Autoweek on reunification

[KobySon]

If he was real serious all Roger would have to do is grab Fatassi and Toyo's mothballed 2.65's (brought up to today's std's) and come back here. End of story. Not that we'd really want them, but....

Or maybe I'm a little out of it today. Been sick all weekend. :(

It sounds as if Tony will not play ball. This could be the magic bullet. ;)

[4wheeldrifter]

It sounds as if Tony will not play ball. This could be the magic bullet. ;)

So Tony's not gonna play nice with the other kids. Boy, there's a surprise. :shakehead

He can rot in it then. Go down with the ship. Thatta boy Tony, you sure showed them. :thumdown:

[gjc2]

If he was real serious all Roger would have to do is grab Fatassi and Toyo's mothballed 2.65's (brought up to today's std's) and come back here. End of story. Not that we'd really want them, but....

Or maybe I'm a little out of it today. Been sick all weekend. :(

Ford's deal guarantees them exclusivity.

ps: Forget about unification, it isn't going to happen. One series will prevail and the other will fold.

[Mike Kellner]

Forget about unification, it isn't going to happen. One series will prevail and the other will fold.

No, The IRL will fail, Indy will get a second NASCAR date on Memorial Day, and ChampCar will succeed.

mk

[Madmaxfan2]

Yup, thats the size of it. After "watching" Richmond, I really pondered the point of Formula Cars on an oval.

[pkvracing12]

Pimske is watching out for himself and nobody else. A re-unification doesn't have to happen, earl is in self-destruct mode. The family is tightening FTG's purse string, the cost of racing in earl is going to increase significantly next year IF they go road racing & attendance at the former CART venues will really be down. Be patient, earl will be a bad memory in another 2 years.
I 110% agree FTG!

[gjc2]

Forget about unification, it isn't going to happen. One series will prevail and the other will fold.

No, The IRL will fail, Indy will get a second NASCAR date on Memorial Day, and ChampCar will succeed.

mk

I didn't say I thought Champ Car would be the one to fold.

George

[Mike Kellner]

I realize you didn't, but I wanted to make the eventual outcome clear.

mk

[Ankf00]

i spend all week in my window cube trying to rig up a kegerator under my desk and you guys are still talking about this reunification nonsense?

[KobySon]

i spend all week in my window cube trying to rig up a kegerator under my desk and you guys are still talking about this reunification nonsense? :rofl:

[cart7]

I borrowed this from the other forum. KC Star article with some interesting quotes from Panther's John Barnes:

NO SMALL CHANGE

IRL's rapid transformation has some worried about cost

By JIM PEDLEY

The Kansas City Star


“I think the series is on the verge of collapse from (the affordability) standpoint. We are at a critical pass.”

John Barnes Pennzoil Panther Racing team co-owner


The two-story, satellite-dish-encrusted, computer-crammed behemoth of a trailer that rolled into the infield last month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was more than Chevrolet's new mobile command center.

It was a symbol of the change that is rapidly sweeping through the Indy Racing League.

After giving a tour of the Chevrolet command center and talking about how each car using Chevy engines has its own factory engineer and technical support staff, General Motors representative Rick Voegelin stated the obvious.

“The nature of this series has changed,” Voegelin said.

And many in the IRL garages and shops agree that it will be changing even more in the near future.

What can't be agreed upon, it seems, is the answer to this question: Is the change good or bad?

And is it too rapid?

In March 1994, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George rocked the American open-wheel racing world when he announced that he was forming a new series — the IRL.

Frustrated by what CART had become, George gave up trying to fix that team-owner-dominated series and opted to go his own way.

His new league was built upon a philosophy — and a set of rules to serve as watchdog over that philosophy.

Cornerstone aspects of the philosophy included such things at creating opportunities for young drivers, nurturing the heritage of racing open-wheel cars on ovals, and — most notably — controlling costs for competitors and sponsors.

Jack Long, executive director and CEO of the IRL at the time, addressed the cost issue of running in the CART series — which in the mid-1990s was employing some very high-tech and expensive equipment — in May 1995.

“One thing we must do in racing is reduce the cost because right now, people don't realize it, but the cost for some of these teams — some have a budget of $8 million to $10 million for each car. We don't think you need that kind of money to have a race car that goes 220 mph and is safe at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”

Long added, “Our goal is to keep costs responsibly under control.”

Until the 2002 season, most observers agreed that teams and drivers could go racing in the IRL at relatively bargain prices.

In 2002, Roger Penske, who had helped form CART when that series broke away from USAC years before, announced that he was switching to the IRL.

The news was good for the IRL in that it increased the series' profile. Penske was — and still is — the most-respected owner in major American open-wheel racing.

But it was also a bit ominous: Penske has relatively deep pockets and a reputation for employing cutting-edge (translation: expensive) technology.

The term “the bar has been raised” became a popular one in IRL pits and garages in 2002.

That bar went up again prior to the 2003 season when engine-makers Toyota and Honda decided to exit CART and enter the IRL.

The concern level rose again for some IRL long-timers. They knew that racing was not a hobby for the two Japanese-based companies. They knew Toyota and Honda would raise the bar — and the cost of racing — to another level.

Potentially, to a restrictive level.

The response from IRL officials was that the rules established years before, rules that could be changed instantly if need be, would represent a strong defense against the type of cost explosion that had plagued CART and still plagues Formula One.

George insists that the rules have worked to keep his philosophy intact and will continue to function as designed.

“I think we've done a good job of controlling the cost of key areas that could become very expensive,” he said. “The fact that some of the teams are able to run with larger budgets today, and teams are going to spend money on a variety of things that are not critical to keeping competition close on the track, I think we're trying to live with and manage at this point. But I do think we have done a good job of controlling costs of the major components that have the effect of raising the operating budgets of teams if left to past practice.”

George said that current operating budges for IRL teams are about what they were in the CART series a decade ago. That would be the $8 million to $10 million that Lang mentioned.

And that is acceptable to George.

“If you assume a normal trajectory of escalation of costs and inflation over that period of time,” he said, “you would think a 1994 budget left unmanaged would be much higher than we are experiencing today.”

Many of the current IRL rules designed to keep costs in check concern equipment. They represent a tight rein on what types of parts, developments and technology can be utilized by teams, chassis makers and engine makers.

But there are loopholes involving personnel and facilities.

Serious ones, some say.

John Barnes is co-owner of the Pennzoil Panther Racing team. His team, with Sam Hornish Jr. as driver, won the series championship in 2001 and 2002.

Barnes did it with a one-car team, and most agree that he did it by using as much racing savvy as money.

But Barnes, who is suddenly a mid-pack owner in terms of budget, is worried.

“We have to be very, very careful in the next six months to weed out a lot of the unnecessary technology,” he said. “We are in the entertainment business; we're here to put on a show. It shouldn't matter that somebody has a $22-million budget and you've got an $8-million budget. There is a lot of unnecessary spending that's being done right now that needs to be eliminated.”

Barnes said he has complete confidence in the abilities of IRL senior vice president of racing operations Brian Barnhart and senior technical director Phil Casey.

Barnes calls them “great men.” But, he said, they are outgunned by racing organizations that employ teams of high-salaried engineers.

“We pay millions of dollars to, not circumvent the rules, but take advantage of any loopholes that are there,” Barnes said.

Robbie Buhl, a former driver who currently co-owns the Dreyer and Reinbold team, also said the pressure is on IRL officials.

“You've got to think of the manpower that some of these teams have, as well as the support of some of the manufacturers. From chassis as well as engine manufacturers,” Buhl said. “They want to enhance their team's progress.”

Much of the criticism directed at CART in the days when Toyota and Honda were major engine suppliers to that series concerned engine-leasing programs.

The critics, some of whom moved over to the IRL, contended that having to lease engines from those companies drove up costs. They also contended that the disbursement of engines by the manufacturers was based on favoritism. That is, the manufacturers would pick and chose which teams they wanted to deal with.

Traditionally, IRL teams bought their engines. They would then own their engines and be able to open them up and work on them themselves. Now, however, almost all IRL teams lease engines.

Critics of the IRL say that in this area, the series has become what it set out to abolish.

George disagrees.

“Today, the opportunity (to buy) still exists, but most everybody is happy with the engine-lease programs,” he said. “They feel they are getting, for the most part, equal equipment to everybody else and the reliability and service provided by the manufacturers they work with. I don't think that there are a lot of people up in arms over the fact they can't buy equipment.”

Chevrolet was the last manufacturer to embark on a leasing program. Voegelin said his company had to do it.

“Independent engine builders are out,” he said. “With the arrival of Toyota and Honda, that changed overnight.”

But he's not complaining.

There are benefits — cost benefits — to all involved, which may be debatable.

Not open for debate is the fact that series has changed dramatically over the past couple of years.

The debate centers on whether the changes are for the best or the worst — if the IRL is becoming what it set out to defeat almost a decade ago.

“I think the series is on the verge of collapse from (the affordability) standpoint,” Barnes said. “We are at a critical pass. Which road are we going to take in the near future? I think Tony is going to make some decisions here very quickly that will effect our sport in the future.”

Eddie Cheever Jr., who has been with the series virtually from the beginning as a driver, and is now with it as a team owner, is not as worried as Barnes.

“I think the soul of our message has remained intact,” Cheever said.

George said he will continue to do what he thinks is right for his series and will not let it fall prey to the pitfalls that tripped up CART.

“I feel confident we have control of the series,” he said. “We have good relationships to prove it. Going back to CART, I think the downfall was not being able to manage the relationships. It requires constant attention and refinement. I feel absolutely confident we are in control.”

It looks like there's a couple owners, Pimpski & Barnes included, over there that can see the handwriting on the wall.

As usual, FTG is clueless.

[KLang]

We don't think you need that kind of money to have a race car that goes 220 mph and is safe at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

How do they expect to have a successful series if all anyone really cares about is one race?

[gjc2]

How do they expect to have a successful series if all anyone really cares about is one race?

That is exactly the point. No other IRL venue has any value, there all losers. We should be talking to the engine suppliers, not Penske, maybe we are? Champ Car can give them more value.

George

[4wheeldrifter]

I think the long-term answer is for Tony to dump all the other "races" and just run Indy. In effect it's what he has now but without the added expense for the teams to have to run the shed-yool fillers (defined as all races but Indy). The talent could put themselves to something useful during the rest of the year, blocking out May for the "big one". Tony stops the bleed, his sisters are happy and everyone else involved with the IRL gets all they ever wanted anyway: Indy.

What? :confused:

[cart7]

How do they expect to have a successful series if all anyone really cares about is one race?

1979 all over again. Was it Mike K. or DaveL who said they should keep a copy of the white paper in their back pocket.
:laugh:

[Madmaxfan2]

1979 all over again. Was it Mike K. or DaveL who said they should keep a copy of the white paper in their back pocket.
:laugh:

What do you expect? I keep telling everyone that the real purpose of the IRL was to turn the clock back to the late 1970's. That goal has been obtained.

[Railbird]

i spend all week in my window cube trying to rig up a kegerator under my desk and you guys are still talking about this reunification nonsense?

Party at Ank's cube.

screw unification

[Insomniac]

Funny they don't mention that while you can buy an engine and open it up, the cost to purchase is much higher than leasing. What option would you choose given those? :)