Anyone who's been around while knows everyone else's business from who's secretly, and not so secretly, gay to who is accepting subsidies from TG or KK. None of it makes it to the media because people get fired for that sort of thing. Just because you never heard about it doesn't mean its not true. One of my family members call it the multi-colored wall of silence.

Also just because it doesn't make sense to you doesn't mean anything either. There are a lot of deals that don't make sense to anyone.