In 1963, Craig Breedlove set his first land speed record at the Bonnevile Salt Flats in one of his series of "Spirit of America" vehicles. Here is one of those vehicles.



Curt Cavin first mentioned the relevance of this epic car to the future of IndyCar a few weeks ago, and today, nearly 50 years after the first record-setting run, this "Spirit of America" design has been applied to the "Delta Wing" IndyCar design as a sign of unprecedented innovation. Behold that which might possibly be the future of IndyCars.



In my less-than-esteemed opinion, it's soaking wet bag of mess. The unsightly offspring of a dragster and an F-16. A high-speed tricycle, and according to several IndyCar fans, a phallic tricycle at that.

It's a steaming pile of retro-inspired junk, summarized ironically by the Delta Wing site when it read, at the expiration of it's longstanding countdown, "Sorry, you're too late." Really, at best this is very Colonial Viper, circa 1978, but flattened and encumbered by wheels.

Maybe I'm off my rocker but I thought in addition to speed and innovation IndyCar racing is supposed to also be about aesthetics and, in recent years, safety. This new design might be fast, but as a race car that would be required to turn is looks ridiculous. As bad as you might think the currently well-aged Dallara design is, can you tell me you'd rather watch this instead?



Really? That doesn't look - forgive me for saying this - utterly laughable to you?

Before I ruffle too many feathers here, I want to say that I do appreciate the "boldness" of the design, and I understand that designer Ben Bowlby has put a lot of thought into this.

“Looking radical was never the objective – the Delta Wing shape is simply the outcome of addressing performance targets. Approaching it as an engineer I was most aware of safety, performance and efficiency and its relevance to the auto industry and also cost. It’s not about making a cheap race car, but there is the issue of cost vs. value for money. This car is high-tech but simple. The parts count is way down and that helps keep it inexpensive and easy to maintain compared to the cars of the last 20 years – and we have a great deal of visible signage area!

“It’s an integrated approach. It’s not JUST the car. It’s the technology, spectator and industry appeal and engagement, combined with the car. What we have proposed for the car is not a styling exercise…. Form has followed function.”

Fine, but let's talk about that form for a moment. I'm not engineer, but what I am is - like most of you - a fan. And I'm certain that even though I feel like this makes about as much sense as an IndyCar as a Kia Sedona does as a Cup entry, I fully acknowledge there are at least some of you who love this thing like it was warm and gooey chocolate chip cookie. And to the extent that it should be given consideration to race against designs already presented by Dallara and Swift - as well as some lovely designed paragraphs from Lola - I say fine, by all means let 'em race.

Except here's the rub: right now the series, in an effort to contain costs, claims that there will be only one chassis design for 2012. As Marshall Pruett has noted amidst some senseless name-calling and mistaken comparisons to a Spike Lee flick, this is a design supported by many IRL team owners, and as such it is has been submitted under the guise of a veiled threat.

It’s sad, lame, and plays into the partisan politics that have no place in a series as fragile as IndyCar. I don’t know if he (Brian Banhart, whom Pruett refers to as "Kee-Rock") realizes just how close he keeps pushing the Delta Wings to a point where they decide to form their own series.

Jackass moves by USAC spawned CART. A jackass move created the IRL. Maybe this latest jackass move will cause the Delta Wings, an ownership base mostly free of jackasses, to take their fire elsewhere.

I can hear it now…“I’m a caveman, and I’m frightened by your strange Delta Wing machine…”

If Kee-Rock keeps it up, he could find himself with an empty paddock in 2012 and no one to drive his new Dallara.

This, from a man who earlier in the same article suggest all parties involved should "Put aside your differences, whatever they may be, and work together." Really? Working together, you say? By calling those who disagree with you names?

But I don't want to be distracted here because this isn't about Mr Pruett or Mr Barnhart, but about the rest of us who dedicate our time and money to this sport. The FANS. And this is the part that as a fan I start swearing, throwing small appliances, and threatening to take up blogging about some other sport. We just got bimergified two years ago after years of insistence by these very owners, and now all of a sudden it sounds like they're ready to tear it all apart again over some stupid-looking car. Excuse me, but anything associated with another open-wheel split is certainly not going to be described as "innovative".

And aside from the baggage that already accompanies this car there are some very real issues based on the prototype revealed today. On first glance it looks to me like that car has no mirrors, probably because they'd have to go directly in the driver's line of sight. Couple that with the extremely narrower wheelbase in the front and it would seem drivers would be more likely to run into each other with those big backsides.

And speaking of running into each other, the Delta Wing also has an extraordinarily exposed tub without protective sidepods that makes me wonder if anyone gave Alex Zanardi a consultation. Oh, and it's got fenders, which call me crazy seems antithetical to "open-wheel" racing. Then again, if the wheelbase variance makes collisions more likely then fenders may be warranted. At this point I ask in earnest, "What exactly were you designing here again?"

Early reaction from IRL drivers was mixed - Graham Rahal digs it, Justin Wilson does not, Alex Lloyd is diplomatic - and since these are the people that would have to actually drive the thing they should certainly be allowed some input. As it is, you can sell me on the innovation but not on the aesthetics, so excuse me while I dump a bottle of Hater-ade all over that...thing.

Early this morning the complete removal of Tony George from IndyCar racing was suddenly finalized by Curt Cavin.

Tony George's Indy-car team suspended operations today due to a lack of sponsorship, completing a downfall of his involvement with major open-wheel racing.

And so it is that Vision Racing, for the time being at least, is gone. Excuse me while I react with the F-dash-dash-dash word.



Friends, this is nothing short of a tragedy because despite being neither an historic nor a dominant force in racing this team was head and shoulders above all others in one area: fan support. This team – particularly the PR team of Pat Caporali and Michael Kaltenmark – have built a fan base out of good ‘ol fashioned hard work, and they did it largely using the free medium of twitter.

This has truly been a case study of how to get people caring in your team, because a couple years ago this was just “Tony George’s team” that stepson Ed Carpenter drove for with occasional appearances by other drivers here and there. But while other teams continue to carefully choose what to say and when to say it, the folks at Vision were using twitter (and to a certain degree facebook and their web site) to say just about anything and everything, all of the time. We’re painting the car so here are some pics for you. We’re running test laps before a race and Ed says the car has too much push in Turn Three. We’re in the middle of the race and damn, that pit stop sucked. And if you sent them a note they would more than likely respond almost instantly.

Attention every other team in the universe: it’s this kind connection is that sports fans crave. It’s why some buy T-shirts, others rent race scanners and many more get garage passes to get oh-so-close to those magnificent machines and their pilots. I realize we fans often act like ex-girlfriends in chronic denial but we want to love you – please, for goodness sakes, let us love you! – but Vision’s unprecedented access and interaction was truly a model for making ANY team lovable.

Here, cobbled together from today’s tweets, is @VisionRacing’s own announcement.

It is with profound regret & heavy hearts that we share the following update with you all. Despite the team's best efforts, Vision Racing will be suspending all racing operations. We have an amazing group of people here that appreciate all the support you have given the team. Efforts to find a solid sponsor partnership have been difficult but will continue so that we may take to the track once again. We hope to see you all at the track in the near future.

"Racing is life... everything before and after is just waiting." - Steve McQueen

(Photo: Vision Racing)

If there's one thing this week has taught me it is this: the time it takes between "initial thoughts on subject" and "clicking the POST button" is directly proportionate to the actual length of the post. And as someone who has spent a week thinking about this post here, I humbly and sincerely apologize for it's length. And with that...

It's been a week since Tony George effectively divorced himself from any responsibilities of the Hulman family's business of racing, resigning from any and all positions of authority. The list of positions he no longer occupies includes board memberships at The Speedway, the IRL, IMS Productions, their parent company, and most surprisingly the panel that oversees quality control of tenderloin sandwiches. Mari Hulman George expressed shock and dismay thusly.

"As members of his family, we are sorry to see Tony leave," said Mrs. George. "We are grateful for his service to our company as a board member and of course for formerly serving as CEO and president of our companies. I speak for our whole family in wishing him well."

I suspect that last line was actually written by Tony's sisters and in the original draft read "...wish he falls in a well", but I can't confirm that.

Perhaps he grew weary of being told "no" after years of being in charge of the whole she-bang. Perhaps he threw a tantrum at no longer getting his way. Perhaps he just threw a virtual middle finger at his family and like Pontius Pilate decided to wash his hands of all responsibility for what may come of open-wheel racing in America. I won't pretend to know which of these is true because the news came while Mr George was out of the country, more than likely NOT partying with Max Mosely.

While most everyone who has followed the Indy Racing League since it's inception would agree this brings to close one of the more, uh, eventful eras of Indycar racing, most everyone will also disagree on what exactly was the meaning of that era. Take for example our good buddy John Oreovicz, who started his latest feature for ESPN.com with this:

No matter how true the statement actually is, Tony George will go down in history as the man who effectively destroyed Indy-car racing.

Ouch! OK, I don't think I'm telling tales out of school here but I don't think it's going to be any surprise that (a) a guy like Oreo feels this way and (b) folks like your humble host is going to disagree.

First though, instead of slamming Oreo like a word butcher might be inclined to do it's more purposeful to understand that there are a lot of people who feel the way Oreo does. In fact, many of them are major writers (pick anyone not named "Curt Cavin") and they have and will continue to lay many if not all of the ills of racing on the shoulders of Tony George, offering him up repeatedly as some sacrifice to the gods of racing in the hopes that one day Greg Moore would be resurrected to save us all from this purgatory.

To many of them and amany of you Tony George caused the split, Tony George ruined racing, Tony George made the cars ugly, made them sound bad, dictated everyone race on "death trap" ovals, caused the Andrettis and Unsers get old and retire, and is likely responsible for the whole Brittney Spears head-shaving incident a few years ago. Everything wrong with the world that can't be explained is Tony George's fault.

And that's all well and good for those who look at 1994 and then 2010 and note that the man who carried the most responsibility for running Indycar racing during that period was Tony George. But as many of us know the world just isn't that simple, and this isn't a case of a guy waking up one day with a plan to TEAR IT ALL DOWN, MAN.

Now before you tune out let me quickly note I'm not going to rehash the whole power grabbing escapades among USAC and CART and the engine manufacturers and track owners that was going on before 1994. That's been documented ad nauseum and it's obvious now that at some point somebody was going to be in charge and a whole bunch of bitter somebody's were not. And if there's one thing I know it's that just because one guy named Tony got his way doesn't mean that it was either the best or the worst possible outcome.

That's not giving him a pass; it's suggesting we judge his era by what the man did and said, and not by what someone else thinks could have been. And while historians appear decidedly against him, history itself appears to already have vindicated him to a certain degree.

On a primary point, George justified the formation of the IRL because he felt it was in the best interest of The Speedway and The 500, two entities he was entrusted to protect regardless of whatever conflict existed in racing. That was his job, what his family entrusted him to do, because they know and AJ Foyt knows and any number of race fans – Hoosiers or otherwise – know that if the Indianapolis 500 is diminished in value then all of American open-wheel racing is essentially of little or no value. It is, and always was, all about Indy.

And to this end George was absolutely correct. To a fault, in fact. Without any affiliation to the Indy 500 the holdings of the CART series declined to the point bankruptcy twice. But this was a double-edged sword since “the split” also affected The 500 negatively, which reduced the anticipated value of the IRL. Yes, everybody lost to some degree, but the point here is THE REASON for the split was Mr George’s view that de-emphasizing the Indy 500 had already begun.

Was it a case of cutting off his nose to spite his face? Well, obviously some people think so. And some do not. I just ask that you try to argue amongst yourselves with some civility.

On a secondary point, George was also vindicated for that which he was initially reviled. Recall that when he formed the IRL much was made that he thought racing in America needed more ovals, more American drivers, and lower costs. Lo and behold the most popular series here in the States employs (shock!) a series of almost exclusively American drivers on ovals in cars that cost less. I’m not advocating the abolishment of road courses or xenophobia here, just noting what Mr Market seems to have said on the issue. (Note: I realize it costs WAY more to be competitive thought an entire season in N----R, but it’s my understanding that it would probably cost less to participate in any given race. It certainly was that way in the late 90s when stock car racing rose to such prominence.)

Bear in mind that I personally have never met Tony George, although I almost did a couple of times. Once at a pre-race IRL Ministry service he sat at arm’s length across the aisle from me, although that wasn’t exactly the time or place to strike up a conversation about motorsports. Another time at a race he was standing alone by a trailer and I thought of going over to say something, but then a friend called out and re-directed my attention. I note this because, as you can see from this site's name, I've been a fan of his series based on the merit of the product and not because he and I have ever hung out together at Union Jack.

So all I have to go on are all of the various reports, all too few interviews, and unlimited opinions published throughout the last two decades, and with that here’s my own conclusion about this era. As bad as it is, Indycar racing exists today as a result of the procedural and financial efforts of Tony George. If nothing else those efforts – no matter what you think of the result – show not only a concern for Indycar racing, but a willingness to act in what he felt was for the best, regardless of the consequences.

I don't agree with everything George has done, and I would bet based on the dramatic change of course the series has taken in the last few years that even he wouldn't agree with everything he's done, but his commitment to what he thought was best for the most famous speedway in the world and The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, as much as his successes and failures, defines his legacy. Not as a protagonist or an antagonist, but as a racing enthusiast with a whole lotta "hand". But that's just me.

And if after all of that you don’t like what I have to say then at least check out Tony John’s level-headed take. Yes, that’s former My Name is IRL guest contributor Tony Johns now at his own SBNation site, and yes that also means the traitor is BANNED FOR LIFE from ever contributing here. And by life I mean the life of "Pop Off Valve", which I hope in all sincerity enjoys a long and prosperous run. I mean it. He's that good, and as you can see I'm not a hater.

At this time your humble host is not able to comment on my conspicuous absence over recent days, however I will categorically deny certain vicious rumors I have read. Let me say in no uncertain terms: I did NOT fall into a crushing state of depression over LindyCar Thackston stealing what little readership I had at Silent Pagoda, I did NOT have my password to my site hijacked by M.I.T. Pre-Emeritus Interuptus JR Hildebrand after I off-handedly called him "Jimmy Neutron", and at NO POINT was I chained as a love slave in the basement of Lauren Bohlander's lounge. (I might strongly consider applying for that position, though.)

Despite my absence it seems I haven't missed too much because almost all anyone has been talking about for the last week and a half is innumerable sentences containing the words "Danica" and "N****R". It appears to have all started with an article at ESPN, which led to several blog posts, as well as poor Curt Cavin having to answer daily questions on something that hasn't actually occurred.

# Sept. 3: On Danica and Alex Lloyd - 09/03/09
# Sept. 8: On Danica and IMS surface - 09/08/09
# Sept. 9: On Danica and Grand Am - 09/09/09
# Sept. 11: On Danica and Osama Bin Laden - 09/11/09
# Sept. 13: On Danica and Kanye West - 09/13/09

I can see how a lot of people want to chatter about such a subject, but again - NOTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENED. To recap: Tony Stewart says he talked with her, that she's looking to run some stock car feeder series in the next year or two, that she really wants to race tin tops for a living, and all of a sudden it's IndyCarmageddon. No contract was signed, no official announcement was made, and most importantly no new sponsors were hooked up to Danica's gravy train. All that happened was that Smoke said she "looked him in the eye" and told him this is what she wanted to do.

How is this news? As if anyone on a job interview - and when you think about, the Danica World Leverage Tour was a lot like a prolonged one-woman job fair - would say something different. As if we didn't already know Danica and her mysterious cadre of handlers haven't already been publicly talking up the idea of her in the most widely watched racing series in America? As if we're all suddenly shocked, SHOCKED that there's gambling in Casablanca.

Yet poor Bob Kravitz, who I last saw sleeping on Race Day at Indy this year, went into his best Chicken Little impersonation, saying nonsensical and contradictory things like her departure "won't kill the sport, but it will deal the open-wheel types a painful and possibly even fatal blow."



I'm not sure that was actually Bob, but before we all get navel-gazing about what the A.D. (After Danica) era would be like we need to remember she's still probably going to be in the IndyCar series for the immediate future. Yes, someday soon Danica may find herself elbow deep in studies similar to the Sam Hornish Jr Stock Car Education Curriculum, and she may have some as yet unknown fairy sponsor drop a $30 meeeeelion dollar package into her lap to jump to the Cup series, and she may find herself racing around for 30th place not because she can't drive the car but because she can't drive as well as the other 42 more experienced drivers. Someday. Not today, probably not this year, and maybe even not next year. But someday, maybe.

Friends, the WWDT mission has not failed. Not yet, at least. Somebody tell Hitler to take a breath and chill, because no matter how much wanderlust Mrs Hospenthal might have currently she will still for the foreseeable future be stuck with us and we will be stuck with her. Just remember this in case the three-week delay between Motegi and Homestead gets filled with even more hysteria.