We won. February 22nd, 2008 is V-I(ndianapolis) Day!!!
Don’t worry about if there are enough Dallaras to go around, or that more street race snoozefests are on the way, or that there’s only a month for the new teams to figure out the equipment, or that having a bunch of drivers new on a super speedway increases the likelihood of something very bad happening at the season opener, or that after spending this year behind everyone else these new teams may decide they’d rather race in the ALMS.
Just run outside, grab yourself a nurse (or sailor), and start smooching!
One series...one champion...one love.
This Could Be a Real Shot in the Arm
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Nowadays, whenever I discuss IndyCar marketing – I do so with caution.
After writing a post last summer that called into question some of the
marketing eff...
1 day ago
OPEN WHEEL LIVES
I just want to know, how long has that been on a sticky on your desktop, waiting to be pasted into a posting? Since your first posting? Your second? Nice. :-)
!!!!!
Best picture selection ever. That's why you're the king.
More TURNS! this is great. More road racing is what this sport needs. Lets hope Long Beach, cleveland and other champ car races make the list.
I hear the angels singing!!
CRACK THE CHAMPAGNE BOTTLES!! Congratulations everyone! This has been a long off season. Let's go racing!!
Can you hear the people sing,
Singing the song of joyous fans?
It is the singing of a people,
Who are making travel plans.
Whether south to Miami,
Or out west to grand Indy,
It is the lifting of our hearts,
We've long waited to see!
Sorry - couldn't help it. ;-)
All your Champ Car are belong to us!
To paraphrase Obama:
"Today, there is not a Champ Car World Series, or an Indy Car Series, but one UNITED, AMERICAN Open Wheel series."
While I've been a big AOW fan all my life, my father stopped watching about 10 years ago amongst all this, I just sent him a text message about it, his response "About Damn Time!, when's the first race?"
I haven't been this happy in a long time.
Peace!
I really hope this means we'll get Derek Daly in this mix. Talking about the teams going to their "gar-age". That would be awesome.
Has anyone reached Paul Newman for comment?
Are you sure Obama said that and not someone else?
I REALLY can't wait for May now...
I'm 150% extra psyched about it.
This is just simply the best news since they tore down the Berlin wall (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration)...
I need to celebrate... Meet me at the beer stand behind Pit Road Terrace on Bump Day at 6pm. I'm buying.
Seriously.
When you hear someone walking around behind pit road terrace bump day yelling "John Edwards, John Edwards, where are you", that might be me. If I remember.
Whoo hooooooo!
Hey y'all. Maybe this'll get everyone juiced up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0orHQo57S9Q&feature=related
I'm so ready for May. So ready.
Muchas gracias to you Jeff for keeping all of us up on the minute by minute updates. I personally couldn't have gotten thru the ugly work week without your posts :-) Thanks a meeeelion and here's to a great (and hopefully safe) race season.
Tab-
Good pull on '92. Sitting here watching lots of old clips, being hungover all day, and not really listening to anything she's had to say the last couple of hours as I'm catching up on all the news has put me in the dog house with the wife. Doesn't help having a s**t eating grin on my face. I think I'll make it up to her by taking her to a race this year.....
Did I hear "free beer" at Indy???
Good lord that was exhausting! I knew something was up when I saw a pig fly by my window this afternoon. ;-)
I've made my hotel reservation for Long Beach... Fingers crossed that it's the one and only IRL race that weekend.
2008 will be my first 500. If I had only known, I would've bought tickets years ago.
Tabernus,
Thanks...that was my first five hundred. It was bitter cold...we had to eat BBQ Grippos (southern Indiana thing) to keep warm. There were so many wrecks. Lynn St. James rookie race. Michael devastated the field until (surprise surprise) his engine failed. It was the race that hooked The Mutt on open wheel forever. What a great effin' race.
Also...because somebody has to say it...THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!!!!!!!
From espn.com - Robby Gordon commenting on the stiff penalties levied against him and his team after the Daytona 500:
"If this sticks I don't know what our plan will be. I think [IRL and CART are] back together, and I think I can drive one of those cars."
I think it's pretty cool that the merger isn't even one day old, and open wheel has already been mentioned as an alternative to NASCAR. Granted, Gordon made his comment in the heat of the moment, but at least we're getting back on the radar.
I feel like it's the month of may already. There's going to be well over 40 entries for the 500 this year. I grew up in Speedway, and when I was a kid in gradeschool, I used to stand out on the median on Crawfordsville Road with a sign that said $5.00. I was so young, I didn't really understand the significance. It was only opening weekend for qualifications, and the streets were filled with cars, bumper to bumper. I didn't know or understand much about racing. I just knew that I had a favorite driver. That driver was Danny Sullivan.
Jeff...
Great choice of photos...I just hope that isn't the "kiss of death" from the Championship Auto racing teams for the IRL. Personally, I have no desire to watch any of the naysayers from the old CART series race the real racers of the IRL. After all, it was CART which originally ruined Indy Car racing for many of us "old farts". Haas and Newman and Forsythe ...and most definitely, p. tracy...have always been a**es. I doubt that time has truly mellowed them. The only bad thing about the IRL right now besides the lack of teams is the fact that the king a**, aka "the captain" (notice that I refuse to capitalize his moniker) is part of the IRL. I have seen roger penske and his kind ruin Indy racing with their big bucks, their multi sponsors and the like. Tony George has obviously forgotten what the original intent of the IRL was. Hint: Tony, re-read some of your early statements of its intent. Obviously your memore has been slowed by too many exhaust fumes. Lukily, I am old enough to remember when Indy racing was about innovation, not copy-cat cars, when it was about a little guy proving himself without bringing a satchel full of bucks and sponsors with him. "More turns"? ...Great!!!! More boring road races....just perfect for the new teams. Let's kiss their collective "royal a**" a little more!
I think the only people not excited and happy about this are the CCWS loyalists.
Yeah, seriously, who's NOT happy about this? I mean, there is no reasonable argument that says this isn't a positive step.
So here's a side-topic:
What of the Mazda Atlantic teams? I know the prevailing feeling is that the series will align itself with a road-racing series like ALMS, for whom they already run some support races. My preference is for them to be an initial feeder series, a rung below IPS, but I know that'll never happen. Let's say they align with ALMS, which would make some sense. Do some of the teams that are committed to open-wheel racing jump to IPS? My guess is probably not at first - after all, their series isn't going away, so they don't have to jump or go sports car racing. But teams like Sierra Sierra consistently are competitive and professional. I think they''d be a great addition to IPS. And if two or three teams did make the jump, IPS would really fill out as a developmental series. I wonder if after the season, when some of the inevitable craziness it settled, there will be overtures made to bring a few teams over.
AOWR is all about diversity, and having a balance of short ovals, long ovals, road coarses, and street courses is what makes it the most diverse schedule in motorsports. In regards to the "copy-cat cars" comment, I think this helps level the playing field and makes it driver vs. driver. Granted, when it comes to the ovals, chassis/wing setup plays a huge part, but at least you know that everyone has the same tools to work with. It's a matter of which team can make the right adustments, based on what the driver is telling them and what the computers are showing. I hate to see a race or a championship be won based on horsepower. I like to see just the driver and the team earn the victory. I'm sure the IRL will get more engine suppliers, but hopefully they can make them comparable, unlike the way it was with the Chevrolets and Toyotas a few years ago. It wasn't very fun at Indy either back in the 90s when Penske was two laps ahead of the field.
sounds like a Pyrrhic victory to me:
Pyrrhic (1)
1885, from Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who defeated Roman armies at Asculum, 280 B.C.E., but at such cost to his own troops that he was unable to follow up and attack Rome itself, and is said to have remarked, "one more such victory and we are lost."
faniqgearhead,
Welcome to your first Indy 500. I remember mine like it was yesterday. I'm still amazed how much I remember of my first 500 in 1970. Once you're there, you're hooked. It's been a 38 year addiction that I have no desire to shake.
While the odds are almost certainly in Hidekis favor, will all the Champ Car Refugees be considered in the Rookie Of The Year category? Incidentily Curts saying ten new drivers.
johnedward,
Thank you. I was already really excited. This just kicks it up another notch. I am hoping the Cleveland makes it back on the schedule in 2009 so I can (try to) do Indy, Cleveland, and Mid-Ohio every year.
Amazingly, the first 500 I can remember watching the whole way on TV is...1995.
faniqgearhead,
1995 was a great race for a lot of reasons, one of which was Jacques Villeneuve's amazing comeback from a 2 lap penalty. I was sitting high up in the 4th turn that year, and two things stand out. 1st, I swear to this day that I saw the pace car "bobble" coming out of the 4th turn. I'll go to my grave thinking the back end got loose as it got down low below the line. I've never read about anyone else who might have saw the Corvette pace car do that that day, but I know it did. I thought at the time the pace car was going to have a wreck.
Secondly, I remember nearly everyone in the NW Vista standing up, pointing and screaming "He [Scott Goodyear] Passed the pacecar! He passed the pace car! He passed the pace car!]
Ah...good times, though not for Scott Goodyear that day. =)
johnedward-
I'm there with you on all counts. I will have to dig it up, but I always used to take a video camera with me to the race and film the "traditions" through the first few laps when everyone begins to sit down. Then I would film the restarts and just general race coverage (50th, 100th lap, etc.). I know for a fact I have the Goodyear pass on tape because, if you recall, it happened right in front of the NW Vista coming into J. We have NWV, Sec. 2 seats. The pace car "bobble" I'm not sure of, but I'm gonna have to go back and look now to see if I have it on tape. I recall it because we joked about Jim Perkins driving it and questioned if he was of relation to Marlin Perkins on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Thanks for giving me a reason to dig through the vault.
Jeff- has anyone ever referenced Marlin Perkins?????
I'm gonna say that's a first for a "Wild Kingdom" references, although I think the "Crocodile Hunter" may have been brought up once or twice.