I think I now REALLY like Despain!!!

[Cam]

He is feeding TG his own BS! Give it to him Dave! :thumbup:

[Chaos]

He is feeding TG his own BS! Give it to him Dave! :thumbup:

I missed it...what was said?

[Cam]

I missed it...what was said?

It is still on!

[rabbit]

Dave asked some good questions. :thumbup:
We need a transcript. Where's Chief?

[fourrunner]

Despain - Hi Tony

TG - um er ah um um er ahh um um Hi dave

Despain - What about the Vision

TG - um er ah ah um um um er ah - Vision misunderstood - um er ah I didn't say All Oval All American - u um er ahh er um that was someone else !

Despain - your full of ****

TG - um er er ah r ah um - Yes

Despain - thanks for clearing that up - we're out of time - good nite!

[Cam]

Despain - Hi Tony

TG - um er ah um um er ahh um um Hi dave

Despain - What about the Vision

TG - um er ah ah um um um er ah - Vision misunderstood - um er ah I didn't say All Oval All American - u um er ahh er um that was someone else !

Despain - your full of ****

TG - um er er ah r ah um - Yes

Despain - thanks for clearing that up - we're out of time - good nite!

That about sums it up! Classic! :D

[JT265]

Big deal.

It ain't like this is the 1st time ToeKnee has ever been high on Speed, is it?


:gomer: :D

[Brickman]

The worst part was Dave's take before the interview.

Starts out discussing CART pre IRL with video of CART 1993-1995. Then came his take after IRL, U.S.500 pile up, Australia rain pile up, and shots of the IRL with no pile ups.

I think his take (http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/) will be here later this week.

http://www.speedtv.com/_assets/library/img/medium/19365_tony.george.hs1.jpg

He wore the same suit.

[Chief]

Here it is. Remember this is a closed caption transcript, it may not be entirely accurate.

Here is Despain's Preface:

DD>>All right. We move on. I'm frequently -- i got tony george coming in, ok, tonight? He's the president of the indy racing league. Before we talk to him what we are going to do is give his take on opening-wheel racing. Let's do that. I want to do that in part because I am so often accused of being a shill for the indy racing league. Tony doesn't see it that way. The die-hard cart supporters say I don't criticize the irl nearly harshly enough. George created the league i editorialized in favor of it which then owned the cart tv rights. That didn't give me any points with my boss. What i said back then was true.

In the mid 1990's cart had set its sights on the world racing leaders. Its genuinely spectacular driver lineup was increasingly international, but the direction that cart was going also created, in my view, a huge void. Except for a select few races, there was precious little room in its driver lineup for american-born stars. It was against that backdrop that tony created the irl. Press release and sound bites coming from indy try to fill that void. What i thought i heard was that this new series would be all oval and american friendly. That was good news of a guy who was covering midget and sprint car racing. What I said back in 1996 was there there was no reason that cart and irl go their separate ways. Why couldn't there be just two very different series? More variety, more races, more tracks for fans to see two very different forms of racing?

Well, eight years later we know why. The two sides felt compelled to fight a civil war fighting over their respective shares of a smaller and smaller pond. For its part, cart could not figure out how to live of american open-wheel racing, the indy 500. Although they tried. There is the evidence. Falled by -- flawed by it, court was -- the board of directors were supporting the opposition. History will recall, i think, that cart mismanaged itself into bankruptcy but rather than acknowledging the fundamental' flaws, its supporters blame this guy for his part, tony has done his best to become a target. George and the irl systematically took on to with the best teams, the drivers, even the best power plants, although not until cart had kicked them out. Here is a view, a fair a bit of time of having passed, i think the all-oval series that tony created looked like the opposition that he has been trying so hard to kill. Now the bottom line, of course, is while the two sides were fighting their civil war the fan base of this once great american sport has given up and gone to the lake or migrated to nascar. With that as a background, we will take a break. We'll talk to tony about this and whatever else is on your mind through the phone and the emails.

[Chief]

Segment 1

Mon Feb 23 22:30:51 2004
-------------------------

DD>> Welcome back. My guest is a busy guy. Runs the indianapolis motor speedway. Home of the 500, of course. And the brickyard 400.He is the founder of the indy racing league.That season opens up this weekend. Tony george, welcome to "wind tunnel." Thanks for joining us here.
TG>> Thank you, dave, it's good to be with you.
DD>> Meeting a tour, that's what going on here? "Usa today," and me. I don't minding third on that list.
TG>> As we draw close to our season opener, i think john griffin wanted to get out.
DD>> Yeah.
TG>> And touch some folks this week, and we appreciate the hospitality wherever we go.
DD>> Do you just assume to stay home?
TG>> It's not my fortay. It's something that has to be done from time to time. We have a lot of people responsible for moving things forward at the indianapolis motor speedway and the irl. I like to give them expos your. That's part of the -- expose your. That's part of the -- exposeure. That's part of the reason we are doing this today.
DD>> Why do you felt this world need this had oval track series?
TG>> It didn't start off as an oval track series. There are several reasons, but one, back in the very early 1990's, I was getting a lot of imput from sponsors that, you know, the way cart was structured that decisions weren't really made in a proper way, that some of the issues that concern them were maybe not being heard. They just encouraged me to get more involved. Of course, I am now a year or two in my position at the speedway. They encouraged me to get involved. And some leadership aspects. I did a lot of listening in the first few years and learned a lot in the first few years. About the fourth year into it in 1994, i think I'd been exposed to it enough that i felt, one, there was an opportunity at the time when motorsports was really taking off, i think, with nascar, cart. There is a lot of interest in motorsports. There was an opportunity to bring more opportunity for drivers, owners, sponsors to the upper grass lawns of motorsports that there were certainly more talented drivers out there that were available for the 22, 24 seats. And we were just trying to create some opportunity for drivers, owners, sponsors and the like. We also wanted to encourage investment in more oval track facilities. Since 1994 you can probably count on all your fingers and toes the number of new facilities thab -- that had been built. We tried to support that investment to profide profitable events to provide a return on investment.
DD>> What I hear from the fans is, split the sport, both sides lose, fan base has eroded, no crowds, no tv ratings. What do you say to the people who put forth that argument? What's your response to that?
TG>> I've heard it from fans, I've heard it from you, I've heard it from othersoo.. that's an argument. Depending on who you talk to, there are a lot of people who thought then and think now that it is a good thing. We've created a better structure to provide leader shirp in -- leadership in motorsports. That's our vision is leadership in motorsports entertainment. I think we've done that down the line. It's not always been perfect but we've created a good structure as far as the indy racing league is concerned of making decisions based on the best interests of the sports and all of its constituencies.
DD>> We don't want you to be the leader, some people will say. The cart structure, and I have been on record, is in my mind fundamentally flawed. You can't have the cart owners running the series. Is that your point with the guy with the biggest fish, the indy 500 is better equipped to run this thing?
TG>> It is not about me. The structure that we set up works. I think it's worked well. It's worked well in nascar with central decision maker that makes decisions. I think it's worked well in formula one.
DD>> Uh-huh.
TG>> There's not a lot of conflict of interest, you know, decisions can be made quickly and effectively. And you don't always make the right decisions, and if you don't you need to change direction and get down the right track quickly. Oftentimes you get a big come bersome structure -- cumbersome structure.
DD>> Let's take a commercial
break. We have emails to get to given you fans an opportunity to talk to tony george from the indy racing league. We'll take that commercial break and come right back on the other side.

[Chief]

Segment 2

Mon Feb 23 22:38:51 2004
-------------------------

DD>> We're back. We're talking with tony george. You had the big thing with the bankruptcy last month in indianapolis. A lot of people viewed your bid on the engines, the power points of cart as sort of a public acknowledgment that the agenda was, put this company out of business and thus unified the sport by eliminating the competition. Is there any other explanation of how that bid was structured?
TG>> You know the engine piece of it was something that the feedback we were getting was that that was a contract that might have been a deal-breaker, so we -- or was a -- was important contract. So we consider that. We wouldn't have any use for the engines.
DD>> Right.
TG>> Obviously. But we were trying to put as much money -- we thought we were going to make cash bids on assets.
DD>> Right.
TG>> And, you know, we had a -- we had a checkbook with us, but we didn't have the right currency, basicry.
DD>> Right.
TG>> So it was there was some last-minute things that happened in the last 36 hours that really made it look like it was impossible for us to be the successful bidder.
DD>> And you weren'T. So now you face a new reality, which is a continuing world, at least for the time being, with two open-wheel series.
DD>> Are you continuing to put those guys out of business, or is it your vision --
TG>> We are moving on. It was an opportunity to uniify the sport. It was an opportunity we didn't expect two days before they changed their mind by doing a purchase of the stock, buying the company. Instead they bankrupted the company and chose a given tactic. That changed the line of thinking as far as we were concerned. We thought we were going to bid on assets in court. And, you know -- so we weren't successful. So from there we move on. We are still going about building the irl. We are going to make it as big and as strong as we can. And we'll let the chips fall where they may.
DD>> We hear this probably more than anything else. I just pulled out one variation of it. An email of terence fischer since 1968.
DD>> Is there any way that a reconcillation from owrs and the irl can ever happen?
TG>> You know, i suppose if all stars in line it would be possible. But that's not -- from what i understand, they're interested in. We are looking to build the irl. I think, you know, the 24-race schedule, there's a lot of people who think if you just take the 10 or 12 west races in the irl and the 10 or 12 best races in cart and put them together, you got it. It's not quite that easy but, you know, we think that road racing is going to be part of our future. Maybe not, you know, at a 50/50 mix.
DD>> Uh-huh.
TG>> But certainly an important part. I, as much as anyone, understand and appreciate what cart has meant to north american motorsports in the last 25 years. I competed in the american racing series at the time, the indian light series. I enjoyed it. I think they did a good job of broadening the fan base. Especially at a time when there weren't a lot of financially viable race tracks, oval tracks to go to at the time. They did a good job of growing the sport. Things were different in the 1940's, 1950's, when my grandfather around. They are different today than they were in the early 1990's, mid 1990'S. You got to be nimble and you got to be able to adapt to change.
DD>> Let's go to the phones.
Let's get some of the viewers involved. We got dana on -- gary from dana point, california.
GARY>> For mr. George i would wonder to admit splitting from cart and forming irl he was trying to fix something that was not broken and sort of a second part of that, I wonder if his vision of the irl has changed some because the original vision was american drivers on ovals, on american soil. And that it would be cheaper than cart, but, in fact, now we've gone to japan. I think he wants to go to europe. At the bankruptcy proceedings, you wanted to get some of the road and street courses. I wonder whether his vision of irl has changed to be like what the cart formula was.
DD>> A lot of ground to cover. I'd stop there, gary, and let him respond to that. What do you want to take first?
TG>> Gary, if you go back -- what he's confusing is my vision with what other people say my vision was. I don't think he has his facts straight. We go back to 1994 when we announced we were going to have a series, a new series start in 1996. We had contemplated road racing at that time
DD>> I am one of those people. Go ahead.
TG>> Because of politics and other things, there weren't any opportunities. Cart had in place long hen term agreements. We -- long-term agreements. We didn't have any promoters that wanted to take the risk. They built las vegas, they built homestead, fontana. We were wanting to then support those. We felt like we encouraged the investment. Nascar was not going to be able to provide, you know, races to all those new tracks. They need viable, profitable events to sustain a return on the investment. We want to support that, no question, but we never said -- i never said that we were going to be an all-oval series and all-american driver series. That's something that people are really confused about, and i don't know how gary or anyone else after 10 years continues to foster that kind of vision on my behalf.
DD>> Well, maybe I'm part of the problem.
TG>> I believe at times you have been. I'll give you that.
DD>> Because i was there when the announcement was made and I was working the pits over across the way in the usac sprint and minlt racing. What i clearly was -- midget racing. What i clearly thought was we were the guys you want in this series. And I remember that road racing, while mentioned, was never identified as a priority. We are not going to rule that out. Now it becomes a high priority.
TG>> It is not a priority in as much as we intend to do it. It is not going to be a 50/50 ratio. It will be two or four, at least, to make the expense to the teams worthwhile.
DD>> Right.
TG>> And it has to be the right opportunities, the right market, the right business opportunity. And one thing we have now that isn't prevalent with what cart's -- isn't relevant of what cart's vision is, our sponsorship base right now and what we are being told by our sponsors, our teams, domestic budgets. They want to race in north america, and so, you know, we're not going to europe as gary suggests. We went to japan for good reasons because, you know, two of our engine manufacturers are headquartered there. Fire stone's company is there. As it turns out it's been a great opportunity for us. We had a great time over there. But to say that we are going to do, you know a bunch of road races and be all over the world, that's not going to happen. I don't see that any time soon.
DD>> Let me stop you there.
Let's get in another commercial break and I'll come back to the business of american drivers and what happened to what some of us interpreted as your vision.

[Chief]

Segment 3

Mon Feb 23 22:50:19 2004
-------------------------

DD>> We're back. We're talking with tony george. He and I have agreed to disagree on many things in the past. Let's see what larry are in ohio. You go ahead.
LARRY>> Yeah.
Thank you. Mr. George, it's a pleasure to get to speak to you. I have been a fan of the speedway all my life. I was just wondering, is there a plan to keep the likes of the billy boats and jimmy kites in the irl once the economy gets better and there are more teams showing up at the irl races?
TG>> I don't know if there is a plan. The marketplace is going to dictate, you know, how many available seats there are by the number of owners that are in the series, the number of opportunities. When we started this we wanted to create more opportunities, not guaranteeing anything, try to create more opportunity. A lot of them have opportunities. Some haven't made the transition well. Certainly guys like tony stewart came in and made the transition and had other opportunities come their way. I don't think that -- the one thing i think's been lacking is a lot of the usac drivers haven't really believed that the irl was an opportunity for them. As nascar became more strong and not only the cup division, but in the busch division and the trucks come along, then there is more opportunities over there. They tend to stray. They think that's the future. I think it's still one of those situations where a lot of those guys don't think there is a place for them to go, but I am not sure really any of them are pursuing it. I think they need to be around. A lot of times usac runs with us at support races at nazzrith and pikes peak. You don't see them mixing around, getting them to know people, think that people are out there watching them. They have to be around and work the system a little bit.
DD>> Isn't it in your interests, though, to get them wised up? Do you disagree with me that there is a fundamental issue of fan appeal in having that traditional driver core, or at least have access to the race, to your series and to the 500? Do you not think that thosist guys -- kasey kahne came within .01 of winning his cup race. He belongs in indy, not in nascar.
TG>> You have to talk with casey. He was kind of -- you have to talk with kasey. He was kind of tight with my son a little bit. He made up his mind -- heck, at the time he was 19 something years old. I don't know. It's like ryan newman. I have known him since he was a young lad. He, from the -- as far as back as I knew him he wanted to be a nascar driver. So he would have run the irl but it would have been a stop along the way.
DD>> Absolutely true of newman. Not true of tony stewart. You need to grab these guys by the back and force them to give you a future.
TG>> Unfortunately, tony had maybe the wrong situation. He won the series title. He won races. Had a lot of poles. He was just with the wrong owner. He owner could have keep him. I can't pay all their salaries and all that stuff. They have to make it on their own. The owners have to step up.
DD>> Let's change course. Another email and an issue i think we need to deal with. Let's pop that one up here. And talk about this. We have a lot of the tough questions by irl fans.
EMAIL Question about dropping speeds at least 30 mph…
DD>> I would only add to that, is there a target? Nascar kind of said a buck 90. We are not going to go any faster than that. At that point we think we have a liftoff problem.
TG>> And we have gone through the similar process. We think -- we've always -- for several years now we've had a target at indy between 220 and 230. We've done some further analysis with independent consultants. Wind tunnel testing. Other computer and fluid dynamic testing. We feel like we have a handle on those things. When you go to a lot of different tracks, we do have targets of ranges of speed we like to be in. Debris is going to get -- it doesn't matter if it's a stock car, a winston cup car or an indycar, debris can and will get over or through debris fences. It's just impossible to protect against. Taking our safer barrier development a step further, we are now looking to do things with debris fencing and further protecting smaller particles from getting through the fence. We just begun that. It will take a lot of time to finish that work. Maybe something like the safer barrier will come through that. I think that open-wheel race cars are faster than stock cars. There's, i think, good reason to try to keep the speeds in check. But 30-mile-an-hour drops I don't think is the answer.
DD>> Will the speed that you have -- that you will end up with as a result of the changes you're making in the cars, including the lower displacements, are you confident that that speed is going to keep the cars on the ground so that they are hitting the safer barrier and not going through it?
TG>> The profile of the cars and different things. There is a lot of things that i don't fully understand. I have just enough knowledge. Suffice it to say we have experts in their fieldworking on and looking at these things. And we think that what we end up with is a good a job that anyone can do to do it.
DD>> Let's take a break.
We have a lot of phone calls
backed up.
Let's rapid fire through it.
Talking with tony george of the
irl.

[Chief]

Segment 4 (final segment)

Mon Feb 23 23:00:16 2004
-------------------------

DD>> Talking with tony george. Are you comfortable with your cost containment efforts? They ran hornish more $1 million. The engine leases are more than that now, i hear. $8 million to $10 million for ganassi. How are you doing that?
TG>> There are teams out there that don't have $8 million and $to million budgets. It's a function of how much hospitality you do. And all the whistles that go along with it. We felt like we've done a good job of containing costs. The operational costs of the cars, things we can't control is how much they're going to pay to one, two, three, or four eveningers in they have on their staff. How big their shops are, how many trailers they have and all that stuff. What do you get with a $15 million winston cup budget? It's all relative. I think the teams that have the budget are going to do different things. But to go out and be competitive week in and week out, you can'T. You can do it less than $6 million or $7 million. I know that no teams today own their engines. That's something that is of interest to me. I think there are some teams out there that if they would go through the process of, you know, ordering engines to own and service themselves as they see fit, think we'd have a little higher car count at certain events. Maybe not season long, but right now we have to work through all these things.
DD>> Is that an option that's opened to them?
TG>> Yes. That's been at the outset. No one has pursued it vigorously.
DD>> Toyota would sell me an engine?
TG>> They're supposed to. If you put in a request, they got a certain number of days to provide it. We are going to see.
DD>> Dwayne in minneapolis, minnesota. Go ahead, dwayne.
DWAYNE>> Hi dave and tony. What are your plans after 2005 to hold the united states grand prix at the indianapolis speedway?
TG>> I am banking on everything working out. My plan all along is to make it a long-term jewel and the crown at the speedway. You know, it is the capital of auto racing. We've done a good job of putting fort a venue that formula one can be successful at. I think the date change in 2004 will help. It's a date bernie wanted way back win. We landed in september because we thought we needed space between our events. Last year after the gordon-montoya deal, we found it better to get the track converted. They wanted to move us to mid october. I said, oh, please don't do that. So we kind of settle on june. We thought there would be cinergies with canada. Canada was off the schedule, on, off, on. We have challenges we are dealing with. Hope our ticket customers have been patient. We have things ready to go. We had a change on the start time because of soccer. A lot of things that we don't control or have a lot of influence over. We were late getting all of our tickets out for all three events this year, but it's coming. Be patient. I think the f-1 race will have a future.
DD>> What's -- as you go out and make your way doing stuff like this, what's the league's strong suit? What's the pitch? Looking way down the road, assume this isn't always going to be about us.
TG>> I think that's the key.
DD>> What's the pitch?
TG>> I think that's the key, we take a very longview. Everything we do is long term. We're patient. I feel like we've got a good organizational structure at the speedway and at the irl to provide leadership. And we look at everything long term. I'm not going to tell duane, i think it was, 2005, formula one race is gone because we're going to make -- we're going to make it work. We are going to make the league work. It's going to take some time. We take a longview. We wake up every day and that's or -- our job. We made a decision 10 years ago that werm going to streamline our business focus on motorsports. We had a lot of other business interests that we didn't necessarily have much expertise in that we got out of.
DD>> You are talking about the family outside of indianapolis. People may not know you on radio stations.
TG>> We have a lot of business interests. It's not to say that we're sheding all those. If they're good profitable activities and they can contribute to the mission and the vision, then, you know, that's good. But we are here for the duration. There is another generation of sons and daughters and nephews and nieces, they are passionate about motorsports. We are going to be involved in it for a long time. We have been in motorsports for over 50 years.
DD>> Final question, you got to weigh in this. What state has the worst drivers, not race car drivers, highway drivers? This may get you in more trouble than anything else we talked about here.
TG>> I hope no one from florida is listening. I don't know. I'm going there next week.
DD>> Don't say that.
TG>> I haven't given it much thought. I told you whatever state my son's driving in. I don't know.
DD>> Think about it for the rest of the week. The voting will continue. Thank you for taking the time. We appreciate it. That's tony george from the irl. We'll come back on the other
side.
I think we are going to be just about out of time. We'll have a final time and last call.
DD>> Well, i wanted to do last call but it turns out that I have 20 seconds that parnelli jones will be out here tonight. Dario franchiti thursday night. And the 50th anniversary playmate will be on "two wheel tuesday" at 8:00. I'm dave despain.

[Chief]

This was an absolute PR disaster for the IRL. TG blamed the media for the "american" vision thing. On leased engines, TG seemed confused as to why more folks weren't buying and developing their own engines (versus leasing them). Japanese car manufacturer yen versus the corner gas stations in Speedway, Indiana. This is the "custodian" of Indy and Indy Car.

The embarassment of the IRL continues, but with proof of Tony's inabilities intact. DD's take was clear and was TOTALLY contradicted by TG. All IRL supporters need to study this interview. He has shammed all the supporters and media. I believe this will be a PR nightmare for them.

[Mach1]

I must admit, TG isn't cut out to be the interviewee as aposed to be the interviewer. I could have answered the majority of the questions posed by Dave or the callers with... should I say, alot more..... solid answer's.

Tony needs to stay "in the background" for the most part. When it comes to communicating with the public, Brian B. or even Nation needs to be the "interviewee"!

When asked about what the IRL is doing about the cars getting airborn, TG brought up the "safer barrier" but didn't use that to his advantage to promote the fact that IMS takes safety very seriously and has made minor changes to the chassis as wll as going from a 3.5 to a 3.0 engine. Go on to mention the fact that they need to do more research but, the changes they've made so far to the new chassis design and the reduced HP, they are going in the right direction. Blah blah blah.

I'm sad to say, I wasn't very impressed. Brian would have been a much better interview as far as representing the IRL.

[Brickman]

This was an absolute PR disaster for the IRL. TG blamed the media for the "american" vision thing. On leased engines, TG seemed confused as to why more folks weren't buying and developing their own engines (versus leasing them). Japanese car manufacturer yen versus the corner gas stations in Speedway, Indiana. This is the "custodian" of Indy and Indy Car.

The embarassment of the IRL continues, but with proof of Tony's inabilities intact. DD's take was clear and was TOTALLY contradicted by TG. All IRL supporters need to study this interview. He has shammed all the supporters and media. I believe this will be a PR nightmare for them.

If it got great TV ratings it might, Cup fans changed channels minutes after he started to speak.

There aren't enough open wheel fans to matter.

Say what you wish about him, he doesn't interview well, somethings are better off with polished spokesmen or women.

[Lizzerd]

Golly, Brickman... Nothing but more pleasant, encouraging, up beat words from your keystrokes again, I see. I can always count on a a breath of fresh air from you... :rolleyes:

And thanks, Chief. True to the norm, I forgot to watch. From the transcript, it seems that Dave was none too easy on the Villiage Idiot. I didn't see too many softballs thrown his way.

When I get more time, I'll probably respond so some of his answers with my own follow up questions.

[cart7]

Of course the big thing on everyones minds, are the cars going to keep flying into the cheesegraters?

Umm errr we can't guarantee that debris won't ever fly into the stands. ummm... errrr.. Though I'm no expert and know just enough to be uhhhh... dangerous.... we have experts working on this right now.

duh. Thanks Tony. So in other words, Kevlar and hardhats for the first 15 rows. :gomer:

[Turn7]

Tony George says that the USGP is to become the Crown Jewel of the speedway.

There is your vision folks.


"DWAYNE>> Hi dave and tony. What are your plans after 2005 to hold the united states grand prix at the indianapolis speedway?
TG>> I am banking on everything working out. My plan all along is to make it a long-term jewel and the crown at the speedway."

[Cam]

And thanks, Chief. True to the norm, I forgot to watch. From the transcript, it seems that Dave was none too easy on the Villiage Idiot. I didn't see too many softballs thrown his way.


Replay at 9AM this morning Lizzerd.

[rabbit]

First question, right off the bat:
DD>> Why do you felt this world need this had oval track series?
TG>> It didn't start off as an oval track series. [my comment]Bull****, how many road courses have you run?[/my comment] There are several reasons, but one, back in the very early 1990's, I was getting a lot of imput from sponsors that, you know, the way cart was structured that decisions weren't really made in a proper way, that some of the issues that concern them were maybe not being heard. They just encouraged me to get more involved. Of course, I am now a year or two in my position at the speedway. They encouraged me to get involved. And some leadership aspects. I did a lot of listening in the first few years and learned a lot in the first few years. About the fourth year into it in 1994, i think I'd been exposed to it enough that i felt, one, there was an opportunity at the time when motorsports was really taking off, i think, with nascar, cart. There is a lot of interest in motorsports. There was an opportunity to bring more opportunity for drivers, owners, sponsors to the upper grass lawns of motorsports that there were certainly more talented drivers out there that were available for the 22, 24 seats. And we were just trying to create some opportunity for drivers, owners, sponsors and the like. We also wanted to encourage investment in more oval track facilities. Since 1994 you can probably count on all your fingers and toes the number of new facilities thab -- that had been built. We tried to support that investment to profide profitable events to provide a return on investment. Read it again:
there was an opportunity at the time when motorsports was really taking off, i think, with nascar, cart. There is a lot of interest in motorsports. He just admitted the sport was in good shape when he started the earl. He admitted it was in good shape then, but it's not in good shape now. And what's the main difference between 1994 and 2004?

IRL :thumdown:

[Insomniac]

http://www.speedtv.com/_assets/library/img/medium/19365_tony.george.hs1.jpg

He wore the same suit.

And the same $#!t-eating grin?

[JT265]

Actually I thought he looked like a cross between George Bush and Keith Richards.

[Don Quixote]

That sure is a painful transcript to wade through. I think the man is incapable of putting two thoughts together. Wake up earlfans, your king is naked. I am tempted to see the reaction over at gomerforum, but the spin is too predictable.

[Racewriter]

I thought DeSpain did a fabulous job - as usual.

Tony was awful - as usual.

What gets me is that the questions, though direct, weren't difficult to anticipate - even from the fans on email and telephone. Yet he sounded completely unprepared.

[JoeBob]

Well, I can tell you that he lost one potential fan with that interview. My dad was in town visiting. He's a casual fan, watches when there's a race on, but doesn't seek one out. Over the years, he and I have gone to CART at the Meadowlands, Nazareth, Toronto, Road America and Miami. We've also been to NASCAR at Watkins Glen. (He's also seen NASCAR at Pocono.) He knows the basics of the split, but none of the details, and isn't familiar with the players.

Lately, he's been talking about wanting to give the IRL at shot Nazareth, since the track is only a couple of hours from where he lives. After watching Wind Tunnel, he declared that he'd changed his mind on Nazareth for two reasons:
1. He didn't like the looks of the cars flying through the air, and thought that the "those things are going to happen" attitude was crazy. He doesn't want to get killed at the track.
2. He thought Tony George was a liar. His exact quote was, "The IRL was never about oval racing only? What a liar. This guy is an a-hole, and I'm not giving him any of my money."

Of course, the last time he watched an IRL race when I was around was Texas 2 a couple of years ago (when Sam and Helio were battling for the championship in the last race) and he wasn't impressed then either. His quote was, "This is boring, these guys are driving around along side each other, but can't pass. They need to get some road racers. Road racers would at least be looking inside and outside trying to pass. These guys are content to just hang out next to each other all day." (I didn't have the heart to tell him that they *WERE* road racing drivers!)

[4wheeldrifter]

Of course the big thing on everyones minds, are the cars going to keep flying into the cheesegraters?

Umm errr we can't guarantee that debris won't ever fly into the stands. ummm... errrr.. Though I'm no expert and know just enough to be uhhhh... dangerous.... we have experts working on this right now.

duh. Thanks Tony. So in other words, Kevlar and hardhats for the first 15 rows. :gomer:

Unfortunately, yep. :( Hopefully the 3.0's will slow them down. Dunno about the new chassis design. If ugly = downforce, I think they have the flying crapwagon problem solved.

[Chaos]

i just finished reading the transcript. no surprises in there. I wonder if the dirt track/USAC loyalists feel betrayed at all. You have to think some of those individuals thought the IRL's interests were on par with their own.

***

"There was an opportunity to bring more opportunity for drivers, owners, sponsors to the upper grass lawns of motorsports that there were certainly more talented drivers out there that were available for the 22, 24 seats. And we were just trying to create some opportunity for drivers, owners, sponsors and the like. "

...then later on...

" I don't know if there is a plan. The marketplace is going to dictate, you know, how many available seats there are by the number of owners that are in the series, the number of opportunities. When we started this we wanted to create more opportunities, not guaranteeing anything, try to create more opportunity. A lot of them have opportunities. Some haven't made the transition well. "

...my question is how did TG create opportunity?

[Wabbit]

"but we didn't have the right currency, basicry."

Typo, or are the Japanese pulling his strings :rofl:

[Brickman]

I thought DeSpain did a fabulous job - as usual.

Tony was awful - as usual.

What gets me is that the questions, though direct, weren't difficult to anticipate - even from the fans on email and telephone. Yet he sounded completely unprepared.

There really wasn't anything new that he said. As Mach 1 above said most anyone could have answered the questions. The only thing new was Dave's explanation of his support for the separate league and Tony's belief that one can buy an engine.

Other than that it was just a rehash of what has been bounced around forums. His vision was about control and nothing else.

#1 He wasn't pleased with CART management.

#2 Started his own series.

#3 Got no where until CART handed him ISC on silver platter.

#3 Midlevel teams until Penske arrived.

#4 Sold out to Manufacturer control.

#5 Threw out the most interesting feature of the IRL. (Engine shops building race engines)

#6 DaveL's Honda store engine prediction becomes true.

#7 New/old CART teams push out IRL teams (morphing almost complete)

#8 Order given, make these cars turn tight.

#9 (next year) Takes road races from ChampCars.

[Accipiter]

Dave is a better man than I am. No way could I sit in the same room with that guy and not punch him in the face.

That was a wonderful half hour of stuttering non-answers and reinvented history. Truly, this is the Visionary leader American open wheel racing needs. :shakehead

[cart7]

The only thing new was Dave's explanation of his support for the separate league

Actually, that's not new. Dave has stated it on the show before. Funny how the most emotion we saw out of ol stoneface all night was when the original vision was brought up and how Tony vehemently denies saying what he said. I suppose there's a few of us who could've bombarded the show with Emails with direct quotes proving he did say it. The guy seems completely out of touch with whats going on in his own league and makes you wonder who is really running the thing and making the important decisions. T & H must be having a field day with this.

TG is living proof that permanent brain damage will occur if you imbide in the wrong drugs too many times for too long.

[Chaos]

His vision was about control and nothing else.

Yup. I have not seen anything happen to suggest otherwise.

[racer2c]

Honestly, this just further solidifies my belief that the IRL is practically an after-thought to TG and that his primary goal is to elevate Nextel Cup to the 500 within 5 years.

[Brickman]

The only thing new was Dave's explanation of his support for the separate league

Actually, that's not new. Dave has stated it on the show before. Funny how the most emotion we saw out of ol stoneface all night was when the original vision was brought up and how Tony vehemently denies saying what he said. I suppose there's a few of us who could've bombarded the show with Emails with direct quotes proving he did say it. The guy seems completely out of touch with whats going on in his own league and makes you wonder who is really running the thing and making the important decisions. T & H must be having a field day with this.

TG is living proof that permanent brain damage will occur if you imbide in the wrong drugs too many times for too long.

First time I had heard it and that he seemed to indicate he said it during a race when he was a pit reporter...

[Brickman]

Honestly, this just further solidifies my belief that the IRL is practically an after-thought to TG and that his primary goal is to elevate Nextel Cup to the 500 within 5 years.

Neither George or CART put much thought into what a civil war would cost. I would say Cup could have a shot at the 500 if George doesn't change the engine manufacturer relationship and how they prop up the teams.

[JT265]

Neither George or CART put much thought into what a civil war would cost. I would say Cup could have a shot at the 500 if George doesn't change the engine manufacturer relationship and how they prop up the teams.

And the day that happens depender and his motley crew will decend upon the Jim Wilke "Stock and Awe" hate club to enlighten us fools that this was the "vision" from day 1.

[RichK]

And the day that happens depender and his motley crew will decend upon the Jim Wilke "Stock and Awe" hate club to enlighten us fools that this was the "vision" from day 1.

:laugh:
I can hear it now: "Stock cars are simply just open-wheel cars with fenders and roofs! You CARTroaches just can't accept the fact that Tony wants safer cars, that's why he added the fenders....etc."

[devilmaster]

Honestly, this just further solidifies my belief that the IRL is practically an after-thought to TG and that his primary goal is to elevate Nextel Cup to the 500 within 5 years.

If that happens, I predict that the France's will own the track outright in 5 to 10 years after that.

Steve

[skaven]

I read some choice excerpts to my girlfriend last night... She doesn't follow the sport, but even she caught TG contradicting himself. :)

Today, I went somewhere I haven't been in over 6 months... TF - to see their reaction. Brickman posted the transcript over there, and NO ONE commented on it. What a bunch of gutless toadies.

Excuse me while I go bathe away the filth and ignorance.

[eiregosod]

I read some choice excerpts to my girlfriend last night... She doesn't follow the sport, but even she caught TG contradicting himself. :)

Today, I went somewhere I haven't been in over 6 months... TF - to see their reaction. Brickman posted the transcript over there, and NO ONE commented on it. What a bunch of gutless toadies.

Excuse me while I go bathe away the filth and ignorance.

TF moved their TG on windtunnel thread to the "IRL fan Advisory Forum" as the not so enamoured people with the IRL were shootin' at him and the IRL cheerleaders had little to defend TG with!

A defining moment in Open Wheel history!

[Madmaxfan2]

The one thing that stand out is this; The stars of USAC have strayed form the path of the IRL and gone on to the cup, busch, and trcuk races of NASCAR. Here is the quote "the one thing i think's been lacking is a lot of the usac drivers haven't really believed that the irl was an opportunity for them. As nascar became more strong and not only the cup division, but in the busch division and the trucks come along, then there is more opportunities over there. They tend to stray. They think that's the future. I think it's still one of those situations where a lot of those guys don't think there is a place for them to go, but I am not sure really any of them are pursuing it. I think they need to be around. A lot of times usac runs with us at support races at nazzrith and pikes peak. You don't see them mixing around, getting them to know people, think that people are out there watching them. They have to be around and work the system a little bit." Talk about delusional, That sums up Tony George. I would like to Defender spin this one, or his gomer friends at Trackforum.

[skaven]

TF moved their TG on windtunnel thread to the "IRL fan Advisory Forum" as the not so enamoured people with the IRL were shootin' at him and the IRL cheerleaders had little to defend TG with!

A defining moment in Open Wheel history!

"Fan Advisory Forum" ??? WTF ???

Hadn't showered yet, so I checked it out. Defender admires Tony's "honesty" and suggests the lemmings "ought to treat Tony with a little respect. He's going to be running the show for at least another twenty years."

:laugh:

Tony did say that his sons and daughters, nephews and nieces will be continuing the family vision and involved in motorsports. At this rate, maybe they can be fry cooks at "Charlie Browns" when NASCAR comes to town.

[eiregosod]

Thanks for posting that MadMaxFan

The USAC guys are displaying their talent by dominating NASCAR, NASCAR became their career goal!

It's a new LOW set by TG to blame the USAC guys for only wanting to go to NASCAR and not give the IRL a look in! :shakehead

[Chiphead_Dave]

I can not believe that garbage.

I hope for his sake (TG) that he actually believes what he is spouting. If I lied that much my nose would be 500 miles long. Oh actually 499.5.

Oh and in that picture I think that he is smiling like that because his frilly pink underwear is up his butt and he likes it.

[Racing Truth]

The "**** happens" response, while perhaps not totally innaccurate, was unacceptable in regards to debris. He should have said "We will do whatever we possibly can to prevent any debris from going into the stands." It just sounded like he didn't care.

It was awful. There's a reason he shouldn't do interviews. Heck, George Bush sounds downright articulate compared to TG. :saywhat:

[pchall]

Yeeeah! Chief!

Thanks for the work. :)

[mueber]

Honestly, this just further solidifies my belief that the IRL is practically an after-thought to TG and that his primary goal is to elevate Nextel Cup to the 500 within 5 years.

Doing so would make life so much better for everyone that it will never happen.

[Racewriter]

Thanks for posting that MadMaxFan

The USAC guys are displaying their talent by dominating NASCAR, NASCAR became their career goal!

It's a new LOW set by TG to blame the USAC guys for only wanting to go to NASCAR and not give the IRL a look in! :shakehead

I know what you mean. I wonder what Andy Michner, Brian Tyler, Davey Hamilton, Billy Boat, JJ Yeley, Stevie Reeves, Paul Durant, Joe Gosek, Dave Steele, and a host of others thought when they heard that?

Bottom line: Those that worship Tony still do after last night's fiasco.
Those that hate him still do.

And nobody in the middle was going to be persuaded by that performance.

[Joe in LA]

The really pathetic part of all this is that TG could have easily accomplished the goal of having a say in CART and promoting USAC drivers if that was what he had been after. How you ask? He could have started/sponsored his own team, put whoever he wanted in the seat--lets say he "scholarshiped" the Midget and Spint champ every year. All he had to do to be a franchisee was get the team among the top twenty (IIRC) to be invited to join--beating Coyne and one or two other backmarkers should have been doable--I'd guess that the engine makers would have been falling overthemselves to see that the owner of IMS got a good engine. Instead, he probably spent many times what that would have cost, split the fan base apart, and still doesn't have a clear path from USAC to Indy.

I just don't see how he could be rational and say what has been done was for the good of the sport. The only thing he achieved was something like what CART had @1995 (albeit with less "graceful" vehicles), minus some of the best teams and venues and with a whole lot less fans.

[Ziggy]

I will go one farther Joe. Think about sponsorship? He could have gotten somebody on board to sponsor the whole ball of wax. Title sponsor for the National Midget and or Sprint/SilverCrown. This way the fans for sure could "identify" with the entire program.

He could still do it, and the added expense would be chicken feed.

Ziggy

[Hot Rod Otis]

The really pathetic part of all this is that TG could have easily accomplished the goal of having a say in CART and promoting USAC drivers if that was what he had been after. How you ask? He could have started/sponsored his own team, put whoever he wanted in the seat--lets say he "scholarshiped" the Midget and Spint champ every year. All he had to do to be a franchisee was get the team among the top twenty (IIRC) to be invited to join--beating Coyne and one or two other backmarkers should have been doable--I'd guess that the engine makers would have been falling overthemselves to see that the owner of IMS got a good engine. Instead, he probably spent many times what that would have cost, split the fan base apart, and still doesn't have a clear path from USAC to Indy.



He could have just as easily hooked up with Foyt's team or Menard and ran a USAC Champion in CART instead of going to the trouble of starting his own team. Why couldn't Anton have threw a little money to Foyt and put a USAC hot shoe in the Copenhagen #14 instead of say.... Gregor Foitek or Ross Cheever or Fredrik Eckblom? Why couldn't he have ran a "Clabber Girl" car in CART instead of BGN? If the Idiot Grandson was so F*&%$ing concerned about those guys, he could have put one of them on the track for a fraction of what he's blown in the last 7 years. The thing is, he didn't give a s**** about them back them and other than Ed, he don't give a r@ts @ss about them now, they were nothing more than cannon fodder. :mad:

[Hot Rod Otis]

Bottom line: Those that worship Tony still do after last night's fiasco.
Those that hate him still do.

And nobody in the middle was going to be persuaded by that performance.

The sad part is, there's nobody left in the middle. They're LOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG gone.

[fourrunner]

OWRS is led by three self made men, who have a Business Plan, and have worked along those guidelines before

IRL is being led by a "Martinet" that inherited great wealth and can spend it with great abandon with no logic or expectation of return.

He is still trying to master the English Language and talks in "Tonybonics" which is the speaking version of a sleeping pill, and has the sense of someone woken from the Pill induced sleep.

Penske calls him "A great communicator " - I see the early stages of Alzheimers setting in on the once great Penske

Last nights display was pathetic, but as long as the "Pink Brigade" at the other Forum hope for their night in the hay with Tony. He will think he's doing the right thing!

I would be surprised if Dave Despain still thinks Tony makes sense, but I doubt he will let us know!

[dando]

Tony George says that the USGP is to become the Crown Jewel of the speedway.

There is your vision folks.


"DWAYNE>> Hi dave and tony. What are your plans after 2005 to hold the united states grand prix at the indianapolis speedway?
TG>> I am banking on everything working out. My plan all along is to make it a long-term jewel and the crown at the speedway."
Not to defend TG, but the transcript was a bit off. He said the F1 race should be a jewell in the crown of Indy. Once the crowds are non-existant after this year's USGP, I'd give better odds on a snowball in hell than the USGP remaining @ Indy after '05.

-Kevin

[dando]

The worst part was Dave's take before the interview.

Starts out discussing CART pre IRL with video of CART 1993-1995. Then came his take after IRL, U.S.500 pile up, Australia rain pile up, and shots of the IRL with no pile ups.

I think his take (http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/) will be here later this week.

http://www.speedtv.com/_assets/library/img/medium/19365_tony.george.hs1.jpg

He wore the same suit.
Caption: The definition of a moron. Christ, his expression exemplifies the gomer smiley. :gomer:

-Kevin

[dando]

DD>> Talking with tony george. Are you comfortable with your cost containment efforts? They ran hornish more $1 million. The engine leases are more than that now, i hear. $8 million to $10 million for ganassi. How are you doing that?
TG>> There are teams out there that don't have $8 million and $to million budgets. It's a function of how much hospitality you do. And all the whistles that go along with it. We felt like we've done a good job of containing costs. The operational costs of the cars, things we can't control is how much they're going to pay to one, two, three, or four eveningers in they have on their staff. How big their shops are, how many trailers they have and all that stuff. What do you get with a $15 million winston cup budget? It's all relative. I think the teams that have the budget are going to do different things. But to go out and be competitive week in and week out, you can'T. You can do it less than $6 million or $7 million. I know that no teams today own their engines. That's something that is of interest to me. I think there are some teams out there that if they would go through the process of, you know, ordering engines to own and service themselves as they see fit, think we'd have a little higher car count at certain events. Maybe not season long, but right now we have to work through all these things.
DD>> Is that an option that's opened to them?
TG>> Yes. That's been at the outset. No one has pursued it vigorously.
DD>> Toyota would sell me an engine?
TG>> They're supposed to. If you put in a request, they got a certain number of days to provide it. We are going to see.


I'm surprised no one has picked up on this. Teams are not going to bother buying freaking engines when most of the teams are in fact manufacturer sponsored. Sure, Toyo will sell you a freaking 1st gen rebuilt engine, with stipulations that you can't do this or that, and oh by the way, that'll be $5mm per. Give me a freakin' break! What a pathetic moron!!! :flame: :mad: :flame:

-Kevin

[Turn7]

Not to defend TG, but the transcript was a bit off. He said the F1 race should be a jewell in the crown of Indy. Once the crowds are non-existant after this year's USGP, I'd give better odds on a snowball in hell than the USGP remaining @ Indy after '05.

-Kevin

You heard what you wanted to hear. I heard it exactly as it was printed.

[Ankf00]

this reaffirms my belief in the inalienable douchiness of TG and Despain.

[dando]

You heard what you wanted to hear. I heard it exactly as it was printed.
Nope. I have it recorded on ReplayTV, and played the entire interview over a couple of times. And I quote: "My plan all along has been to make it a long term...uh, uh...jewel in the crown at the speedway." Listen, I'm not defending the bastard, but I'd buy the notion of tin tops racing in the 500 before this putz would put the USGP ahead of the 500. Even he's not that stupid.

-Kevin

[Steve99]

TG used a lot of words without saying much of anything. Didn't really answer most of the questions. Nice to hear him say that there wasn't much wrong in the early '90's when he decided to start the IRL.

He did manage to sneak in one "I don't know" there at the end. :laugh:

[Kiwifan]

Just the one??? ;) Sorry I got here a bit late but thanks Chief, appreciate it mate.

Rusty.

[TedN]

Relevant commentary here ... http://www.autoextremist.com/page3.shtml#fumes

Ted