Larry Blair jumps ship

[SevenGrain]

Got this news release today...

Blair moves from CART to IRL

INDIANAPOLIS -- Blair Racing announced Wednesday it will compete in the Indy Racing League in 2002 with driver Alex Barron. Blair Racing will enter a Dallara chassis with Chevrolet engines.

Entering his second year in racing, team owner Larry Blair announced a new partnership for his IRL venture. Hayden Harris has joined forces with Blair to compete in the 15-event IRL schedule.

Continuing to reorganize and build the team, Blair and Harris have hired industry veteran Tom Gloy to be president of Blair Racing and oversee the organization. The team has moved into expanded facilities on the north side of Indianapolis. John Dick will serve as engineer.

"Since May of last year, I have continued to make dramatic changes, improving and expanding the team to be competitive in the top levels of racing," Blair said. "For 2002, I have restructured Blair Racing to put together a compact and A-caliber group.

"It is my continued goal to make this a successful endeavor; Hayden’s business acumen will help us reach our goals. Having Tom’s experience and leadership will enable the operation to run smoothly. Alex has already proven his ability in running for us at two events last year. His superspeedway experience is important to me as a team owner."

Barron, the 1997 Toyota Atlantic champion and Rookie of the Year, has also raced in CART for Blair, Roger Penske, Dan Gurney and Dale Coyne.

"I am looking forward to racing for Larry again," Barron said. "We had good results as a team for the last two races in 2001. Larry has put together a program that I feel will be a competitive package. Drivers always look for the right program and a winning combination. I am looking forward to the next few weeks with preseason testing starting in February and the first race in March."

Gloy's gift for steering a top-flight racing program is an extension of his versatility behind the wheel. His accomplishments as a driver and team owner rank among the most significant over the past 30 years. Gloy has consistently attracted top drivers, sponsors and manufacturers. His team competed in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for three years and the SCCA Trans-Am Series for 14 years.

Personally, he also raced on many different circuits, winning the 1979 North American Formula Atlantic title, the 1984 Trans-Am championship as well as competing in IMSA, CART and in the Indianapolis 500.

"I thank Larry for the opportunity to work with such a dynamic group," Gloy said. "Since meeting Larry when he started Blair Racing last May, I have watched the many changes and hard work he has put forth to build the strong team necessary to participate in the competitive ranks of the IRL. It will be good to be back at the Speedway and to work with Larry and Alex. John is a great addition and adds to the positive chemistry needed to run at the front."

Dick’s engineering experience includes working with Al Unser Jr., Danny Sullivan, Arie Luyendyk, Paul Tracy, Max Papis and Gloy and. He has engineered cars in CART, NASCAR, IMSA and Trans-Am arenas. In 1990, Dick was on the winning Indianapolis 500 team with Luyendyk

[Speedworx]

This is sad news. Will I have anyone other than Dario to cheer on? Its looking unlikely.

[Liz]

So another underfunded, barely alive team joins Brand X.

Yee Hah.

I give them three months before they go broke.

[Takuma]

So cynical, but so true!

[macdaddy]

Think they're jumping ship in an effort to not go broke. Just plain cheaper. It's too bad, though. CART needs to grid a decent number of starters. I'm not reading of too many teams jumping onto the ship.

[Dr. Austin]

Brand X means brand x-tinct, which is what the hapless chumpcar group will soon be. Blair is smart enough to follow Penske's example and go to the league that not only makes the best business sense, but the one that will survive until apes rule the planet. Even then, there will be monkeys racing around what used to be 16th and Georgetown.

Without the manufacturers to pay the engine freight, the cumbersome and expensive turbo formula makes no sense. A little team like Blair's will get a much fairer shake in the IRL. Last year, they were forced to run a year old Fords for much of the season. Kind of gets back to the animals running the zoo getting the freshest meat. Anyone wonder why Blair didn't want another year of that "members only" kind of treatment?


In the IRL, Blair's team will have the chance to buy the same engines that John Menard can. Or Cheever. Or he can lease them from an independant tuner. At least he will have a choice and not be forced to run last year's cast off junk.


Coupled with ther gross mishandling of the pop off valve spacer snafu, CART has proven they just don't have the integrity to run a professional racing series with any degree of integrity. Not only did the administrators prove themselves incompetent with their inept handling of the Texas debacle, they lost all their engine manufacturers with their compete lack of honesty in the dealing with them without resorting to collusion. No wonder a tide of bailing teams are showing up on Tony's doorstep.

Tony George delivers yet another American to the IRL. In spite of showing race winning potential on numerous occasions (driving Coyne's clapped out, used up, year old junk, no less), Baron was repeatedly passed over and left rideless. Tony George is righting the balance.

[f1manoz]

Oh no, Blair goes to IRL!!!!!



Yeah right. No big loss. CART is better off without small, useless teams like that. Let all those weaklings fight it out in a pathetic, useless series like the IRL......

I do agree, though, that Barron is under-rated, but going to the IRL is a biiiiggg mistake.

[Dr. Austin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by f1manoz
[B]Oh no, Blair goes to IRL!!!!!



Yeah right. No big loss. CART is better off without small, useless teams like that. "

Sure they are. That is until the car count falls below the required minimum and the race promoters start the cascade of cancelled races. That is until promoters refuse to pay $2.5 million for a weak field that may not even show up on race morning.



"Let all those weaklings fight it out in a pathetic, useless series like the IRL......"

ooooooooooh! CART fans sure are bitter. Words like pathetic and useless only reveal there is no objectivity by the user. Penske doesn't think the IRL is useless. ABC doesn't think the IRL is pathetic. If the IRL was so pathetic, they would be on some little niche cable network like, say, the speed channel.



"I do agree, though, that Barron is under-rated, but going to the IRL is a biiiiggg mistake."

As compared to what? Not working at all? Doing testing work for Coyne, driving year (or two) old, used up, wrung out, trash? Like there is a good drive for him in CART? Alex is going to be racing next year, an opportunity that he wasn't going to get in CART. Alex isn't from some rich Brazillian tobbacco family, he has to work for a living.

[SevenGrain]

Without getting into this whole CART-IRL argument, Small teams are not useless.

Small teams serve a purpose in every racing series. Everybody has got to start somewhere, and small teams offer a place to get started. Drivers, engineers, mechanics, PR people, all need a first job. Without small teams, much new talent would never be discovered, not to mention that the fields would be much smaller on race day.

Sponsors can get involved in racing with a lesser financial committment with a small team, and see how well it works for them.

Of course, many of the bigger teams started as small teams. Ganassi was a small team just twelve years ago.

Also, teams closing down due to lack of funds (Forsythe, Galles, Xtreme) speak more to the current economy than to the health of a series. Both CART and the IRL are viable series and both have problems and good points as well. If Forsythe was in the IRL or Galles in CART, they likely would have still closed their doors. It's simple economics. With a depressed economy, many companies will spend less on marketing. Small NASCAR teams go by the wayside each year, yet nobody is predicting the end of NASCAR.

Also, Blair ran year-old Fords because the team was a last minute addition to the Ford camp, not because of any 'members only' treatment. Blair's team started as Brooke Racing and Barry Brooke had signed to run a Phoenix engine in 2001. It was not until a few weeks before Monterrey that Brooke began negotiations with Ford, by then all of the 2001 motors had been delivered. Eight races in, they were given the '01. motors

Please don't slam the small teams, because there would be no big teams without them.

[StuiE]

IRL is pisn me off!