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View Full Version : Hahahahahahaha: Part II



rabbit
05-19-03, 10:13 AM
From Robin Miller's column on rpm.espn.com...


The only bigger farce than Bump Day was the inaugural Infiniti Pro Series race, in which George's stepson Ed Carpenter -- who is a good driver -- made a mockery of the competition and rules by running away to a 14-second victory.

"He was going five mph faster than anybody else down the straightaway," groused one Infiniti car owner. "What a joke."

Following Carpenter's win, the Speedway issued an insulting news release that said he joined the likes of Ray Harroun (first Indy winner, 1911), Jeff Gordon (first Brickyard 400 winner, 1994) and Michael Schumacher (first U.S. Grand Prix winner here, 2000). Most of the media room burst into laughter.

racer2c
05-19-03, 10:25 AM
Pitiful. But the IMS folks have always been lost in their own little world.

rabbit
05-19-03, 10:26 AM
http://www.indyracing.com/pro/index2.php


Pole sitter Ed Carpenter joined elite company as a winner of an inaugural race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, capturing the Freedom 100 IRL Infiniti Pro Series race May 18.



Carpenter, 22, who grew up a few miles from the Speedway, joined Ray Harroun (Indianapolis 500, 1911), Jeff Gordon (Brickyard 400, 1994), Mark Martin (IROC at Indy, 1998) and Michael Schumacher (United States Grand Prix, 2000) as winners of inaugural races at Indy.

JoeBob
05-19-03, 11:04 AM
Funny how they neglected to mention Bernd Maylander and Steve Earle. But, I guess it wouldn't be as dramatic to send out a press release about Ed joining them as first time winners of support races at Indy that nobody cared about, or could be bothered to attend.

Napoleon
05-19-03, 11:41 AM
<<Carpenter, 22, who grew up a few miles from the Speedway, joined Ray Harroun (Indianapolis 500, 1911), Jeff Gordon (Brickyard 400, 1994), Mark Martin (IROC at Indy, 1998) and Michael Schumacher (United States Grand Prix, 2000) as winners of inaugural races at Indy.>>

True story – the spring after Kyle Krissilof, nephew of TG and grandson of old lady Hulman, wins the SCCA Run-Offs in Formula Ford I am standing at the fence at Blackhawk Farms Raceway when Kyle crashes right in front of me and him, his dad and crew get in a big argument with some event officials. It was a circus.

Someone walks up next to me to watch and overhears a friend and my conversation about Kyle’s family connection and says “I wondered how he was connected – I was at the IMS museum a few weeks ago and they had his FF that he won the Run-Offs in the museum.”

Un freaking real. They put a FF that won a club event at a road course in with stuff like the car AJ won his 4th 500 in just because he is family.

pchall
05-19-03, 12:32 PM
The worst thing is that because of Tony George everything to do with the Indy 500 and the Speedway has become a joke.

I'm laughing all the time: very sad, dark laughter.

We, the real fans, made that place and that race great. The ownership have been jerks for the last fifty years.

And because the fans who made that place and race important have been completely betrayed, it is now in the dustbin of sports history.

JLMannin
05-19-03, 06:02 PM
Originally posted by pchall
The worst thing is that because of Tony George everything to do with the Indy 500 and the Speedway has become a joke.

I'm laughing all the time: very sad, dark laughter.

We, the real fans, made that place and that race great. The ownership have been jerks for the last fifty years.

And because the fans who made that place and race important have been completely betrayed, it is now in the dustbin of sports history.

The first generation of the Hulman family saved the race; the second generation, having grown up in an era where the race was in jeopardy, maintained it; and the third generation, who only knew opulance and wild success, did not understand the importance of tradition and pissed it all away. This is very common in privately held companies. The third generation is the critical turning point: did the two previous generations instill into the organization their core values so that it could outlive them for generations, or did they just rule it with an iron fist?

NASCARs third generation should be coming on-line in the next five to ten years - there's still hope for US based formula cars.

Lizzerd
05-19-03, 08:14 PM
Well stated, JLM. If it had not been for the Genius Grandfather, IMS would have been a residential area in 1946. Unfortunately, it is the same grandfather that sired the mother of the Idiot Grandson.

pchall
05-19-03, 08:51 PM
Originally posted by Lizzerd
Well stated, JLM. If it had not been for the Genius Grandfather, IMS would have been a residential area in 1946. Unfortunately, it is the same grandfather that sired the mother of the Idiot Grandson.

"Genius" grandfather held racers and teams in serfdom for three decades. He made the race the only race with a payday and kept US racing at a pre-war state for twenty years. When forces outside his control started to change that, he and his cronies set the championship trail aside in 1971 and tried to wind back the clock.

All the Hulmans have been self-serving bastards.

Lizzerd
05-19-03, 11:28 PM
It's true that under the elder Hulman that the overall sport suffered, leading to the formation of CART, but I stand by the statement I made, which was referring to IMS and the Indy 500.

It's hard to say if there would be any top shelf OW series had the Indy 500 not been revived post WWII.