Roth asked not to return next year?

[indy88]

Asked his team manager to put budget together.

[FormerFF]

I see in Curt Cavin's blog that Marty is selling his equipment, both cars and transporters, so I guess he won't be back. Sorry to see the team leave/relieved to see Marty out of the car. He could have been a good team owner.

[16&Gtown]

I see in Curt Cavin's blog that Marty is selling his equipment, both cars and transporters, so I guess he won't be back. Sorry to see the team leave/relieved to see Marty out of the car. He could have been a good team owner.

Thank Christ

[bennybigb]

Yay!! 2 less cars!!

Oh wait, why is a team going out of business good news? Someones gotta be a back marker, and it kinda sucks when last on the grid is still in the top 20.

[DanicaFan]

Now lets get Milka out of there and we can have some good races without moving hazards out there.

[NickFalzone]

Calling it 2 less cars is a real exaggeration. I can't remember how many races Roth ran both, but if it was half the season I'd be surprised, and with neither on the track the number was still at least 24 cars.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I think Tony George, Barnhart and Cotman should, all three, sit down with Marty and encourage him to become solely an owner. Explain to him the thanks you have for his participation as a driver, their desire to have him remain a part of the Indy Car Series and show him, in detail, the path that Chip Ganassi took to become the succesful team owner he is.
But in NO way should they just "kick him to the curb". It's an awfully fine edge your trying to ride by saying it's a "safety" issue. How is he any less safe now, compared to last year, when they needed him for car count?
Don't get me wrong, I agree Marty is in way over his head, but the truth is, 365 days ago, the league WANTED Marty Roth to participate.

This is SO true. When CCWS was still in business, Marty Roth was a field filler in a thin field. They NEEDED that entry and he couldn't get anyone else in it or didn't want to. They allowed him to race on and off the last 3 years. A little late now to say he isn't qualified. Listen, if they tell Milka Duno to stay home, then you can ask Marty to quit driving. Until then.....well you reap what you sow.

Marty should own and not drive but I suspect if he was realistic enough to know he doesn't have the talent before, I doubt anything Cotman, Barnhart and the like will say will change much.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Oh heck...never mind...lol...didn't realize there was a second page and I quoted and posted before finishing....I guess Marty is realistic sort of after all.

[Marbles]

I agree that Marty shouldn't be in a race car. Nothing against 50 year olds (I'm in the neighbourhood myself) but even the uber talented Mario Andretti was making some questionable moves at that age... and he's in a different league than Marty. But having said that, Marty does fill the role of a Gentleman racer and that is, in many ways, the very spirit of motorsports.

From: http://www.wheels.ca/Article%20Category/article/419845


Oct 18, 2008

A couple of years ago, when there were two Indy car series, the people who owned them were frantic for cars. Champ Car and the IRL would literally roll out the red carpet for anyone who showed up. Sometimes, they went further.

In 2005, to fill out the field at Long Beach, Champ Car talked one of its Formula Atlantic owners into running a guy nobody had ever heard of. A total nobody.

"I don't have a Champ Car," said the Atlantic owner. "We'll get you one," said Champ Car.

"I don't have that kind of money (to run a Champ Car)," the Atlantic owner said. "We'll reimburse you," said Champ Car.

So they got him a Champ Car all right – a show car that had been on display in Montreal. They also got him an engine from the manufacturer that happened to be owned by Champ Car.

The Atlantic owner ran the guy in the Long Beach Grand Prix, but he emptied his bank account in the process.

Champ Car had a field, so they were happy. Nobody has heard of the driver since. The Atlantic owner is still waiting for the money that was promised to him.

Moral: They love you when they need you. Afterwards, not so much.

In 2004, only 33 cars showed up to race at the Indianapolis 500, which, for most of its 90-plus years, has been considered a full field.

The Indy Racing League people were happy to see Marty Roth of Toronto that year. Really happy. Without Roth, the first "short field" in the history of the 500 would have gone to the post.

Roth ran in four Indy 500s. He didn't have great success but he was never the slowest qualifier and he never finished last.

He ran a team full-time in the IRL this past season. Again, he did not enjoy great finishes (13th at Nashville was his best) but he qualified well four times – eighth in the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway, seventh at Kansas, 11th at Kentucky and ninth at Chicagoland.

I'm not great at math but Indy car racing was one big happy family this season and the average starting field was 26 cars, so if Roth qualified seventh at Kansas, say, then 19 cars were behind him driven by people who didn't go as fast as he did.

I'd say that's pretty good.

But not good enough, apparently, for the Indy Racing League. Roth has received word that the IRL is not fussy about having him around. They say he's too slow, that he's getting in people's way, that he doesn't fit "the demographic".

They love you when they need you. Afterwards, not so much.

So Roth has laid off 20 of his 25 employees and put his team up for sale – including four cars and a shop in Indianapolis – and he's washed his hands of racing with the IRL now and, he says, forever.

As far as he's concerned, the next time they need guys like him – which could come as early as March at Homestead-Miami when only 15 or 16 cars show up for the season opener (with the economy tanking like it is) – he will tell them to go take a hike.

"I actually have not talked directly to the IRL about this," Roth told me in conversation this week. "I've called; they won't call me back. But this is what happened:

"I was approached by three men at the last race in Chicago who wanted to get involved with my team – to run it and to market it. That has always been a big problem for me, a lack of budgeting. That and a lack of testing really did me in. When I could test, I did well – including on the road courses. When I couldn't test – and they wouldn't let me test most of the time – I had a hard time.

"One of the people was Jim Freudenberg. Jim has an incredible resumé in racing (among other things, he was part of the management team at the Molson Indy races in Toronto and Vancouver). He and the other two felt I had a great demographic: the league is full of 25-year-olds all going after the same sponsors. I have my own demographic – I'm turning 50!"

Roth was excited by this turn of events. He's been beating his head against a brick wall all these years by acting as driver and – with wife Margaret – as team manager and marketing director. It's been a tonne of work.

"This was the icing on the cake," Roth said. "This was what we'd been waiting for."

However, when Freudenberg and the others went to talk to the IRL about their plans, they returned with news that Roth was not happy to hear. "The IRL told them that they didn't want me driving any more, that they wanted me out of the cockpit and somebody else should drive. They wanted me to just be an owner. The quote was: `His demographic is as an owner, not as a driver.'

"Have you ever heard of anything so stupid in your life?" Roth thundered.

"What the hell is an `owner demographic?' I'll tell you what it is, it's ageism. It's age discrimination. So I told Jim there was no way I was going to do that."

Freudenberg, according to Roth, went back to the IRL and returned with what would appear to have been some sort of compromise proposal.

"They told me they'd (the IRL) let me do Indy and `a bunch of ovals.' I said, `What ovals?' We're trying to develop a business here, we're trying to sell a product – to race and promote a sponsor – and they say they'll let me run a `bunch of ovals!'

"So Freudenberg says to them, `What about Toronto (where the IRL will race next July after a year's absence)? Roth is from Toronto and I could sell a sponsorship for Toronto tomorrow.' And the IRL says, `Okay, we'll let him run Toronto.'"

This is when Roth really got hot under the collar.

"This makes absolutely no sense," he said. "I can't run a race team like this. I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life. They're telling me what races I can run? It goes from none, to Indy and a `bunch of ovals,' to Toronto? The hell with it. I'll tell them what races I'll run – I'll run none of them!"

Roth, who freely admits he's licking his wounds, softened his tirade – somewhat.

"It's unfortunate," he said. "I put my heart and soul into this. I loved the IRL. I didn't see this coming. I didn't think we had a bad year. A couple of times we sat on the grid in front of AGR cars (Andretti-Green), in front of Penske cars and that's a really good feeling, being the underdog.

"And it's doubly unfortunate because now we won't be racing in Toronto – and now that Formula One's gone, how long will it be before Montreal opens up as a market for the IRL? I should be there."

I agree.

Roth finished 24th in this year's IRL standings. There were 15 drivers behind him, including Milka Duno and Mario Dominguez.

If the IRL hasn't sent those drivers – and others like them – the same message, they owe Marty Roth an apology.

[garyshell]

"What the hell is an `owner demographic?' I'll tell you what it is, it's ageism. It's age discrimination. So I told Jim there was no way I was going to do that."

...

"It's unfortunate," he said. "I put my heart and soul into this. I loved the IRL. I didn't see this coming. I didn't think we had a bad year. A couple of times we sat on the grid in front of AGR cars (Andretti-Green), in front of Penske cars and that's a really good feeling, being the underdog.

Hello, Cleopatra.

Marty, Marty, Marty. Ageism? Hardly, it's called YOU CAN'T KEEP PACE. You are a moving chicane and a danger to those around you on track.

You may have sat on the grid in front of an AGR or Penske car (through no accomplishment of your own). But the moment the green flag dropped you were right back at the tail of the pack. As always.

Gary