OT: The state of open wheel racing - A commentary
05-29-2007, 09:37 PM
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OT: The state of open wheel racing - A commentary
JASON WHITLOCK COMMENTARY
Amateur drivers are wrecking Indy 500
By JASON WHITLOCK
INDIANAPOLIS | Don’t blame Mother Nature. She didn’t ruin the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500, a race that desperately tried to make open-wheel racing relevant again.
Yes, her teary eyes dampened spirits before the race, stalled the event for three hours a little more than halfway through — just when things had become really exciting — and eventually handed Dario Franchitti the Borg-Warner Trophy about 85 miles short of 500.
Blaming it on the rain would miss the bigger story.
The Indy 500 didn’t recapture any of its luster on Sunday for the same reason it lost it 11 years ago: Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George’s Indy Racing League can’t recover from its split with CART.
The amateur, talent-deficient drivers filling up the back of Indy’s 33-car starting grid, the drivers who wouldn’t stand a chance of qualifying if Champ Car drivers participated in George’s event, kept slamming into the speedway’s walls for absolutely no good reason, repeatedly slowing the race to a crawl.
Of the race’s last seven qualifiers, the boys and girls holding down starting spots 27 through 33, only Richie Hearn avoided trouble.
Jon Herb, Jaques Lazier, Milka “Airbags” Duno, Marty Roth, Roberto Moreno and Phil Giebler all rammed the wall with virtually no provocation. The constant, prolonged yellow flags for unforced errors destroyed the flow of the race and opened the door for Mother Nature to cut the competition short.
It was truly embarrassing. As a lifelong Indy fan, I can’t remember a race that featured seven, single-car wrecks. We’re not talking about side-by-side dueling or tires touching or NASCARlike bumping and rubbing.
We’re talking about Moreno (lap 37), Herb (lap 52), Duno (lap 66), Giebler (lap 107) and Roth (lap 161) simply losing control of their cars in turn 1. Lazier (lap 156) ran into the outside retaining wall exiting turn 4. And John Andretti, who qualified on the outside of row 8, hit a wall in turn 2 on lap 99.
The race’s final collision, which handed the title to Franchitti, occurred on lap 163 when contenders Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti tapped tires during the doomed final restart. Marco’s car flipped spectacularly, but the 20-year-old walked away from the crash with only bruises.
The Indy 500 ran three more laps under yellow before Mother Nature stopped the proceedings, probably out of frustration and fear of seeing someone get seriously injured.
There are a thousand reasons the Champ Car-IRL feud needs to end, but the 91st running of Indy should stand as exhibit A.
This race, even with the weather delay, could have been a classic, the kind of tension-filled masterpiece that would put a scare into NASCAR.
Danica Patrick, the savior of North American open-wheel racing until America discovers Formula One’s Lewis Hamilton, had more than enough car to win Sunday’s race.
Had the race been relatively clean, Patrick, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Sam Hornish Jr. would have staged a thrilling duel the final 20 laps. Kanaan had the best car. He turned the day’s fastest lap, exceeding 223 miles per hour.
Late in the race, Danica consistently circled the track in the 220s, getting as high as 222. When the race restarted after the three-hour rain delay, Kanaan, Patrick and Marco Andretti — all Andretti Green Teammates — looped the oval 1-2-3 for about 20 laps.
They had the best cars, and Patrick and Andretti carried with them the gender-groundbreaking and legendary-name tales that could inject relevancy into a stale sport.
For those few laps, the Indy 500 was the greatest spectacle in racing again. We got treated to what the original rain delay denied us. When the race was stopped on lap 113, Kanaan, Andretti and Patrick sat 1-2-3. Giebler’s crash six laps earlier prevented them from dueling under a green flag at that point, and seemingly gave Kanaan an anticlimactic victory.
Fortunately, the rain quit, officials dried the track, and the race restarted. Unfortunately, the wrecks continued, the rain returned, and we only had that brief flash of true drama.
Patrick wound up finishing eighth, the victim of an in-hindsight, poorly timed pit stop. Kanaan finished 12th, losing ground after cutting a tire trying to avoid Lazier’s crash. Andretti finished 24th.
Short of George reaching an agreement with Champ Car before next year’s 500, it may be time to acknowledge that Indy is never coming back. The race that used to turn ordinary men into household names now can’t even get out of its own way and let a talented woman save the sport.
You know Mother Nature was rooting for Danica.
Amateur drivers are wrecking Indy 500
By JASON WHITLOCK
INDIANAPOLIS | Don’t blame Mother Nature. She didn’t ruin the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500, a race that desperately tried to make open-wheel racing relevant again.
Yes, her teary eyes dampened spirits before the race, stalled the event for three hours a little more than halfway through — just when things had become really exciting — and eventually handed Dario Franchitti the Borg-Warner Trophy about 85 miles short of 500.
Blaming it on the rain would miss the bigger story.
The Indy 500 didn’t recapture any of its luster on Sunday for the same reason it lost it 11 years ago: Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George’s Indy Racing League can’t recover from its split with CART.
The amateur, talent-deficient drivers filling up the back of Indy’s 33-car starting grid, the drivers who wouldn’t stand a chance of qualifying if Champ Car drivers participated in George’s event, kept slamming into the speedway’s walls for absolutely no good reason, repeatedly slowing the race to a crawl.
Of the race’s last seven qualifiers, the boys and girls holding down starting spots 27 through 33, only Richie Hearn avoided trouble.
Jon Herb, Jaques Lazier, Milka “Airbags” Duno, Marty Roth, Roberto Moreno and Phil Giebler all rammed the wall with virtually no provocation. The constant, prolonged yellow flags for unforced errors destroyed the flow of the race and opened the door for Mother Nature to cut the competition short.
It was truly embarrassing. As a lifelong Indy fan, I can’t remember a race that featured seven, single-car wrecks. We’re not talking about side-by-side dueling or tires touching or NASCARlike bumping and rubbing.
We’re talking about Moreno (lap 37), Herb (lap 52), Duno (lap 66), Giebler (lap 107) and Roth (lap 161) simply losing control of their cars in turn 1. Lazier (lap 156) ran into the outside retaining wall exiting turn 4. And John Andretti, who qualified on the outside of row 8, hit a wall in turn 2 on lap 99.
The race’s final collision, which handed the title to Franchitti, occurred on lap 163 when contenders Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti tapped tires during the doomed final restart. Marco’s car flipped spectacularly, but the 20-year-old walked away from the crash with only bruises.
The Indy 500 ran three more laps under yellow before Mother Nature stopped the proceedings, probably out of frustration and fear of seeing someone get seriously injured.
There are a thousand reasons the Champ Car-IRL feud needs to end, but the 91st running of Indy should stand as exhibit A.
This race, even with the weather delay, could have been a classic, the kind of tension-filled masterpiece that would put a scare into NASCAR.
Danica Patrick, the savior of North American open-wheel racing until America discovers Formula One’s Lewis Hamilton, had more than enough car to win Sunday’s race.
Had the race been relatively clean, Patrick, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Sam Hornish Jr. would have staged a thrilling duel the final 20 laps. Kanaan had the best car. He turned the day’s fastest lap, exceeding 223 miles per hour.
Late in the race, Danica consistently circled the track in the 220s, getting as high as 222. When the race restarted after the three-hour rain delay, Kanaan, Patrick and Marco Andretti — all Andretti Green Teammates — looped the oval 1-2-3 for about 20 laps.
They had the best cars, and Patrick and Andretti carried with them the gender-groundbreaking and legendary-name tales that could inject relevancy into a stale sport.
For those few laps, the Indy 500 was the greatest spectacle in racing again. We got treated to what the original rain delay denied us. When the race was stopped on lap 113, Kanaan, Andretti and Patrick sat 1-2-3. Giebler’s crash six laps earlier prevented them from dueling under a green flag at that point, and seemingly gave Kanaan an anticlimactic victory.
Fortunately, the rain quit, officials dried the track, and the race restarted. Unfortunately, the wrecks continued, the rain returned, and we only had that brief flash of true drama.
Patrick wound up finishing eighth, the victim of an in-hindsight, poorly timed pit stop. Kanaan finished 12th, losing ground after cutting a tire trying to avoid Lazier’s crash. Andretti finished 24th.
Short of George reaching an agreement with Champ Car before next year’s 500, it may be time to acknowledge that Indy is never coming back. The race that used to turn ordinary men into household names now can’t even get out of its own way and let a talented woman save the sport.
You know Mother Nature was rooting for Danica.
05-30-2007, 01:31 AM
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+100!
I've enjoyed watching Monaco GP that morning and didn't bother with indy... Turn the channel for once to see who won and it was showing rain delay! Thank George for IRL! He really @#$%-up US open wheel racing.
I've enjoyed watching Monaco GP that morning and didn't bother with indy... Turn the channel for once to see who won and it was showing rain delay! Thank George for IRL! He really @#$%-up US open wheel racing.
05-30-2007, 09:35 AM
#6
Not that I watch circle track racing, I find it utterly boring and devoid of talent... however... I must say I've been rooting for Danica for the past couple years. She's 1) pretty hot, and 2) it would be fun to see the misguided fans shrink in their seats as a woman wins what they consider to be a "man's" sport. Maybe that will convince them to start watching real racing, like Rally or F1 
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05-30-2007, 10:14 AM
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I wanted to see Danica stomping her feet in frustration again. I guess I'm old school, but I just don't want her to win. If she had been a mechanic first and worked her way up, then maybe. Just to be put in the seat because she's a women, I'm not buying it.
05-30-2007, 11:15 AM
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Originally Posted by dbf73
I would agree with most of the article but seriously disagree with the characterization of Moreno as "amateur talent-deficient"
Pardon the detour -- a video clip of the better days of open wheel racing (biased because of the Swift one-two finish) -- at least the era when we had five chassis constructors, four engine suppliers and two tires companies battling.
05-30-2007, 02:10 PM
#13
Good points about IRL but the blame does not stop there. Champ car has decided thta their official philosphy is "we want to hold a party where a race breaks out". This is an official statement on their part, meaning they want their
races to be held near the center-city areas of larger cities in the U.S. They are not interested in the great road-racing circuits in the U.S. They are doing well in Canada but not the U.S. I can't see the San Jose street race lasting too much longer with the losses the city is experiencing.
Seems to me like we need:
1. A chassis the IRL and Champ car can agree on
2. An engine supplier (or suppliers) that all can agree on
3. The IRL and Champ car need to agree that open wheel racing needs to
be divided between ovals and existing fixed tracing circuits (Laguna, Watkins
Glen, Road America etc.) and maybe a street race or two just to keep
Champ car happy.
4. Tony George and Kevin Kalkhoven need to once and for all admit they
need each other and without the merge, they will destroy open-wheeled
racing in this country. There are not enough fans to go around to make
both series financially viable to promoters and not enough talent to
produce great racing in both series.
Just my opinion.
races to be held near the center-city areas of larger cities in the U.S. They are not interested in the great road-racing circuits in the U.S. They are doing well in Canada but not the U.S. I can't see the San Jose street race lasting too much longer with the losses the city is experiencing.
Seems to me like we need:
1. A chassis the IRL and Champ car can agree on
2. An engine supplier (or suppliers) that all can agree on
3. The IRL and Champ car need to agree that open wheel racing needs to
be divided between ovals and existing fixed tracing circuits (Laguna, Watkins
Glen, Road America etc.) and maybe a street race or two just to keep
Champ car happy.
4. Tony George and Kevin Kalkhoven need to once and for all admit they
need each other and without the merge, they will destroy open-wheeled
racing in this country. There are not enough fans to go around to make
both series financially viable to promoters and not enough talent to
produce great racing in both series.
Just my opinion.
05-30-2007, 03:45 PM
#14
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I disagree
What we need is a specification book for bodies, chassis, engines and tires.
Then let any and all who chose to participate come and run. Like it was. Like America.
Another spec series is just not very interesting
What we need is a specification book for bodies, chassis, engines and tires.
Then let any and all who chose to participate come and run. Like it was. Like America.
Another spec series is just not very interesting