Originally Posted by
MDS
I feel frustrated posting this because its so obvious what needs to be done, but its just so painfully clear I feel the need to actually say it.
In April and May the best selling NFL jersey was a quarterback who has barely started training with the team. College football handcrafts stars and hands them to the NFL with clock-like regularity. The NFL doesn't have to grow stars, its inherits them, but they still build their stars. The ICS will never have that sort of farm system, no other professional sport does, but it needs to get better.
The Road to Indy is a good start, but the league can only take things so far, at some point the teams need to take on the responsibility of building the drivers of tomorrow. If Penske and Ganassi want to be the Yankees and Red Sox of the sport and just buy the best driver available that's fine, someone needs to be in a position to do that, but the mid-level teams need to start working with young drivers because that's how you build your program.
Andretti, KVRT Panther, FAZZT and de Ferren-Dragon need to expand, and NHR just needs to survive. Obviously the last three finding funds for a full-time ride would be great, but they need to build a sponsorship base so they can reach down into these lower forms of motorsport and start developing drivers at age 14/15 and groom them for 4-5 years until they're ready to step into a Izod racer. Ideally those teams could grow to include an FIL team, Star Mazda and an ALMS team.
How did Jeff Gordon get to be Jeff Gordon? By winning, a lot, and today's generation, Marco and Graham included, haven't had the seat time with an organization to come out and set the world on fire, and that's because of the lack of team development programs in the lower forms.
Simona de Silverstro is the best seasoned rookie (I'm not counting Takuma as a true rookie) to come into the IRL since the merger. She had three years in the Atlantics one in Formula BMW and one Formula Renault. Imagine how farther along she'd be if during those three years in the Atlantics if she had been with the same team, working with some of the same people who would follow her to Indy. Also during those years you're working as an extra driver in the 12-hours of Seabring, the Petite Le Mans and the 24-hours of Le Mans. Also you're attending the tests of the Indy program, logging an stint or two of track time during the off season tests, sitting the the race strategists during the ICS races. Hopefully your team's sponsors has some cash to back you other events like the Chili Bowl and some midget racing to build oval experience Maybe even Macau. The year before your planned rookie season you make two or three starts (How many you can and still keep your rookie status) so your first time in a Izod race isn't Brazil. That's how the NASCAR drivers come up, and its how the Indy car guys should too.
Having a farm system is how you build winners, attract sponsors (its a lot easier to ask a sponsor for $300,000 than $5 million) and build your team. It doesn't matter how many Americans you have in the series if they're not winning, and they're not really being put in positions to win. Yes Conor Daley would be good for the sport, but unless he comes in, wins two races, finishes in the top five in points and challenges for the Indy 500 he's not really going to draw any attention to the sport, which Jeff Gordon, Kasey Khane and others have done in NASCAR. God bless Gerry Forsythe for helping to fund his career, but Conor doesn't have the support around him he needs, and none of the ICS teams are even considering helping... unless he brings a check.
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