First off Tony Lover. FTG inherited a great Speedway and got greedy. He immediately said and I quote "I bring my hammer to work with me every day" meaning to put another nail into Champcar's coffin. He is so two-faced it makes me sick. He said he wants to NOT compete with CART, but to offer something different. 1)boring pushrod V8's that are cheap and slow. 2)to have mostly American drivers, and 3) To run ovals only.
Now fast forward. IRL's attendance in Fontana last year was 15,000 fans, while CART had 85,000. He knew that his formula sucked, so he decided to take out the competition by all means available to him. First he welcomed all teams with open arms, beginning by changing his rule on who can enter the Indy 500. Then he didn't care if Toyota and Honda came in (bad timing for CART's rule change and and opportunity for FTG to swing them his way. And then he added over the American border events (The main reason the sponsors left CART) and finally now plans on running road courses.
Granted it didn't help that many Champcar teams and drivers sold out, but still many did not.
I wouldn't mind FTG having IRL IF he would have kept it as NA V8's, American drivers, and American ovals, but he did the opposite.
Believe what you want. But just because the sponsers went there, and so did the mfg, that doesn't mean they will stay. When they do come back, the sell-outs will have a miserable time in the paddock when they come back. They better just retire as MA did.
Following is an article from a Lima Ohio newspaper that makes some excellent points.
"Something occurred to me the other day.
It’s the month of May.
“Try to keep up,” you say. “It has been May for a week now.”
I’m aware of that. But it occurred to me that it’s the month of May.
It’s the month of May as in it’s the month when the world’s eyes turn towards the intersection of 16th and Georgetown in Speedway, Ind.
Or at least they did in the past.
I used to count the days to the official open of practice (2:15 this afternoon). I would check the speeds every day to see which driver, which engine, which chassis was fastest, and to see if anyone might challenge for a new track record on Pole Day.
I used to get a kick out of Bump Day, watching men, and women, scramble for one last shot to run one one-hundreth of a mph faster than the 33rd-fastest driver in the field.
And the race, well the race was just the icing on the cake for the month. It was the culmination of four weeks of either shattered or realized dreams.
Now the only thing worth paying attention to is the race.
But as any cake afficionado will tell you, the icing just isn’t the same without the cake.
The facts tell the story.
• Pole Day and Bump Day, two of the greatest traditions of the 500, part of what made just being in the 500 so special, are now meaningless.
Tony George said as much himself.
Amid reports that the traditional 33-car field could not be filled for this year’s race, George told The Indianapolis Star in March that 33 “is only a number.”
I’d like to see George tell all those guys over the decades who lost their lives trying just to be one of the 33 that it “is only a number.”
Shrinking fields was one of the excuses George used when he founded the IRL.
Pole Day and Bump Day were so important in 1995, the last pre-IRL 500, that Roger Penske — the team owner with the most 500 wins — failed to make the field with a pair of former champions — Emmerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr.
Under George, qualifying and bumping, two of the pillars of the month of May in Indy, have been rendered inconsequential.
• Ten years ago, ticket requests had to be made the day after the race for the next year’s race. And even that was not a guarantee that one could get tickets.
It often took years to upgrade to a main grandstand section of the track. Scalpers routinely sold tickets at two to three times face value.
A search of the speedway’s Web site Friday revealed that there are still plenty of tickets available near the start/finish line for this year’s race.
At face value.
• Champ Car racing still exists.
This fact cannot be overlooked.
If open wheel racing in the early 1990s was indeed in as dire straits as George would have you believe, then how on Earth has it been able to survive?
If the sport was as weak and vulnerable as George said it was, then how have two competing series been able to withstand almost a decade of political division?
If the IRL was so necessary to ensure the future of open wheel racing, why has it been able to continue to exist in spite of it?
The mere existence of the Champ Car World Series is evidence to the fierce loyalty and stability of the fanbase and the soundness of the series’ fundamental competitive principles.
When teams like Penske and Ganassi and drivers like Andretti and Castroneves left CART for the IRL, CART fans didn’t follow them. They stayed loyal to the series.
But the original IRL fans, the ones who bought into the USA-first, grassroots rhetoric are the ones who lost interest in the sport.
Those fans now follow dirt-trackers Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman in NASCAR and watch guys like Cory Kruseman continue to watch from the outside.
The fundamental principles of the IRL continue to be updated almost weekly.
Which is why a handful of cars will run a few laps around the Brickyard this month, just trying not to beat up any equipment.
Why bother trying to push the car? Thirty-three is only a number.
Wake me up when the race is on."
