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coolhand
07-05-05, 09:12 PM
Auto rivals show signs of progress
Can IRL, Champ Car ever settle feud?
Role of sanctioning body a key hurdle

NORRIS MCDONALD
STAFF REPORTER

The 20th anniversary Toronto Indy is being run through the streets of Exhibition Place this weekend, but there's something missing: Danica Patrick.

The hottest attraction in Indy-car racing doesn't race in the Champ Car World Series, which sanctions the Toronto race, so anybody hoping to see her in action over at the Ex will be disappointed.

Don't laugh. There are people who tune in to the Indianapolis 500 on television every year expecting to see Paul Tracy. That race is sanctioned by the Indy Racing League and Tracy, who drives for a team in the Champ Car World Series, doesn't enter.

Such is the confusion that continues to exist 10 years after big-league motor racing's most famous divorce. (No, not Jeff Gordon's). The devastating breakup saw the upstart IRL break away from the established CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) circuit and two things happened:

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Confusion (see above) was sown not only in the minds of many Indy-type racing fans but, most important, in the minds of potential fans. To say there was also bitterness and all-out hate would be an understatement.

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The momentum that Indy-type racing enjoyed throughout North America (sellouts just about everywhere, from street circuits like Toronto, to short ovals like Milwaukee, to the super speedways like Michigan and Indianapolis) just flat-out fizzled. The opening that was created was filled rapidly by the NASCAR organization, which has gone on to become a juggernaut.

As a result, most people — including racing promoters, race teams, drivers and even the people who head up the two warring factions — agree that one Indy racing series is preferable to two. The challenge is how to kiss and make up without either side losing too much face.

That the two sides have gone from a frozen silence two years ago (when Kevin Kalkhoven, Gerald Forsythe and Paul Gentilozzi purchased the assets and race dates of the bankrupt CART from under the nose of IRL founder Tony George) to a cheerful exchange of views in the living room of racing legend Mario Andretti's home in Nazareth, Pa., in May, speaks volumes about how much each side would like to find a solution.

Whether they will ever find one is debatable. But the fact they are talking and breaking bread together is enormous. Just think: Paul Newman, Kalkhoven, Curt Brighton (the IRL's legal counsel) and George dined together in Nazareth and nobody got up and walked out.

While there have not been any face-to-face meetings since, telephone contact continues.

The differences between the two groups started out as enormous but now are minute. The IRL has moved the most: from an extreme position of being an ovals-only series, the league now has three road/street races on its schedule.

There remains, however, one serious philosophical difference: The role of the sanctioning body.

Champ Car looks upon its headquarters as a profit centre. In other words, the sanctioning body is in business to make money. The IRL looks upon its headquarters as a conduit. In other words, the sanctioning body exists so race promoters and race participants can come together and make money.

As an IRL source told the Toronto Star in an interview: "We have a different world outlook and that will be hard to bridge. But other than that, we're not that far apart."

None of the principals involved in the negotiations is talking. The IRL source and a marketing agency executive close to Champ Car's front office agreed that neither side wants to talk about unification for publication.

"It's not good for business," said one. "We try to keep a lot of this quiet because to talk about negotiations creates problems for both series so far as sponsorship is concerned. For instance, maybe a corporation wants to sponsor a car in one series or the other but then gets wind that something's up, that there might be a change, so they decide to hold off. Nobody wants to jeopardize anybody's business.

"Publicly, we both will continue to go in our own direction and we'll each go ahead and plan for the future. But both doors are open. You never know where this will lead."

So where could it lead? If there was unification, what would it look like?

There are three scenarios, according to the IRL and Champ Car sources:

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One series surrenders completely. There is a clear winner and loser. Odds on this happening: 100-1.

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Complete unification with all sides stepping back and allowing a mediator/conciliator to determine the nuts and bolts, such as: a 16- or 18-race season made up of the best of both series managed by a governing council made up of representatives from both sides. Odds: 25-1.

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Both series agree to the same chassis and engine specifications. Each goes its own way, runs its own races but agrees to a working relationship with the other. Like Major League Baseball, everybody meets up for three races — Indianapolis (oval), Long Beach (street) and either Montreal or Mexico City (road course). Results of the three interleague races would count in each series' standings.

With an agreement in place on engines and chassis, however, the possibility of crossovers for individual races would increase. Odds: 10-1.

"People say it's all about ego and control," the IRL source said. "But that's not true. If we could get past that one stumbling block — the role of the sanctioning body — then maybe we could do business."

nrc
07-05-05, 11:29 PM
"People say it's all about ego and control," the IRL source said. "But that's not true. If we could get past that one stumbling block — the role of the sanctioning body — then maybe we could do business."

Wow. Yet another reason for the split. :rolleyes:

It's nonsense. Maybe circa 1992 the sanctioning body could afford to just be a rulesmaker, but since the NASCARization of America it's absolutely essential that the sanctioning body should be willing to actively promote and direct the series.

Living off the Indy name and waiting for things to drop in your lap is not a viable business plan. What they really mean by conduit, is a channel that everyone else's money travels through to Tony can take his cut.

pchall
07-05-05, 11:36 PM
Reads like Fred Nation bought McNutty's lunch again just before a Champ Car race. Will it ever end? :rolleyes:

cart7
07-06-05, 04:19 AM
"There remains, however, one serious philosophical difference: The role of the sanctioning body.

Champ Car looks upon its headquarters as a profit centre. In other words, the sanctioning body is in business to make money. The IRL looks upon its headquarters as a conduit. In other words, the sanctioning body exists so race promoters and race participants can come together and make money."

Oh puhlease. :shakehead If I get this straight, Tony wants the sanctioning body, that he controls, as nothing more than a rules maker and a moniker so the teams, promoters, sponsors and manufacturers can come together and spend their money to build the series so they can make money yet never share any equity in it? :saywhat: Meanwhile Tony sits back in the pagoda and gets paid his tribute's by all involved for the rights to use his sanctioning body name and the rights to get to say we run at Indy in May? :laugh:

Don Vito George is missing a few ingredients in this mixture. Nobody cares enough about Indy anymore for that to be a key motivating factor. His race is no longer big enough to secure or insure anything. It no longer has the draw it had nor the power it used to have. Keep thinking like this Tony while poor Brian trys finding some manufacturer, any manufacturer to badge your junk motors while they pay you your tribute AND wind up doing all the lions share of the advertising for your league. :gomer:

KLang
07-06-05, 09:07 AM
But the fact they are talking and breaking bread together is enormous. Just think: Paul Newman, Kalkhoven, Curt Brighton (the IRL's legal counsel) and George dined together in Nazareth and nobody got up and walked out.

I've seen this reported as fact several times but I've never seen any actual quotes from anyone actually confirming it. Anyone know if this really happened? I'm skeptical.

pchall
07-06-05, 10:47 AM
I've seen this reported as fact several times but I've never seen any actual quotes from anyone actually confirming it. Anyone know if this really happened? I'm skeptical.

I'd put my money on this being a Fred Nation product. The IRL always stirs the pot right before a major CCWS race.

Brickman
07-06-05, 12:13 PM
I'd put my money on this being a Fred Nation product. The IRL always stirs the pot right before a major CCWS race.

That's what the TF boys always say when they have a race. Evidently it can never be that a story has to get written and not a fluff piece, so mole hills become mountains to catch reader's interest.

Andrew Longman
07-06-05, 01:51 PM
What Cart7 said. :thumbup:

Tony's tribute model might have worked 10 years ago before he screwed it up.

Oh and the FIA and NASCAR are not about making money? They are fabulous money making "conduits", and they don't have to underwrite teams or races, but that's because they didn't screw up their conduits.

TorontoWorker
07-06-05, 10:22 PM
This writer has been anti CART/Champ Car for years. People in the club I belong to have emailed, faxed and phoned this knob for years to correct his bia's and cheap Champ Car shots and it does no good. It does not faze him even when you walk up to him and stand 12 inches from his face and call him an assh0le... I know it's not the most mature thing to do - but it felt so good.

The thing here is: The Star is in a newspaper battle with the SUN. Guess who is the official Toronto Molson Indy paper and who isn't... This has been a sore point for 20 years with the Star. Whenever they can stick the kinfe in and twist - they do. They were soooo hoping that CART would get bought out by the IRL and then they would have a chance at getting in the race promo business with Tony. Good old Norris could fax all his articles trashing CART over the years and get right in there in the slop and roll around.

This guy is SO hated in this area. We outted the dude two years ago when he wrote a story on the ALMS race at Mosport and used the ALMS program from 2003 to do it. He wrote it as if he was at the track for the race. Gee, I see to remember him quoting a driver who was racing in F1 at the time for Toyota and how he was enjoying racing in the Audi, how tough Mosport was and how he was looking forward to Mosport, blah, blah, blah... The DATE man, read the F ing date on the guide when you try to scam the readers!

Boy was he pissed when he got 20 or 30 emails addressed to his boss in the sports dept. :D This all started because of our hate for the guy and his not wanting to show his face around Mosport. Maybe he should have asked for a current media guide? Anyway, this is what he is: A shrill for the Earl and a jealous little man.

He's full of **** concerning this Danica issue or everyone wondering where Tracy is at Indy. This town knows more about open wheel racers in Champ Car then most others. He makes us sound as if we are some backwater town that JUST got a race for the first time and has to be *ed u kate duh'd* about racing. What a dufus! Makes me want to confront him again. Oh wait... the threat about getting a restraining order... :rofl: I think I feel the need to rally our people again and start the email storm all over.

Maybe Molsons will listen to me and lose his FREE pass this year...

Jervis Tetch 1
07-07-05, 12:15 AM
Nation and company's always starting a lot of crap.