I thought this was really cool - some nice shots of the cars, if not brief: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tnrmTrE5Yg[/ame]
I could never say it better than you have, kudos sir. The only thing I can surmise is they don't want a team with an unlimited budget coming in and dominating everything. Read the book 'Beast' - that had to cost some serious coin. The only racing I see as truly fun anymore is the local ovals and dirt tracks, and even that is losing a lot of its' lustre as the cost of a decent dirt car, engines, spares, are about the same as what an Indy car cost in the late 70's. And if you want to follow and do well in a national traveling series, that's not far away from 7 figures.
I agree, but there might be away around that - set a budget "cap", each team can only spend x $ on a car / season. Or, have 3 chassis and 3 engine options that cost x $. Maybe a more expensive chassis handles better, but the more expensive engine has more HP, and the budget is such that you couldn't purchase both. And if they are he'll bent on staying spec, my god the Dallara is disgustingly ugly. Even then, the Dallara IL-15 Indy Lights is SO much better looking - use that! The museum visit seriously increased my interest in the series because the history is so storied. We might never get back to the glory days, but I don't feel the series is doing enough to regain the interest of years past.
Remove the specifaction sheet they call a rule book and you just might. Innovation reduces costs not raising them. When you have fewer $$$$ you find a way to go faster, build cheaper. Smokey's 73 Eagle/Chevy was living proof that you can run fast without big $$$$ He scared the crap out of the owners when he built a small block for about 1/3 of an Offy. When a rule book is used....you get creative. That is why there are no hero's anymore. We remember the names Bignotti, Watson, Brawner, etc. Care to name the creative names of Indy Car now?
tonight's race in Texas delayed by rain...until 9:45pm Eastern time. why not just delay until tomorrow, when some people might actually watch?
They'll be at Road America this Wed for testing. I feel a fever coming on and may have to 'find a Dr' in the Elkhart Lake area
head to head with F1 in Montreal, wonder what Bernie thinks of that will be interesting to see what the ACO does with Dixon. I bet they'll threaten to not let him race.
big crash for Newey and Daly, and now it's raining sideways. I think we're done for the weekend. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Sounds as though the whole weekend was a debacle for Indy Car in Texas. Just read they've rescheduled the race for mid-August. Ah yes, central Texas in mid-August. It should only be about 110F in the shade. BHW
I think the date is August 27 but yeah, it will be blazing hot even as a night race. they should have started yesterday's race at 11am and at least gotten to halfway and moved on.
Admittedly, I missed the Saturday and Sunday Indy Car broadcast from Texas. But, from images I saw, it appeared there couldn't have been more than 2,000-3,000 spectators in the grandstands. So, the question is, why would it be worth while for Indy Car to return in August? BHW
I remember the Texas race where they were averaging 238 mph, the body could not handle that. I don't recall what they did or how that ended, I like speed, but at 238mph that's no longer racing. To me, anything above about 200-210 isn't racing - it's a speed contest.
I'll add to that - racing at WHATEVER speed (but surely at higher speeds) with this much downforce is NOT racing. Pack racing is dangerous and stupid, but this has been asked for many times here. High horsepower cars, low downforce. You have to DRIVE THE CAR, not let the car drive you.
I kinda like the idea Robin Miller brought up during the rainy broadcast of holding a few races during the year on a weeknight and using this Texas make-up race as an experiment to test the theory that weeknight racing will draw a more captive, new to Indycar television audience, not to mention fans of other types of racing (NASCAR..etc). Additionally, a weeknight race doesn't have the deluge of sports competition you go against unlike the weekends. I don't think Robin was the first to bring up this idea, but it seems like a perfect opportunity to try it. The physical attendance sucks no matter when they hold it, so try to get more of a tv audience with a weekday run. Of course this is a moot point given they rescheduled for another weekend.
broken collar bone and hand. he'll be out for a couple of months, but should be back by the end of the season.
It's not a bad idea in principle, but I think the idea of getting a new audience is what ruined them in the first place. The fascination with NASCAR bit Tony George in the ass, he was completely outmaneuvered by the France family, which saw IndyCar as a major threat (it was). IndyCar needs to be IndyCar. Not SCCA Plus, not F1 lite, not "rubbin' is racin'" NASCAR. We need innovation, shade tree mechanics, multiple engine types, homegrown chassis, limited aero, big time power, and a cast of characters that would make John Force blush. Last week, I took a walk through the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum. It was like walking among ghosts...I literally looked at some of the items with awe and said "I remember when that happened". It's a shell of what it was, it has to go back to the past to get it into the future.
I agree with everything but the highlighted parts. these cars are way too complicated for shade tree mechanics. hell, NASCAR is too complicated for shade tree mechanics at this point. and homegrown chassis aren't really feasible in the era of CAD/CAM carbon fiber construction. now I think there should be multiple chassis-I'd love to see Multimatic, Penske, Swift and others bring new chassis-but something made by Bubba and Jim Bob out in the barn isn't going to suffice.
With all due respect.......I'll match Smokey Unich types against anyone out there right now. These people have no creative ideas nor do they have any ideas to lowering the costs, let alone raise the speeds. I agree with rdefabri....time to reset the clock and go back so we can move forward.
I wonder if the introduction of graphene to motorsports, which everyone says is the future of virtually every single component of the future racecar will allow for the Smokey Yunich guys to return. I don't know much about graphene other than it's multitudes stronger and cheaper than carbon fibre. I assume somebody in F1 will create a graphene chassis within the next 5 years.
Yea, fair enough - it's not really "homegrown", but at least multiple manufacturers. Still, some of these shade tree guys are pretty creative, and if they need to meet certain criteria for safety and materials, then that would be cool.
