IRL and ChampCar

It does not sound like you really understand the significance of the Indy 500 world wide. It is still the biggest single day sporting event in the world, and one for which even Europeans have had an historical appreciation.

To answer you questions, no we don't "need" any form of racing, but we obviously want and enjoy many forms of motor sports in this country, none of which you mentioned. Yes, we do need a combined IRL/Champ Car series to offer fans either an alternative to NASCAR, or like me, and additional form of racing. I want to see an American open wheeled series, one, not two. The market that you mention, is a reaction to a negative situation of having to choose sides. Most of us do not want to bother. As one series, I believe it will do very well within a five year initiation period.

Bottom line, Americans do not understand nor do they appreciate F1, or any other European based series. For that reason, a single cohesive American based open wheeled series will do well with the race fan.

Finally, Indianapolis does run a NASCAR race, but there is no way it will ever become on par with the Indianapolis 500. Some traditions go away, the 500 will not.

 

'Bottom line, Americans do not understand nor do they appreciate F1, or any other European based series'.

I find it hard to disagree with that statement.

But on the other hand, nobody else understands our passion for football (our version), or name about any other sport aside from soccer and the occasional tennis or golf grand slam event, let alone our college sports.

I've long thought F-5000 was the best series we ever had, and F2 was the best series in yurrup, but one of those died out 30 years ago, the other one died out for the most part about 15 years ago. Today, you have to 'have money' to even get a shot, but 30 years ago, you could find a way to make it without - it was tough - but it could be done. That's true today in any 'name' sport: my town has plenty of these 'Athletic Training Centers' where dads are signing up kids as young as 4 yrs old to start training for (insert sport name) here. Most every tennis pro on the tour has come thru Nick Bolitieri's tennis academy in Florida at some point..... etc. etc. etc.

I personally think the SCCA runoffs are the best motorsports here, but NOBODY outside of our clique of fans even knows it exists.

So is the Indy 500 the 'pinnacle' anymore ?
Well, in that term, I suppose so, but I don't think it's anywhere near the race it used to be - few do, and I don't think the rest of the world thinks so, but there is nothing else 'better' in open wheel racing, so it wins that title by default.

We keep drawing straws wishing racing today was as good as it was 'in the good old days', the definition of that varying with each one of us, but it won't be the way it used to be, nothing is, in any sport, had we known things would be like they are today back when we were kids, I think we would all have more experiences to share with others.
Personally, had I known what I was around when I was a kid, I would have been around Riverside a helluva lot more than I was........ but I had no idea who Denny Hulm was, or Bruce Mclairn, or Dan Gernee (kidspeak), heck, I woulda spent a lot more time around the Vasek Polak Porsche dealership.....
www.vpracing.com

 

If you think a single seater road racing series would replace IRL/CART you are mistaken. NASCAR is angling to take over everything in the US and they are succeeding. Within the next few days you will hear rumors that the Indianapolis Speedway is for sale and the top bidders are ISC (NASCAR) and Disney. If this is true and NASCAR gets it look for single seater racing to die in the US, followed by an all-out assault on ALMS by Grand AM.

BTW, I agree on the SCCA Runoffs. I've been three times and loved it.

 

Nope, I didn't say that.

I don't think much will change UNLESS a HUGE sponsor with a multi-year (10+) committment could be found that had the same ideas for open wheel racing as the competitors do. )And that's not going to happen in today's economy).

As a side note, there is the nascar cup series, nascar busch series, and arca supercar series, and the only difference between them (pretty much) is the drivers and sponsors, the cars and motors, (for the most part, in the fans' eyes) are the same.

The problem is, most 50 yr olds that were brought up on racing 'grew up with' a set of drivers that we followed from when we were 12-14 and they were 22-24, up until they retired, 30 years later. We don't have that anymore.
We don't have that in ANY sport: we used to be able to follow an athlete from the time he signed with a team until the time he retired from the SAME team, and today it's so bad I can't keep track of who plays for who.

Anymore, when you are talking the KING of open-wheel racing inthe USA, you are talking Steve Kinser...

 

Sorry if I misinterpreted you. I'm the same age as you and remember seeing guys like Gurney, Revson, etc. driving Indy, F1, Trans-Am, Can-Am. Of course, back then, there weren't as many racers as there are today. When the safety factor in racing went up every rich kid wanted to be a driver. More drivers meant less need for crossover between series. Contracts got in the way, too. Back when at least one driver died annually there were fewer people willing to risk their lives. With every positive comes a negative, I guess.

 

Back then, crossover drivers had fans follow them, and since few crossover nowadays, few fans crossover. I think you will see a lot more nascar fans at an indy event than you will see indy fans at a nascar event.

Oh, once in awhile you get a few: the aforementioned Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon, but after that you might get a Casey Mears and Earnhardt Jr. doing a 24 hr race like this year.
I was absolutely NOT a big Earnhardt Sr. fan, but when he and Jr. ran the 24 hrs of Daytona, and I saw some video of him after that, how could you not be a fan of him ? What he had to say was just so positive and inspiring, ie: 'all I want to do is race, and this is just so much fun and relaxing......', and he said it in such a way that you knew it wasn't a 'P.R.' stunt.