Racing Eagles

Thursday Thoughts: Public money and motorsports

Looks like I've gotten myself into something again. I volunteered to do the Thursday Thoughts this week.

So here is my question:

Is government finance of Formula One events, teams, and personal a good thing for the common good of that area? What is the line between regional economic investment and the wholesale fleecing of the public? 

I know an answer to this question usually incites knee jerk reactions. On one end you have people who scowl at millionaires asking for taxpayers money to build them a new pleasure palace for their gladiators to play. On the other end you have the fans of that sport lauding the proposal and touting their sport's positive impact.

A 10 point plan for the IRL.

The IRL is in trouble. There is no way getting around that.

Danica looks like she is slowly moving towards NASCAR, fan interest is fading, and the interest of the George family seems to be waning with the series.

The series took the first crucial step in throwing Tony George off the ship. Believe me it was long past due. He steered the not so good ship IRL into the wilderness. Now they need a plan to bring it back.

I don't claim to be an expert, (I just play one on the internet) but here are some thing that I think can help bring open-wheel racing back to the forefront of the North American racing scene.

1: Choices, choices, choices: I don't understand the desire to go with a single engine and chassis supplier for the IRL. To be honest, I think it has hurt the series more than helped. Think about it this way. How many single chassis and engine racing series are there in the world. Just off hand I can think of GP2, F2, Formula Renault, A1GP, Formula BMW, and Formula 3000. How is the IRL different from any of those series?

The IRL needs to be different. It needs to find a niche that is different from all of those series. The first step in being different is to open up the paddock. It needs to be open to chassis designers and engine suppliers. A good model to follow is what Grand Am has done with the Daytona Prototypes class. The class has about a dozen different engine and chassis suppliers that brings all sort of unpredictability to the races. It allows smaller teams like Action Express Racing to race and win against the big boys at Ganassi Racing. 

So instead of deciding on a chassis or on a engine, let's bring them all in and see who can do it on the track.

SpeedTV: Nick Craw on Windtunnel

Recently selected as the Senate President for the FIA, Nick Craw went on Windtunnel last Sunday to discuss the FIA, USF1, and the U.S. Grand Prix.

The challenges the new FIA President faces.

Jean Todt has won the the FIA Presidency today. Todt takes over for Max Mosley as the head of the world’s largest motoring organization. However when the champagne hangovers end and Todt steps into his new office at the Place de la Concorde, he will have to start picking up the pieces of a fundamentally broken organization.

Under the tenure of Max Mosley, the FIA resembles less of a motor sporting adjudication / automotive association and more of a politburo.

It is an organization whose leadership cares more about political games then doing their job.

Three ways to improve the Indy 500 and the IRL.

The IRL is in shambles. I know the last several blog posts has focused a little too much on this, but hey... it's my blog. I think the reason why I care so much about this is that I want open racing to be strong again in the states. I want it like in the late eighties, early nineties when CART packed in the crowds nation wide and the Indy 500 was THE race. I don't know if that makes me a nostalgic sap or not, but I think we can have those times yet again.

However, for those good times to come back, the sport really needs to take a very close look at itself. In my view, there are some very serious flaws in how the series operates, marketed, and how the ownership view the series. I hope with a change in in leadership at the IRL, that things will change. Here are some suggestions.

So here is my three point plan to save the Indy 500 and the IRL.

- Recruit and keep drivers around that people can relate to. It is ironic... one of the chief complaints that Tony George gave when he set up the IRL in 1995 is that their were too many foreigners drivers in CART. Well Mr. George, how do you like the field in the IRL now? The top two teams (Penske and Ganassi) in the series have drivers which are all born out of North America. There hasn't been a North American driver who has won the drivers championship since 2002. There hasn't been a driver from North America who have won more than two races in a year since 2006. The lack of a strong domestic presence on the grid was one of the leading factors of why I believed that CART fell apart.

Tony George gives up control of the IRL and Indy

It was time for Tony to leave. The IRL needs fresh leadership if it is ever going to survive and Indy needs to modernize the event to be relevant again in the eyes of American and world motorsports.

I’ve always been critical of George. The IRL-CART split was a disaster which he was one of the main instigators. This he one of the main people responsible for destroying open wheel racing in America. For many people like me who are old CART fans, we will never forgive him for that.

However he revitalized Indy with a remarkable makeover of the circuit and tried to make the track a international center of motorsports. There was successes (the NASCAR race,) disappointments (the MotoGP race last year barely making a profit,) and disasters (U.S. Grand Prix.)

As much as I don’t like the guy for what he did to open racing in the states, I have some sympathy for him because the way that FOM and the FIA treated him. This was a man whose company put tens of millions into updating the track and bringing a F1 event to the states, only for the sport to treat him and motorsports fans in the states like crap. 2002 was a joke; however the 2005 race will always be remembered as an unmitigated disaster for F1 over here in America.

The repercussions can still be felt as no-one in the United States wants to host an F1 race. Everyone saw what happened at Indy and does not want any part of Formula One.  Frankly no race organizer in the states is stupid enough to cave into Bernie and Max for their ridiculous, extortionistic, and apparatchik ways of running a racing series. After all, why put your butt on the line when the FIA and FOM will treat you in the same way which they treated Indy in 2005?

Say what you want about the IRL, but at least the tracks and teams focus on the fans and keep the racing front and center. These and many other things are apart of the complex legacy of Mr. George's tenure at IMS.

I hope with both Max Mosley and Tony George leaving their respective jobs, it will bring the same thing to both the IRL and Formula One that they desprately need; fresh blood and ideas to make the sport more relevant to their audiences.