Robin Miller just posted these eight suggestions: 1) Current $10 million purse in not enough. Daytona paid out $18 million, Indy should be $10 million to win $500,000 to start. A title sponsor would be necessary. 2) All but four starters for this race are in Dallaras. The attraction years ago was the fact that there were numerous chassis from Guerneys, to Coyotes, McLarens, etc. Time to change the rules to attract more chassis to the event. The only chassis rules would be height weight and width. No carbon fiber, no serious electronics. 3) Make all the cars flat bottom. This will "separate the racers from the imposters". 4) Change engine rules to allow V-8's, V-6's, anything that can get 2MPG on race day. 5) Opening day should be open to all drivers and cars, not just rookies, and it should be free to the public. 6) The fastest car of each practice period gets a $20,000 reward. 7) Reduce qualifyng to two days. Pole should get $1 million vs $100,000 today. First day of qualifying should lock in 28 cars. Then there should be a 25 lap race to determine tha final 5 spots. 8) Either move the race back to 11 AM as it used to be, or change the race day to be on Memorial Day so as to not compete with the NASCAR event. This would allow drivers like tony Stewart to run both races which would add to the spectator draw.
I for one could care less about NASCAR driver's trying to do the "two a day" and I doubt Tony will race against Danika because... *whiny Tony voice* "She has a huge weight advantage"........... LOL! Didn't they pull Robin's credentials? No I think that was Champ Car......I dunno. I think when one of those girls kills themselves it's gonna be a sad day........I think they should compete but at the current level of experience I don;t they they are 'there' yet'. But as AJ defended lil' Anthony that first year..... "You get the experience out there running the race......"
They just need to merge IRL, Champ, CART, and whatever the others are so that we have one major open-wheel series to seriously compete with nascar. and combine the best tracks and drivers from both.
Indy is THE American race. Sounds crazy but it deserves a month to itself. I agree with most but Carbon Fibre is here to stay, thankfully. There is apparently enough desire already to fill the field with talent. The trick is to attract a bigger audience ($).
What he said. I used to go to the Indy 500 and watch it on TV when it meant something. Indy 500 in Europe rang as loud as the Monaco GP. Once they split and filled the ranks with meaningless drivers it became a joke. If they ever merge again, they should erase the winners from the trophy from the years in between.
All they gotta do is look at some old footage from the 80's and 90's till 96. Then they'll know what they gotta do. This, half assed, Tony George creation, isn't cutting it. I think they should have Tony George dragged out into the the street and shot. He's a prick for doing what he did to ruin such a great series that CART was. I hope he's ashamed of himself, but knowing how the thinks he probably thinks he did a wonderful thing....................
Can't agree with you. From my perspective, I blame the then CART team owners, Penske, Patrick and Ganassi, for destroying CART. No other major race series in the world is run by the teams, CART was beginning to slide downward because of those egos before George made his move. So if want to take someone out and shoot, it would more appropriate to take aim at the three I mentioned. You do not have to like Tony George, but his concept originally was sound. I do say originally, as today it seems to have gone in another direction. At least there is a single individual that runs the series. In my opinion, it is the current Champ Car series that is futile. They are the ones that should merge with the IRL, or at minimum go out of business.
Here is the problem, I have said it before, and I will no doubt say it again: TELEVISION RUINED ALL RACING. As soon as it got on TV 'all the time', advertisers and promoters were all over it. Guys like Penske and Pat Patrick saw where it was going, and were all over it. I have yet to see where 'money' coming into ANY sport has not screwed it up. You wanna know what I think they need to do ? Go look at the cars of the late 60's up until about 1990, and try to go back to that EXCEPT mandate carbon fibre monococques. I still see video on youtube of guys building cars for the Indy 500 in their home 2-car garages, and bringing them to the races in an open trailer, or a 2-car enclosed trailer. I just don't know how you can 'go back to the basics' and NOT have someone with deep pockets come in and dominate. Look at AGR Racing, Penske and Ganassi in Indy cars, Hendrick, RCR and Roush in stock cars. Penske switched to IRL a few years ago, struggled for about 2 years, but did anyone think he would struggle for very long ? Nope. We all knew money - which can buy and hire the right people and equipment - will win. Always has. Here's the one exception: Toyota. In both F1 and stock cars. We will see where they are in about 2 years. To me, Indy racing died when every team that wanted to be competitive HAD to hire an 'Aerodynamicist', HAD to get into a wind tunnel, and HAD to hire a 'Team Engineer'. Go to youtube and just type in 'indy 500' and you will see some decent footage from the great era, and it will put a smile on your face. And it will also show you some clips of the most violent racing accident in the history of the Indy 500 (Gordon Smiley).
When I saw who had these ideas I knew it had no chance in hell. Robin Miller, is the last person, that Tony George would ever listen to. He fired him from IRL, because Tony couldn't get him to follow the happy IRL party line. Robin Miller, is probably one of the few reporters that will tell the truth about racing's shortcomings. He's the only reason I watch the Speed Report on Speed channel.
This is applicable to Penske in ALMS. Had major component failures first year running the Spyders. P2 was won by the privateer team. Privateer team no longer in P2 - hard to compete against "factory support". Interestingly enough, those Spyders received an invite to LeMans but didn't even make the pretense of going - they would have to conform to ACO regs and probably be beaten by the LMP2 cars currently running in Europe. Carol
I sure miss Al Unser (Sr.), Tom Sneva, Rick Mears, Jerry Grant, Jimmy Malloy, 'That damned Coogan' (remember that ?), Lone Star JR, etc.
I watched the last 11 laps of the '95 Indy 500 on YouTube, which the uploader said "the last TRUE 500." I still didn't find it that exciting. I'm just not into oval racing I guess...
An interesting caveat would be the Indy 500 itself. No doubt the highest grossing event when it was in its heyday. I think Tony George couldn't care less about what we think. He is making huge money on the Indy 500 and B-yard 400. Soon he'll have a motorcycle race there to have his own triple crown of motor racing. He has sponsors, spectators, and money. What is it exactly that is wrong with Indycar? (said sarcastically)
Agreed. Everything about "the look" of the sport back then was different. It was still an era of hard-nosed warriors, with cool sponsorships and unique cars. Remember when we first saw the Pennzoil Chapparal? That was my first 500 in person, with Al Unser running away from the field before puttering out. Other names for the list: Gordon Johncock. Pancho Carter. The Whittington brothers.
-Make Indy an event in itself, standing alone, NOT part of any series. -Go back to the old qualif system. It was a whole month of spectacle and the elimination/qualification process was interesting in itself. -Attract the best drivers, owners from any series to enter the qualification, selection, race. Indy used to attact F1 , dirt-track, USAAC, stockcars, sportcars, midget drivers... -Change the regulations to bring more diversity (more chassis builders, different types of engines - equivalency 2 v. 4 valves, 8 v. 10 or 12 cylinders, or pushrods v. OHCs, reduce aerodynamics, different types of engines - diesel, bio, turbine, hybrid, etc... The 60s were probably the most interesting with a variety of engines/chassis combinations. The present restrictions are killing the spectacle: who wants to watch 33 identical cars racing? Not me!!
Lots of great ideas. Only one person we have to convince...TONY GEORGE. I remember when Indy was the highest paying race for the winner in the US and probably the world. Looks to me like NASCAR has the oval racing audience figured out...and the fans. How do you get them interested in open wheel racing...maybe IRL needs to do more road courses.
Yeah I always thought the cars were ugly as hell. They just don't excite me, even the Champcars eclipse them, in my opinion.
