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31st March 2012, 15:31 #1
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Izod IndyCar Series 2011 Historical Record Book
Although I was made aware of the Izod IndyCar Series 2011 Historical Record Book by Steve Shunck and Tim Sullivan last year, I never saw a copy and promptly forgot about it. However, several days ago a copy in PDF was made available to me.
I can appreciate the effort and the motivation behind the book. That is laid out at the beginning of the book:
This book is the official reference for North American Indy car racing statistics dating to 1946, including the sanctioning bodies of AAA, USAC, CART/Champ Car and the Indy Racing League/INDYCAR.
The use of the word "official" certainly makes the historian in me take great exception with what I found in the book.
While on page six Shunck & Sullivan do attempt to lay out some of messy details of how the School of Revisionist History came to be -- as well repeat some of those notes later on, they then proceed to treat the events from these ersatz championships as actual championship events by incorporating them into the combined listing of "championship" victories.
Wrong.
Then there is this regarding the 1920 championship:
Note: AAA had two different listings for the 1920 season. At the start of the year, 11 races were listed as counting toward the championship, but at the end of the season, AAA determined the championship to be based on the results of five races giving Gaston Chevrolet the championship. These results were considered official by AAA from 1920-26 and 1929-51. The 11-race championship was first recognized in 1926 with Tommy Milton as champion and was considered official for 1927 and from 1952 to 1955, the final year that AAA sanctioned auto racing. The races marked with the asterisk (*) did not count in the 1920 championship until the 1926 calculations were made.
It was also interesting to note the absence of anything regarding the Championship Racing League of 1980. A quibble, perhaps, but given that USAC imploded after the Mid-Ohio round in the joint championship, at least worth a mention.
I fail to see the point of combining the various separate, distinct championships and treating them as if they were all of the same bolt of cloth, but I do see the value of bringing the various parts together in a single volume.
As usual, history loses once again.Popular memory is not history.... -- Gordon Wood
haha probably, i dont watch that either. but it sure looks like its 50% about getting the team principals to complain about everything haha f1 have boys, wrc have men. cyril is a boy.
WRC main class in 2025