http://www.racer.com/conway-withdraws-from-oval-racing/article/258983/ Hangover from his Indy wreck I presume? [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZsfEGlQRLk[/ame]
or this one... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZy-tPkZ3W4[/ame] he was also in the race at Vegas that killed Wheldon, though not involved in the accident. after the practice day at Fontana, the Indycar guys are pretty stressed about the race this weekend...Will Power said something to the effect of "it will be 3 to 4 hours of clenched buttocks and holding your breath". so no, I don't really blame him. question becomes, what happens to his career...can't really race in Indycars without doing ovals, certainly not full time. so does he go back to Europe? sports cars in the US? journeyman driver finding one-off road course rides as available in Indycar?
I don't blame him at all. Takes some huge nuts to come out and give up your seat for minimally the ovals if not completely due to attitude about his perspective up and down the paddock - which will be that if you don't want to play someone else will take your seat... It should be an interesting race in CA this weekend as there should be multiple racing lines so the racing should be exciting. MB
Mike Conway seems like a very serious and thoughtful young man. No doubt, his surviving his crash at Indy shook him up as the impact was freighteningly similar to Wheldon's horrendous shunt last year. There were also three shunts in testing at Fontana on Wednesday including Hunter-Reay, Viso and Briscoe which may have shaken Conway up even more. It may be recalled that Schumacher stated that he would not do Indy or other American ovals which he wrote off as too dangerous. One area where Indy Car seems to have made this year is in the safety aspect and drivers seem to be using their heads. We sure don't need a repeat of last year's devistating finale. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102486 BHW
It isn't for everybody, even the qualified. Respect due to those who compete. Conway is fast, plenty of room for him somewhere else .
a thought I had last night, Ed Carpenter is good on the ovals and bad on the road/street courses, maybe Ed & Mike share a car? similar to what Bourdais and Legge are doing this year (although under difference circumstances)
I would disagree. He doesn't have the "nuts" to race on ovals.Giving up your seat comes from one thing and one thing only, you either produce or your done. He needs to find a road racing car team to run for. Indy & ovals are for one type of person and having big stones is a requirement.
I don't. At the time of the post though I didn't realize he had endured a "harrowing" practice session so I thought the timing was a bit odd. He gave it a chance and he knows his limits. Kudos to him to step up and step out instead of just riding it out, which wouldn't be fair to the team and could possibly be dangerous on track.
I hope he saved his bacon. Cunningham just walled his now ex-car. Hard to believe it was 12 years ago I was watching Gil average 241 mph around that place, man was fast. It looked like he was doing every bit of the 265+ on the straights. Incredible to see, feel, and hear. Also hard to believe it was ten years ago I was at the last real race there, before the crappy slow-asss cars of the earl took over. I miss real racing, in real race cars.
You and about 10 million other fans!!! And Paul Tracy was clocked at 263 mph on the backstretch back then.
Sorry, I meant I was there, live, in the pits that day. Unfortunately there weren't 10 million others there, but the place was way fuller than any races of the current crap cars ever could hope to be.
During the CART era, there where about ten million fans worldwide and we just loved Indy Car racing. I would go to about 4-5 races a year and NEVER missed them on TV. Now, I don't even care. Crapwogons are as dumb as demolition derby!!!! The sad part is you will never know if any of the current drivers will be measured with drivers of the past.The skill to drive these cars isn't that much.
Indeed. I have been to well over 150 open wheel races, mostly CART both as a fan, team guest, and for work. Never seen a crapwagon, never going to. I still have many friends involved with the sport. I talked with a current cheif engineer for a "top" EARL team the other day, the crews and drivers all think the current crapwagon is a piece of crap and bad to drive. Don't let what they must say in public fool you. Those that drove Lolas, Reynards, and to a lesser extent DPo1s, all long to drive a real race car again and long to race in front of fans more than once or twice a year. I miss the days when summer was dictated by what race I would be at any given weekend.
As a former Indy Car mechanic, I still have friends in the sport and on the fringes, and all agree that it......SUCKS! Most want the rules of the 80's-90's where you build to the rules instead of "spec" racing. It was fun to watch your work when a race was March/Lola/Penske and any other chassis with 9 different engine packages at your disposal. Not to mention aero, shocks, gearboxes, wings, older cars, new cars and everything in between. And the long lost phrase that so many of us lived for.......you know the one.............."Its A New Track Record" !!!!!!!
You lived for and and the drivers died for it. I'm all for opening up some room for innovation but not at the expense of a drivers safety, i'm sure you would agree though. As stated before the problem is pretty much $$. So the top 3-4 teams pour more money into their teams while the little guys can't afford to compete.
Drivers died at 150 mph, Drivers died at 175 mph, Drivers died at over 200 mph. Cold hard fact that drivers die in race cars. Even with all the safety, Dan Weldon died. The fans lost interest beacuse the sport died. When the sport returns to what it was, you will get back interest. I work on cars because I like too! I worked on Indy Cars because I LOVED too. This pile of crapwagons isn't Indy Car!!! Indy Cars are about one thing and one thing only.........being FASTER than everyone else. When we hear track records being broken and new speeds being obtained, fans will return as will engineers, mechanics and the rest who want to go FASTER !!!!! Money is a secondary issue. The bigger problem is when an owner spends 20 million to go win 2 million. Poor business in my opinion. The business model Indy Car runs under is more of the problem.
News flash: they ALL have had 'harrowing' incidents, most folks have had several. You, me and most everyone else. Lawsuits in the name of 'safety' took care of that for us. I was going to say the exact same thing! How to explain this without getting flamed... Drivers know the odds every time they get on the track. Drivers have died in airplanes, helicopters, bicycles, and walking, death is a part of life, you cannot escape it. But with that said, the safety innovations developed over the years are HUGE, now they need to find a way to open it up again do folks can develop the CARS and engines again, they need some sort of ground rule or limit, and as long as the limit is not exceeded, all is well. Just like when nascar put out the 358 cid rule to kill the 427's and 429's. Alas, limits can be met all kinds of ways, better things can be created, and we are back to the 'he that has the most money wins'. Just look back at IRL before Penske got in, after he got in the $$$ it took to compete at the front all of a sudden got a lot more expensive. That's NOT a knock on Penske, it's an example of what money and top-level organization (read=money) can do. You look at ANY team in ANY series and you will see the team at the top is the one with the most $$$ or close to it - OR have an affiliation with the very top teams. Money IS the issue. Even in dirt racing, those with the most money win. The rules are tight, but if you can afford a new set of tires for every race, multiple spare cars and engines, and especially the more expensive titanium, carbon fibre and other exotic parts, you weigh less, which means you can move weight around to optimize your chassis setup. Money IS the issue in just about any sport, not just motorsports.
PS - have any of you looked up-close at an indy car from 1960-1976 or so? How in the f*** anyone would want to drive one of them back then is beyond me, as you are sitting between fuel cells with no real 'bladders', and then look at the cars of today. The thing is, back then, it WAS state of the art, they WERE the best cars out there, so nobody thought twice about driving one because if you DID think about it, you got killed. Heck, I remember when 170mph was ungodly fast at Indy, and the racing was terrific! Moral of my story is you can't compare yesterday to today.
But as I stated when you spend 20 million to win 2 million it is bad business. One of the problems is that racing is not self sustaining. With sponsorship (a subsidy from someone else) most teams can't spend the stratospheric budgets they have. Money helps and it hurts. Limits to rules rarely stop this. Example: Penske, Who spends the most in a 'spec" series????? He spends far more than everyone else and it hasn't changed one thing. He and Ganassi still win the most. When Jim Hall types come in with "innovation" and a proper budget, they can win also. But spending everyone into oblivion simply because...a) you can....and ...b) you have to win to justify even bigger budgets from your sponsors only creates the monster you now must feed until it dies. Based on TV & fan attendance, it just about has. When small guys can't afford to race, they move on to something else and with it so do most fans. Fans come to see their favorites, not just a chosen few. Indy of the 60's 70's & 80's offered just that, a wide variety of cars, drivers, engines and budgets to fit all. Today it is simply a rich man's game.
