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Champcar was a lot more to so many people........ Some of you may never realize just what happened when Champcar was defeated.
The heritage, the atmosphere, the events, the cars, the drivers and most importantly the fans and employed who gave everything to the series they so dearly loved....
It will be very hard to get so many to lay their money down for anything less.
Some of you won't ever care....
http://overheardatthetrack.blogspot.com/
It is sad, quite sad. As excited as I am for the upcoming season I do feel for those that dedicated so much of their lives to CC.
I would like to say this though, to anyone and everyone that worked for Champ Car, THANK YOU! You all kept it going when a lot of us thought it was dead or at least dying.
And though it isnt much consolation coming from me, you should all be celebrated for the hard work and dedication you showed right up until the end.
CC was on the brink so many times over the years and yet you came into work and did your job when you could have easily quit and moved on.
I wish I could say more and there is probably more that should be said.
But it comes down to this Im a proud fan of Champ Car and I couldnt have been a fan without all of the other fans, teams and staff.
Eric Gagnon was one of those on the CCWS side who liked to stir the pot and keep that rift nice and wide.
Sorry he lost his job, but it happens to the best of us and it's not the end of the world. Companies go out of business every day - I wonder how many Kodak fans spared a thought when Polaroid was going down the tubes.
The fact that it's motorsport doesn't make it any different - it's still just business.
Unfortunately for many of the CART/Champcar fans, it always was and will always be about a lot more than just business. I will always remember it as the greatest, most challenging and competetive open wheel racing series ever.
Not seeing any sort of activity from any of the former champcar teams or confirmation of the drivers from CCWS, the reality of what KK did is sinking in more and more every day. There should be way more left than there is.
More and more as the beginning of the IRL season nears ever closer, I'm feeling that huge pit of empytness in my stomach. I'm to the point that I wish JV wasn't teamed with KK in any way. It will make it really hard to root for his team this year..
Not Sad. Champ car died with CART in 2003. What we have had for the last four years was a shell of its former self so I had 4 years to be sad.
Suck.It.Up.
Get over it, let's all go racing together.
I'm so glad it's over. Get on with it and bring me new team news!!
After dedicating 23 years of travel to work at races for a series that you believe in does not go away with a command "suck it up". First it was wanting to get closer to the cars and drivers. Then friendships develop and that is what kept most of us coming back year after year. We couldn't let each other down. If you don't understand loyalty to your friends I feel sorry for you.
As the days go by, I become less inclined to even bother caring about the IRL. I am certainly not excited about Homestead, nor the upcoming testing for the former CC teams.
One can argue that CART ended in 2004, but I was happy to see the CCWS try to recreate what was left of the great series. Unfortuantely, the Amigos did not have a plan and that explains why the series is gone. Certainly, a "merger" was needed to unite AOWR, but not on the terms that took place. There is nothing positive about this "merger"/buyout. One positive is that we do not have to worry anymore about the series being led by the incompetent Amigos.
A semi-perfect scenario would have been for CC to at least have control over the IRL and the decision making. CC was going down and the hoopla of last week had nothing to do with a "merger" but just the downfall of a series and a somewhat supperior league buying it out.
I, like many of the fans on this forum, followed and supported the series through the good times and bad times. I always supported my series even when the future was bleak. Now, I am glad it is over. Why go through another year of embarassment?
Excluding the Amigos, a fond thank you to teams and everyone else who was part of the CART/CCWS for giving a product that was exciting and entertaining.
I am leaning toward simply ignoring the IRL this year and waiting to see what happens next year. I hated Seabass, but I will definitely root for him this year and watch a little bit more F1, as well as NASCAR.
Nice. :rolleyes: :down: :down: :down:Quote:
Originally Posted by SoCalPVguy
I'm with you Rogelio. There was no merger, ChampCar died. The IRL is the only big-time formula car series left in North America. I have never been an IRL fan, and I still don't see a reason to follow the IRL even though ChampCar is gone. There are still many great series to follow, why waste my time with the IRL?
Maybe one day the IRL won't be such an aweful series, but I am not going to waste my time hoping that the IRL gets better. If it does, great, if not, no big deal.
Why am I not surprised to see this kind of remark from this particular poster? The only one I would have been less surprised to see it from was ChaimWitz, but oh, that's right, he already gave his grand farewell gloat. How's about this? Suck.**.****.Quote:
Originally Posted by SoCalPVguy
Some of you guys, including you, sound like a bunch of whiny old women living alone with cats whose favorite soap opera was cancelled, not grown men discussing a manly man sport like autoracing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skid Marx
Barry - Right On !!!Quote:
Originally Posted by bblocker68
Classy dude, classy, always best to write about what you know best.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skid Marx
The Canadians were probably some of the most affected by this aside of the CC staff. They lose two races and so far their most popular driver unless PT can get a ride.
It's abysmal how poorly the CC staff was treated by their higher-ups, communications was required and they didn't say anything about it until the last minute and done. Others left, or were dispatched, earlier because of the lack of funds. Some are bitter and others couldn't care less.
It seems rude IRL is not extending an open hand to the ex-CC members but racing has always been a volatile business with much turnover. Timing is everything and it does seem a bit irritating there has not been more positive news since the unification announcement.
Conquest has only announced one driver, KV likewise, NHL both of theirs. But the other teams have been quiet, they haven't been screaming.
Such an announcement can't make everyone happy but what we have now is one series, something that's been lost for a dozen years. See where it goes from here.
The heritage of CART didn't dissapear, it's with IRL now. Well, in theory, at least. And even though I'll miss parts of Champ Car (the racing was quite good despite the low car count), out of the two options I did prefer the IRL to win. Champ Car was going places I didn't want it to (no ovals and racing in Europe, primarily).
HUH!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogelio
Rather than a complete collapse and surrender to the IRL, it would have been nice to have Champ Car (Amigos) have at least a little impact/influence on the direction of the IRL. Surely, the Amigos failed to adequately run a profesional racing series and they are to blame for CC's falilure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wilf
However, if CC would not have been in the dire condition that it was in (eventual bankruptcy), then perhaps CC could have had a little leverage on the direction/terms of the "merger". TG and the IRL won and they can choose the direction that they want the league to go in. I certainly feel bad for the Canadian fans who supported Champ Car all of these years and they do not even have a race. Yea, maybe next year.
There is no way that I would have wanted the Amigos running the IRL, then again, I do not care for TG either. The reality is that CC lost, there is no "merger", and most of the CC fans feel alienated and distraught. Since 1996, CART/CC looked at the IRL as the enemy, and now we have to accept reality that our series lost.
How many more of these threads do we need to see? I certainly sympathize for those who lost their jobs and fans who lost events due to the merger. Nevertheless, I'm glad to see the Champ Car of recent years gone and dead. I have long been a fan of CART, and while the whole IRL merger may not be perfect, it is certainly is ideal in that it eliminates the Amigos, who have no business running a series. I'm not a fan of TG in any respect, but I feel no sympathy that KK and GF's "vision" failed. Simply put, TG and the Amigos are little more than a bunch of egotistal ***holes who put their own personal "visions" of what Open Wheel should be ahead of the history and the individuals who lost their jobs, for whom you claim to lament. If there is one positive out of all this, its that at least there's only 1 of these ***holes left who can possibly ruin North American Open Wheel any more than it has already been done. And perhaps, for once, everybody can focus on racing. With all the talk of "Panoz faster than Dallara", "Patrick better than Legge", "Turbo vs Normally Aspirated", "Honda vs Cosworth", "Long Beach vs Motegi", and all the other pissing matches between both sides, most of the fanatics on both sides turned a blind eye to the ****ty product on the race track.Quote:
Originally Posted by jimispeed
I look forward to tuning into a race at Kentucky, so that when Monday morning rolls around, I can talk about the great race the day before. I hope that the days are over that I can watch a race at Road America, and the only post-race talk is whether or not there will be another race the next season.
Enough is enough, CC is no more, we had enough time to comment about this, posts like this do not add anything new.