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Idiot Racing League

Discussion in 'Other Racing' started by brian.s, Apr 29, 2008.

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  1. brian.s

    brian.s F1 Rookie
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    Nov 3, 2003
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    Local rumors are for AT&T, being pee'd off at Nascrap and Sprint, going to fund the IRL for 10 years @ 10mil per. Would pay for TGs expense to kill off Chumpcar
     
  2. BigTex

    BigTex Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    It's technically "small" at&t since they were taken over by Southwestern Bell........check the truck logos you'll see what I mean.....

    I think the merger will be good for everybody once schedule issues are resolved.

    NASCAR has gotten so big any one sponsor doesn't stand out much...not that there's any great brain trust at the top of at&t, IMO.....makes sense from an eyeball count POV I guess....
     
  3. RP

    RP F1 World Champ

    Feb 9, 2005
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    What is your problem here?? Chump/Car was a mistake from day one, they could not even complete their first lap without showing their amatuer skills.

    This is a good thing, anything to bring back American open wheeled racing. Anything!!!!!!!! God bless Tony George, you may blame him for the initial problem, but at at this point, I am praising him for combining the two series. Obviously, ChumpCar's owners were too stupid to figure it out until Tony got it going. They did not approach Tony, Tony approached them.

    Personally, after scheduling the first ChumpCar event the same day as the Indy 500, I am absolutely pleased that ChumpCar failed. ChumpCar was made up of self serving wealthy bastards that deserved to lose their asses.

    My only regret is that Penske and Ganassi are still around. Blame them, not Tony George. I found religion because ChumpCar finally died.
     
  4. brian.s

    brian.s F1 Rookie
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    in a couple of years, the riff raff will have gone and we will be back to the position of a professional US open wheel series centered on the 500. Finally Tony can cut out giving his money away to fill the grid, as I see it, the total $ is amazingly close to the buy out cost to erase Chumpcar. I think TG has learned a lot from Mr E, hopefully they can revive the GP as well.
    FWIW, I worked in Indycars before the split for a number of years, the "dream" of an american series for american drivers was just smoke, that's what pissed off everybody in the game. Today it is as it was but with fewer public interest, that's what is needed back.
    heck I had tickets to the Hulman Suite and never went, but I will now.
     
  5. ferraridude615

    ferraridude615 F1 Veteran

    May 4, 2006
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    With a decent sponsor, hopefully IRL can once again become a proving ground for US F1 prospects.
     
  6. yzee

    yzee F1 Veteran
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    Or an alternative for ex F1 champs!
     
  7. Ambassiatore

    Ambassiatore Formula Junior

    Jan 30, 2007
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    David Figueredo T.
    ...pleassssse someone...leave a message on Casey´s email...
     
  8. 2000YELLOW360

    2000YELLOW360 F1 World Champ

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    The IRL will never come back. Tony George killed open wheel racing in the US. To bad he couldn't work with Penske, et al, and not go to war with them. 10M from Att isn't squat. It takes approximately 5M per car per year to run one of these pieces of crap, not counting the money for the driver (oh, I forgot this series is so good that the drivers have to pay for their ride, unlike NASCAR where they actually make money). With 20 cars max each race, you can see just how little that money is. The series will have to be built up with adequate TV rating before anyone is going to spend that kind of money on sponsorship, and that either isn't going to happen, or will take years. Nope, it will take a long, long time for this series to get any credibility if it ever does.

    Art
     
  9. Gilles27

    Gilles27 F1 World Champ

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    Agreed. As much as the whole situation frustrated me, at least now there's a chance to change course. Let's see what can happen.
     
  10. RP

    RP F1 World Champ

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    I can never agree with this. The group that damaged American open wheeled racing in this country was not Tony George and the IRL, but the group that scheduled their first event the same day as the Indianapolis 500 conveniently forgetting that us little people already bought our tickets, already booked air flights, already booked hotel rooms, mostly non-refundable.

    Thakfully they embarrassed themselves by the end of the first lap. Now that glorious vision probably turned a lot of race fans to NASCAR.

    That was probably the greatest example of how much the owners of certain teams do not care about the spectator/racing fan. To me Penske and Ganassi, and friends, were and always will be the destructive force behind the temporary demise of this sport. No major racing series is controlled by the teams as was CART. It is the selfish behavior of those team owners that insisted on control and lining their greedy pockets.

    And I also do not agree that American open wheeled racing, call it the IRL or whatever, will not come back. With an instant 15-20% increase in starting fields, media attention will follow. Complain or condemn all you want about her, but Danica Patrick kept this sport alive and will bring the sponsor and media attention it will need to grow.

    It will survive. Despite the Penskes and Ganassi's of the world.
     
  11. Mark(study)

    Mark(study) F1 Veteran

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    #11 Mark(study), Apr 29, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Tony George had a Dream!
    -American race car drivers only! Names he could pronounce like Bobby, Rick, Tom -Oval Race Tracks only!
    -Tony's over-sized ego in sole control of America's premier racing series.

    Well 12 years later Tony George's Dream is over...

    The whole fiasco reminds me of a Steve Martin joke- "I wrote a book recently- HOW I TURNED $120 MILLION IN REAL ESTATE INTO $100,000 IN COLD HARD CASH!"
    Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
  12. yzee

    yzee F1 Veteran
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    Little people who had already bought their tickets? TG's 25-33 rule was well known way before the race and effectively eliminated any Cart teams from entering. Everyone knew what the deal was. I went in 1995 because I knew I wouldn't be back in 1996. Haven't been back since. Water over the dam. If the weather is right I'm going to Fast Friday next week. If I have fun, I'm staying for qualifying.
     
  13. ferraridude615

    ferraridude615 F1 Veteran

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    Sounds like Tony should have moved on over to NASCAR a long time ago :rolleyes:
     
  14. yzee

    yzee F1 Veteran
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    One minute you say it could be a proving ground for F1, and the next TG should be in Nascar. Do you have a clue?
     
  15. yzee

    yzee F1 Veteran
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    So it's all over, unless the France family takes over?
     
  16. LightGuy

    LightGuy Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Danica without a car is nothing.
    The owners are what the sport revolves around.
    Drivers are just the media sales point and among them Danica is the best brand.
     
  17. ferraridude615

    ferraridude615 F1 Veteran

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    Look at what I quoted, it all makes sense.
     
  18. Whisky

    Whisky Two Time F1 World Champ
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    No matter who sponsors it, they won't see a positive return on their money.
    Sorry - but every time I hear the phrase 'Sprint Cup', the FIRST thing that comes to mind is Steve Kinser and the World of Outlaws Sprint cars.

    A bit harsh, don't you think ?
    I rather enjoyed Champ Car, up until maybe 5 years ago, and it started going south.
    You see, in F1 they have this bottomless pit of money, where they can charge 20 mill A RACE just to have one, CC nor IRL has that luxury.

    You will NEVER see the public interest in open wheel racing like it was in the 60's and into the 70's - because they have this thing called Cable TV, with about 200 channels, and every other new toy imaginable that didn't exist 30+ years ago to occupy our time now.

    nascar isn't doing so hot these days, viewership is down 11%.

    The fact is, in American open-wheel racing, NO driver can stand on their own without a ride.
    And F1 is getting there, too.
    nascar, on the other hand, has several drivers people know WITHOUT them standing next to their cars.
     
  19. 2000YELLOW360

    2000YELLOW360 F1 World Champ

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    I don't know about that, but I do know that when it comes to marketing speed, they are the best. Look at what they've done: taken a racing series with realtively slow cars, and made it the number one series in the USA. They have also taken over motorcycle racing with their purchase of the AMA Pro series, and they've hired the best to make sure that the series works well. Given what I've seen from some of the other race series promoters, I think that they are the only ones with a vision of what they wish to sell to their viewers, and frankly, I do beleive that unless someone else shows up, perhaps Burton Smith, or someone like him, they are the only game in town. Tony George is about Tony George, not the product, and it shows. Remember, the 400 now draws more than the 500 an Indy. What a shame. We'll see what happens with the motoGP race there. I don't think that it will last either, because of the cost to put it on, but time will tell, I guess.

    Art
     
  20. WCH

    WCH F1 Veteran
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    Mar 16, 2003
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    Don't know whether the IRL will come back but I know this: once upon a time I watched CART and F1 raced faithfully, looked forward to May with Monaco and the Indy 500. Too many years of ignoring CART/IRL (or whatever they're called) have left me cold. Don't really know much about the teams or the drivers or the schedule. I was impressed when the IRL went to the Glen - great idea. That Tony George appears to have won the long war makes me even less interested in the show. I'll stick with F1.
     
  21. jhfiero

    jhfiero Rookie

    Mar 31, 2008
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    honestly, i don't really car who owns it. i just want to see some more open wheel in america. whether you think it will be lame or awsome, i think that any real race fan should be cheering for this all to take off!! i for one will watch, and attend races when possible.

    justin my .02
    justin
     
  22. Tony K

    Tony K Formula 3

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    That about sums it up for me, except nothing about the IRL ever impressed me, and the big shots in F1 are so full of themselves that I lost interest in it, too.

    The mid-80s to mid-90s were great years for CART. The great American drivers like Mears, the Unsers, Sullivan, etc., as well as those who had stepped down from F1 -- Andretti, Fittipaldi, Mansell, etc., were awesome to watch. I enjoyed that, despite the series being mostly American, the drivers were from all over the world.

    For those whose memories don't extend beyond "Champ Car" (which was a last-ditch attempt to save what had once upon a time been CART), open wheel racing -- i.e., CART -- was very popular in the States until Tony George pulled his stunt. Whatever happened between the greedy team owners and the greedy IMS owner is irrelevant; CART had no shortage of popularity, sponsorship, or television coverage before "the split", i.e. when George pulled the race which was the crown jewel -- and the only thing he really had control of -- from the series, and used that as a basis to form his own little show. And in case anyone forgot or didn't follow it back then, at the time of the split, the majority of the talented drivers stayed with CART, and the nobodys and backmarkers went to IRL.

    Soon after the split, a CART driver entered and won the Indy 500. Beat the whole friggin' field with one of their own cars. It was a symbolic but ultimately phyrric victory; neverless, it illustrated the point that CART was racing and IRL was just a show.

    Another black mark to Tony George's history is the fact that, not only did he kill open wheel racing in the U.S.; he also killed the generations-old tradition in the U.S. known as "The Indianapolis 500". Sure, it's still around, but nobody cares about it any more. It was once as big to motor racing as the Super Bowl is to football. George thought the 500 could carry the reputation and the series; instead, his fledgling circus brought down the great race. He thought he was a bigger man than he is, and thought he had leverage with the 500, but that proved to be a stupid move, as here we are in 2008, and for nearly a decade nobody had given a damn about the Indy 500.

    Who was it in Formula 1 -- Bernie or Max -- that said several years ago, "Tony George was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple." ??? lol! :p
     
  23. Mark(study)

    Mark(study) F1 Veteran

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    Yep.... you said it all.

    I remember the 1st year (or was it the first two years after the split) Indy 500 got rain on Sunday...and I remember a TV announcer saying "Even God is pissed at Tony George's new split of the series"
     
  24. futureowner

    futureowner Formula 3

    Mar 24, 2006
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    +1. Funny how the only time the IRL became "good" racing was when all the best Champ Car teams went over there. And to anyone who thinks that it is because the IRL was better, it was because Toyota and Honda decided to switch to the IRL. These teams were heavily financed by the manufacturers (see Andretti Green Racing - Honda) and they wanted to keep getting that money so they moved leagues.

    I think people underestimate the impact that Toyota and Honda had on American open wheel racing. They blame Champ Car officials and IRL officials but no one discussed the massive spending war that went on with the engine manufacturers.
     
  25. 2000YELLOW360

    2000YELLOW360 F1 World Champ

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    That was a good thing. I remember when Toyota snitched out Honda, when they found out why the Hondas made so much power: they'd designed the intake so that it had a low pressure area under the turb's pop off valve, and they got an additiona pound or two of boost. The Honda's weren't **** after they had to fix that.

    The problem is that George killed the open wheel racing for an entire generation, those folks are now watching NASCAR, not IRL, and it probably isn'g coming back.

    Art
     

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