Sunday, December 9, 2007

Is two really better than one?




















On Monday I had to trek up to my favorite local watering hole in order to watch the Hoosiers play basketball (I will thank Comcast/Brighthouse/insert cable company for being assholes). While there, I struck a conversation with a regular that I know. He happens to work in the open wheel motorsports world, which I just happen to enjoy very much. We were discussing some of the off season events and news, and he explained to me that Champ Car and Indy Racing League were both going to conduct a test a Homestead Miami Speedway later in the week for Firestone/Bridgestone (IRL runs Firestone tires, and Champ Car runs Bridgestone, but they are the same company). I found this a little hard to believe as the two series do NOT get along. Champ Car supporters blame Tony George for the down fall of American Open Wheel Racing, as he started his own league in 1996. Since then, and actually starting before that, AOWR was in a decline, but nothing like it has been since the "split" of CART. Well, I asked a few of the journalists, via email, if they were aware of this test. I got no positive responses to this. Well, I was told correct as Robin Miller wrote this little tidbit today on Speed's Website,


"12 years and several failed attempts by different individuals, the two
major open wheel racing series in this country finally got back together.
But it was only for a one-day tire test at Homestead, Fla. Last Tuesday,
the PKV team from Champ Car shared the track with the Indy Racing League's Andretti-Green stable for a Bridgestone/Firestone test. Oriol Servia and AGR
teammates Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick ran together on the 2.3-mile,
11-turn road course inside Homestead-Miami Speedway. No official times were
released but witnesses said Servia's Panoz/Cosworth was about three seconds
a lap quicker than AGR's Dallara/Honda, mainly because of the long
straightaway. No media was allowed because, supposedly, neither sanctioning
body wanted people to read too much into this brief unification."

Really, they didn't want people to read too much into it? Why would that be? Maybe somebody would actually ask them( again!) to explain all of this to the actual fans that pay money to watch there cars race. Maybe there sponsors wouldn't want to have any exposure for all that money that they pay for the teams to participate. Couldn't be any of those reasons, obviously. So what the hell is going on? I can only reason to believe that Firestone/Bridgestone wanted this test to cut their own costs and probably did a very good job of convincing both sides that this IS how it was going to go down. I am not going to lie, I love the Indy Car Series, for there is one word in that sequence that I can't part with, "INDY". The Indianapolis 500 is coined "The Greatest Spectacle In Racing", and I believe it to be. I would like nothing more than there to be 40 cars trying to get into the field of 33, but it won't happen until there is one series, and even then I doubt that it would make it to 40 cars entered. It has been discussed a million times, that the payout needs to be greater and one series needs to be in place. Champ Car is essentially non-existent in the Midwest, and actually America for most of the year. So, for a test to take place with both series at one track it is NEWS. I am sorry that the pompous asses that run both series don't want to actually do their job, and answer tough questions, but is it really about them? The fans (and sponsors) deserve to have the answers presented to them, otherwise Napcar will continue to dominate with their brand of sub par entertainment, which is the sad state that this whole thing is in.

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