Iowa/Cleaveland Head to Head

[RGM Fan]

For the first time this season we had a Champ Car race and an IRL head to head at the same time. We'll have comparable ratings numbers and attendance figures, but I think its clear one series put on a superior show today and I wondered what the rest of you thought.

The idea is we talk about racing for a change and no politics.

[Andrewmcm]

I watched the races side-by-side on my computer through internet streams, and my attention was drawn to the race in Iowa for the majority of the time.

[Chris R]

I flipped between both for about a half-hour before heading out to the garden with the kids.... I think I gave both about the same time. The IRL race actually looked al ittle better on TV because the oval leands itself to better camera positions. I alos noticed thath the Cleveland race was very "bright" - hard to see the cars.... I think Champcar needs to find a proper production group and get more cars on the track so there is more action to follow...

Overall I would say it was a wash between the two from the small bit I saw.....

[gm99]

I only followed the Iowa race through live timing as long as the Cleveland race was on and by the time I switched to the IRL (about thirty laps from the end or so), there were hardly any cars left (at least on the lead lap). The final laps with the Dario-Marco battle were quite fun to watch, but to me, not quite as exciting as the final laps of Cleveland, where Paul Tracy really had his work cut out trying to keep Doornbos (and earlier Rahal) behind him while making his fuel last until the end. Then again, I'm probably biased as Cleveland is one of my favorite tracks and PT one of my favorite drivers

[RGM Fan]

I have to say I thought the Ceveland race was superior from start to finish. The standing start was exciting while the IRL didn't get out of the first turn without losing two cars.

I watched the Ceveland race primarily and every time I flipped the channel another IRL driver made a bad move and took a few people with them. Helio stalling the car leaving the pits is a bush league mistake. Only five cars finished on the lead lap. Scott Dixon was 77 laps down and got a top 10, totally amaturish.

Even Scott Sharp, who I believe had his best run of the year, said "It wasn't much of a race," when ABC interviewed him. Of course by then the crowd had thinned a good bit because no one wanted to stand around.

I thought the race was a disaster for the IRL, three of their top five in points took themselves out simple mistakes, another had to park his car and Milka was effectively blackflagged for going to slow. The ending was sapped of drama because of team orders and no one could pass.

The bright spots for me was Danica blaming three other drivers, Firestone, track design and the weather for an accident she could have adverted by letting off the gas and losing a few positions. Rusty Wallace explaining how they had designed the track primarily for stock cars. Although I do think they missed a great opportunity ask about putting in a rolling chicane because as Rusty was talking Milka was being lapped for the third time in 40 laps.

Meanwhile the CC race was close, had a lot of drama at the end, twice as many cars running on the lead lap and ran almost as many miles on a road course in a shorter period of time as the IRL did on an oval.

[KK3869]

I watched the IRL race and I was pretty entertained, Champcar lately hasn't been that really good, but I taped the race anyway since I love Cleveland.

[Hoss Ghoul]

Both races had a lot of drama with top drivers and championship contenders having problems and dropping out.

I flipped pretty equally between the two, focusing on the final 15 minutes of the CC race. Really, with all the cautions both races had it was easy to watch both and not miss much-especially with commercials and side by side on ABC.

[booger]

I already posted this on the cc site, but who were the morons who scheduled these two events head-to-head? Neither one of these series can draw flies to their tv b'casts, and now they get to split what will undoubtedly be another afternoon of terrible ratings? They must be sharing their "stupid" pills again and I'll bet the sponsors on both sides will be real happy with this one. I'll make a bet. I'm watching the N'Car race right now on TNT and they'll kill both of the open wheeler races on two national nets combined and laugh like hell at whoever had the non-common sense to schedule these 2 events at the same time.

[RGM Fan]

Well the box scores are out. I found some interesting stats.

Cautions
IRL 6 cautions for 67 laps, 26.8 percent of the total laps. One caution alone was 22 laps and lasted more than 20 minutes.
CC 4 for 17 laps, 19.1 percent of the total laps

Average speed:
IRL 123.886 on a high speed, high banked oval
CC 106.921 on a flat road course more than twice as long

Total elapse time
IRL 225 miles in 1:48:14
CC 187 miles in 1:45:10
In other words CC covered almost as much ground in the same amount of time on a road course that the IRL did on a high speed oval.

Cars on the lead lap
IRL 5
CC 10

Number of laps down of the 11th place car
IRL 105 laps
CC 1 lap

Ending:
IRL Team orders prohibt racing for fear of yet another accident.
CC Robert Dorboss comes up half a second short after a round of pit stops in a thrilling comeback win for Paul Tracy.

Anyway you look at Champ Car put on a superior show. The IRL couldn't have picked a worse event, other than Motegi, Kansas, Milwaukee, or St Pete to go head to head with Champ car with.

[NickFalzone]

RGM you make some good points and some not-so-good ones:

Well the box scores are out. I found some interesting stats.

Cautions
IRL 6 cautions for 67 laps, 26.8 percent of the total laps. One caution alone was 22 laps and lasted more than 20 minutes.
CC 4 for 17 laps, 19.1 percent of the total laps

-- Agreed the cautions dragged down a good deal of the racing - however many tv viewers watch for the "show" which includes accidents, unexpected car failures, etc. IRL put on a better "show" in this respect, whether it makes for good racing or not. NASCAR gets the best ratings of all and has the most cautions.

Average speed:
IRL 123.886 on a high speed, high banked oval
CC 106.921 on a flat road course more than twice as long

-- So? I don't buy that that was the avg speed for IRL unless you're counting all the caution periods.

Total elapse time
IRL 225 miles in 1:48:14
CC 187 miles in 1:45:10
In other words CC covered almost as much ground in the same amount of time on a road course that the IRL did on a high speed oval.

-- again, cautions.

Cars on the lead lap
IRL 5
CC 10

-- fair enough, but this isn't always the key factor - how many drastic order changes were there at Iowa? You had backmarkers up front. Not necessarily great racing, but entertaining tv.

Ending:
IRL Team orders prohibt racing for fear of yet another accident.
CC Robert Dorboss comes up half a second short after a round of pit stops in a thrilling comeback win for Paul Tracy.

-- This is true, and the end of the race for tv viewers was probably less exciting than for those in the stands where it seemed like Marco was trying to get past Dario. He clearly wasn't, but he was putting on a "show" of it.

Anyway you look at Champ Car put on a superior show. The IRL couldn't have picked a worse event, other than Motegi, Kansas, Milwaukee, or St Pete to go head to head with Champ car with.

I like them both, but would put money on the Iowa race being the ratings winner.