Horrendous Indy car crash in Vegas -- Update: RIP Dan Wheldon

Thanks for posting those. Good reads.

Man, I am not optimistic about the future of IndyCar at all. It's hard to argue with much of anything in either of those articles, but it's not like it's easy to implement what they're suggesting.

Yes, the racing would be better at Milwaukee, New Hampshire and Phoenix than at the 1 1/2 milers. But Milwaukee didn't work, no one went to New Hampshire and ISC owns Phoenix, with apparently very little interest in working with IndyCar on a race there. (I went to the final IRL race at Phoenix; horrible promotion and maybe 7k in the crowd.) You can make the argument that it's worth doing it anyway to try to rebuild the following, but the series can't afford to eat a loss on a bunch of races.

Same thing with the cars. Yes, it would be great to have different manufacturers, different designs, more horsepower, etc. At the same time, these teams can't afford anything beyond a spec series. (I thought it was funny that one of the articles suggested that the races are almost like GP2, like that was a disparaging comment. GP2 is about 10 times as entertaining as IndyCar.)

Beyond that, I see letter after letter to Curt Cavin's blog and all sorts of message board postings complaining about too many road and street courses. The way things are going, I think we'll see a lot more. Just look at the crowds at these races. The attendance at the ovals (outside of IMS) is TERRIBLE. They gave away tens of thousands of tickets to Vegas and still only had about 19k for the race. Meanwhile they're pulling something like 80k in Baltimore.

They've got to drop Vegas, obviously. Cavin says they're working on creating a Vegas street race in its place, which has already prompted a letter saying "If Vegas is a street race instead of the oval, I ain't going!" Which leads me to ask, what kind of sick fuck wants to see another IndyCar race at that track? I don't see how they keep Texas on the schedule with a clear conscience, either.

I don't envy Bernard right now. That series is hosed.

 

I know Kirby is a pretty well-respected guy, but every time I read/encounter him, he seems like a bitter old shill pining for the CART days, and here, he goes and finds someone who's equally bitter about decisions made at 16th and Georgetown. He's like a broken record, but it's pretty predictable -- IRL sucks, CART was great, and until we return to the CART glory days, OW racing is doomed.

And no offense to Marshall Pruett, but any series that's run 40% on street courses is going to suck. It's the worst of road racing (no passing) with the lack of safety of oval racing (walls), all at speeds of 100mph.

I'd love to go back to some of those old 1-mile ovals, but Nazareth and PPIR were euthanized by ISC, Milwaukee is practically in mothballs, Phoenix is an ISC track that has pretty much told the IRL it's not welcome, NHMS has never drawn well (New England is stock/modified country, IndyCars are a really foreign species there). Getting California back on the schedule is a real positive -- it's a bigger track and has always been a great open-wheel track (and Michigan needs to be back on the schedule, too), but some 1.5-milers aren't bad. Homestead was great before ISC ruined it by putting excess banking in the corners. Kentucky is a slightly flatter track and was a good draw until the IRL kept screwing with the date. Texas is the one real high-banked 1.5-miler that is a real concern, but one such race a year with a limited car count is enough.

I have no problem with a couple of 1.5-milers on the schedule, but an entire slate made up of them is a bit much.

I love Milwaukee, but there are questions as to whether or not that track will survive at all. PPIR was a GREAT track, but ISC bought it and basically shut it down so it can maybe, possibly, maybe build a track in Denver that will probably never be built. Same with Nazareth, which was also a great track. Gateway was a dud, but it would've fit the "short track, slow track" mantra that Pruett wants.

 

PPIR has reopened, but it's basically a test track now.

I think a WDW race timed with Speedweeks would be interesting, but that's only if Disney was willing to budge on the date.

 

I love WDW, but that would basically make two races in the same market, as St. Pete isn't that far away, pretty close to each other.

I remember part of the agreement when ISC owned the track was that no public racing could be held there -- it could be leased, but only for tests & "participant" shows.