Tony George makes another run for Champcar

They need to do something and be quick about it. If this doesn't happen, they'll both be invisible if they aren't already.

 

Such a very sad state of affairs for both leagues. The DP01 was supposed to be the savior of Champ Car, they definitely whiffed on that! I'd like to see both series combine, using the DP01 as the car.

 

When IRL started running road courses a few years ago, my thought was IRL was getting ready to take over many of the CHAMP races. Long Beach , for example. To me the writing was on the wall.

 

+1

 

Too late for 2008. And I would guess this entire thing is unlikely as the pricks that own ChumpCar will destroy the deal with their greed. If IRL can wait, let ChumpCar go away in two years.

 

Supposedly the Chump Car owners want 100,000,000 for the series from Tony George. Both series are lame now anyway. What Champ Car used to be in the 1990's even caused concern for Bernie.

 

Tony George holds the future of American Open Wheeled Speedway Racing, in his hands. I hope he perseveres and succeeds. I'm not gonna watch NASCAR, if TOYOTA, starts winning a bunch of races, as I have no interest in any of that show.

Ciao...Paolo

 

Too bad about ChampCar...
If Tony George gets it, it will be the end of open wheel racing in the US and Mexico. IRL is horrible - just open wheel NASCAR, but even more boring.
Very sad

 

Have to disagree with anyone that thinks Mr. George will be the reason for the demise of USA open wheel racing. The problem to begin with was team owners that thought they could run a racing series, namely Penske and Ganassi. Blame those two b******ds. Try to imagine if someone like Ron Dennis ran F1. It does not work.

The initial vestige of Champ Car started off with a pitiful accident on their very first lap of racing. An omen of their future demise.

In my humble opinion, like Tony George or not, he is the only one that can save USA open wheel racing. Period. The IRL concept seems to work as they have some of the best competitive racing on this planet. Their finishes in 2007 have been much more exciting than any F1 race, except maybe Brazil.

Even long time hold out Newman/Haas is finally going IRL:

Champ Car team co-owner Carl Haas plans to take his multiple title-winning team to the rival IndyCar Series in 2009 if a merger between the two championships cannot be agreed before then.

Haas, who owns Champ Car's most successful team Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing with Paul Newman an Mike Lanigan, told SpeedTV: "It hasn't happened yet but we've certainly considered going.

"It may not happen this year, but it's highly probably that we'll go for 2009 because there needs to be one series."

There have been several unsuccessful attempts to unify Champ Car and IRL in the 13 years since they split, but with only Paul Tracy, Graham Rahal and Oriol Servia confirmed so far for Champ Car this season, Indy boss Tony George is rumoured to have proposed a new deal to Champ Car bosses.

Team PKV co-owner and 1996 Champ Car champion Jimmy Vasser is eager for the two series to unite as soon as possible: "We've got to make a deal with Tony George," he said.

But Conquest Racing boss Eric Bachelart believes there are still issues that prevent a successful merger: "The problem I see is that the IRL and Tony [George] would want control and that's tough for the Champ Car guys," he said.

 

A bit off topic but; Who is the governing body of ALMS, Champcar, and IRL? I thought FiA managed everyone except down to the actual club and the less known national level series.

 

What Champcar had going for it were the street events, which were quite fun racing festival weekends. Unfortunately they were more expensive and harder to manage than having racing in a stadium. Champcars actually had to turn both left and right, and the brakes were necessary. Tony George is ONLY interested in his core business of superspeedway ovals where everyone goes around and around, keeping their foot flat and trying to avoid contact. At least NASCAR cars can bump and bang, not very feasible with open tires.

 

IRL has gone now gone road racing. IRL still puts on a better show than ChumpCar any day. IRL has the INDY 500. IRL has the better teams, now with Newman/Hass, they have virtually all the teams that count. Street events for the most part have failed. Long Beach and Monaco being the exceptions. Road racing is not the cure all for Amercian open wheeled racing.

Spectator interest is critical, and that is attracted by good competition. Watching that idiot Paul Tracy is not good competition.

At the end of the day, ChumpCar will gladly fail. Then you will see one series, with both the traditional oval and some road racing. Keep in mind, that American open racing is traditionally on ovals, not on road courses.

 

+1 Excellent Post.

 

Champ Car is not even a shadow of its former glory. At present it is a total joke of a professional series full of half rate pay drivers and millionare team / series owners with more pride than common sense to admit that the series is a commercial failure. As a regular spectator of the Toronto race the lack of spectator interest is VERY VERY obvious. Stands are only fractionally full and the local news bearly picks up on the event despite desperate promotional efforts on the part of the organizers. I am certain that this repeats at all of the other events and I can't imagine how much longer Champ Car can continue. There is just NO commercial interest in the series and it would be a fool who would invest their money there; they have NO future. Hopefully some kind of merger can occur before the millionares come to their senses or just get tired of beating a dead horse.

 

YES Hronis ,

You have very eloquently stated the situation for Champ Cars, and it started over money, power and control, by a group of owners, who could agree on things, long enough to take control and form, CART.

So now it dies a natural death...the market-place determines it's fate. We need something in this country that will include the INDIANAPOLIS 500. I hope the PHOENIX will rise from the flames, and fly again.

Ron, what does the blue rose mean on your avatar?

Yiassou...Polihronis

 

In history and in legend, the blue rose is the ultimate prize, as it is not thought to exist in nature. To find a blue rose, and then to give it to a woman is to tell her she is one of a kind, beautiful, and desired. It means the ultimate in love.

And if she doesn't bang your brains out she is scum. ;}

 

Theoretically, they are all members of the FiA through ACCUS, but unlike much of European racing, the FIA dos not get involved in American motorsports.

Some of the members of FiA are:

Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC)
American Automobile Association (AAA)
American Automobile Touring Alliance (AATA)
ASN Canada FIA (ASN),
Automobilclub von Deutschland (AvD),
Automobile Association of the Philippines (AAP)
Automobile Club de France (ACF)
Automobile Club d'Italia (ACI)
Automobile Competition Committee for the United States (ACCUS)
Auto-moto Savez Srbije (AMSS)
Camping and Caravanning Club (CCC)
Confederação Brasileira de Automobilismo (CBA)
Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS)
Elliniki Leshi Periigiseon ke Aftokinitou (ELPA)
Federação Portuguesa de Automobilismo e Karting
Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI)
Hong Kong Automobile Association (HKAA)
Ikatan Motor Indonesia (IMI)
Japanese Automobile Federation (JAF)
Magyar Nemzeti Autósport Szövetség (MNASZ),
Motor Sports Association (MSA)
Polski Związek Motorowy (PZM)
Royal Automobile Club (RAC)
The Automobile Association (AA)


ALMS is basically the former IMSA, ChampCar and IRL stand on their own weak knees.

 

Ain't that the TRUTH!

Ciao...Paolo

 

The ultimate ego game, except Tony G owned "the ball". Without the Indy 500, any open wheel series is a dead horse in the US. Chumpcar owners have stopped throwing money into all the teams and there is no commeercial interest, only Long Beach (a pitance of it's former glory days of the 70s/80s) and maybe Cleveland showed promise. Were IRL to take over and produce an 11 month long season, again balancing ovals/street and the best road courses, the teams could afford to survive with good outside sponsorship. (Oh, they need to nix Gene Simmons though!!) At present, A1GP is a place for upcoming sponsored kids to go and be recognised internationally.

B.

 

Who would have thought in 96 that this would have gone on this long. A billionaire ego maniac vs a changing group of multi millionaire ego maniacs. Champ car certainly can't survive 08 with TV coverage that is 1 and 1/2 hour race recaps. We will see what the future holds for open wheel in the US as sports car racing grows and grows. Look at the France family show on right now. Those France's can see a larger billboard on a sports car than an open wheel car. Smart guys.

But some facts remain. The IRL car is a pig and the close oval finishes are the result of a car with a ton of downforce and no motor that the skill level to drive at these speeds dropped. Just ask Paul Danna. Oh no, we can't.

Champ car starts scheduling races in Europe without consulting Ford. Ford is pissed and bails on the motor program. What a bunch of Bozo's.

If you are going to have a spec car series the Panoz Champ car is the best car, but how can they sell it to TG when the IRL's biggest support over the years has been Honda motors.

Hass may go to the IRL but Paul Neuman never will. Hass is also a little busy moving Lola back into US sports cars. Ah Ha, sports car racing getting the big guys attention again.

The goods news is that as NASCAR fades a bit, racing in the US is strong and when F1 returns in 2009 all will be right.

 

IRL is run by an idiot scion, worse.

It's easy to orchestrate "exciting" finishes if ol' Gus can throw a full course caution every time anyone stretches out a lead.

 

Excellent post Michael. I remember going to Long Beach back in 2003 and saying this is the last Champ Car race I will ever watch live, that is after not missing a Long Beach Race since 83.

 

Interesting how some here are first to condemn Tony George, or even Bernie and Max. Facts remain as to the course of action that led from the old USAC clan with intermidiate steps to CART to the current debacle with ChumpCar and the IRL.

I disagree. Completely. With any of your assessments about the IRL. I would guess that the opinion of Tony's person is probably correct, but then I do know how many of you know him personally to be accurate with your comments. I would also guess that some of your negative opinions came about because you took sides when the CC/IRL split first took place. I would guess you really do not know what you are talking about.

I took sides. I chose the side where most of the teams went, certainly not TG's IRL. But then those greedy wealthy idiot morons like Penske and Ganassi had the nerve to schedule their first race at Michigan International the same day as the Indy 500, with about 400,000 spectators already having paid their hard earned money for Indy 500 tickets, airfare, hotels, etc. I had tickets to both, planned on going to MIS. Then I realized how completely anal, selfish, egotistical is was for this group to schedule their premier event the same day forcing spectators to make a choice.

I did not go to MIS, nor did I go to Indy that year. But I will tell you how absolutely pleased I was as I watched these so called professional teams look like the idiots, that they truly are, to the world as the race was TV broadcast and on the very first lap they had a major accident stopping the race. No one hurt. Sweet revenge for their overblown egos. It has been downhill since then, with 90% of the better teams finally switching to IRL. The only other moment of of equal sweet revenge was watching Penske fail to qualify for the Indy 500.

I chose to go to the first IRL event at Disney, enjoyed it, and started to attend more. I would go to the Cart races at MidOhio but quickly realized taking my daughter to Cedarpoint was more fun, so I quit.

As I said before, you do not have to like Tony George, or Max, or Bernie, to understand that the only way a race series can run is by removing the teams from the controlling process. So far, only TG has stepped forward to take over American open wheeled racing. Obviously, not everyone's first choice. But someone had to do it. And when there finally is one series, and TG's money will allow it to grow and finally succeed, many of you will continue to complain about TG as you do about Max and Bernie. Go figure.

Last time I looked, F1 was doing pretty well, and not one driver or team owner has publically condemned Max or Bernie. I would suggest the same will hold true about TG and the revised Indy/Champ Car league when the Indy 500 once again see a spectator count approaching 500,000 in the next 5 years.

Which by the way belongs on ovals as is tradition. Just my opinion.

And if F1 returns to the USA, it will very likely also be because of that venomous Tony George. May he rot in hell, but only after he brings back F1 and forms one American open wheeled series.

 

Champ car from 90-95 was so strong that, as some have said, it worried Bernie to the point of insisting on changes to the track at Montreal so lap times could not be compared.

Facts that can't be denied are that TG started the fight that put US open wheel in the toilet. He started it and at the time stated "I take my hammer to work everyday".

On the other hand without the Penske's and the George's, businessmen with racing in their blood, the product would probably suffer.

I truly appreciate the fact that TG brought F1 to Indy and probably got a raw deal from Bernie. Hopefully this will soon be corrected.

That being said, the IRL car was and is a pig. There are stats that prove this.

You didn't really go to that race in the parking lot at Disney World, did you?