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19 Aug 2015, 18:23 (Ref:3566981) | #376 | |||
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They could out spend anyone which is a major reason they won. No team in the IRL had any thing even close to the sponsor money the big boys had. You cannot run NASCAR and Indy Cars at the same time without a LOT of sponsor money, and the ability to get big sponsor money. George bit of his nose to spite his face with the rules he created. He bs about running stock blocks etc. and then did not allow them. With the rule change that Penske came in with, he started the slow death of his series, only slower than the asinine rules that killed CART. Big John: USAC went to the U.K. in 1978, where A.J. Foyt got the last win for his Foyt/Ford. Also Ongais was just a tick short of breaking the Formula 1 track record at one of the two tracks when he spun out during qualifying. The chassis that Gurney brought out, which was mimicked by the car built for Ongais, which he crashed hard, was the one CART banned. In interviews, Gurney has in the past, showed his frustration with the sanction he helped form because they put him out of CART. He could not afford to simply buy cars as big boys did. |
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19 Aug 2015, 21:13 (Ref:3567028) | #377 | |||
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Here's a link to highlights of the Brands Hatch race. https://youtu.be/v_1W64SoJVQ The BLAT Eagle; Boundary Layer Adhesion Technology. There's an excellent article by legendary motorsports writer, Gordon Kirby in his regular column for MotorSport. http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/ra...ast-to-banned/ The BLAT Eagle. Last edited by bjohnsonsmith; 19 Aug 2015 at 21:22. |
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"If you're not winning you're not trying." Colin Chapman. |
19 Aug 2015, 21:32 (Ref:3567034) | #378 | |||||
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19 Aug 2015, 23:48 (Ref:3567056) | #379 | ||
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Waiting for someone to pen a book or documentary into the whole split era - 1993 - 2008.
Would be fascinating to hear some of the stories, behind the scenes stuff - especially now that so many who were central to these manoeuvrings are employed in the Indycar circus these days. |
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Upon entry into the Bathurst 1000, it should be mandatory to view the compelling "Moffat - Man and the Mountain" film |
20 Aug 2015, 00:39 (Ref:3567073) | #380 | ||||
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I can think of other teams, who though with good backing never quite made the grade. There's Rahal with Shell and Miller Lite, Newman/Haas and K-Mart. After Nigel Mansell won the driver's championship in '93 it wouldn't be until 2002 that da Matta would win it again for them. Even with the likes of Ganassi and Penske going over to the IRL, with their sponsors money and becoming the two dominant teams, Penske have only won the driver's title twice; 2006 and 2014, then again they have won the Indy 500 6 times since joining the IRL. Helio Castroneves winning 3 of those and this opens up that old can of worms about the importance of the IMS vs the Series. I think the irony though, with the whole issue of CART and the IRL, is that now Tony George has gone, what's barely keeping his Creation alive are pretty much the same people he broke away from in the first place. |
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"If you're not winning you're not trying." Colin Chapman. |
20 Aug 2015, 04:01 (Ref:3567106) | #381 | ||
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One truly sad thing about the way George screwed himself; the engine size that Gurney tried so hard to get to work (it did but they were built to grenade levels)
now put out 950 HP on single carbs, gasoline and turn over 11,000rpm. If George had nurtured the stock blocks he bs about, one can only imagine what could have been as Chevy, Dodge and Ford all put money into dedicated sprint car engines for WoO. That money and those engines could have gone into Indianapolis cars. |
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20 Aug 2015, 04:36 (Ref:3567111) | #382 | ||
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Maybe building an industry is a better way to go than serving vested interests, or maybe not? |
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20 Aug 2015, 12:56 (Ref:3567228) | #383 | ||
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20 Aug 2015, 15:29 (Ref:3567253) | #384 | |||
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On the other hand: I still think that the "old" 2.65l V8-turbos would fit in nicely in today's IndyCar. Such an engine could show that even a "downsized" (From a perspective that manufacturers keep shrinking the size of their engine) V8 can still be quick, loud and attractive. |
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20 Aug 2015, 19:35 (Ref:3567321) | #385 | ||||
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Nitropteron - Fly fast or get crushed! by NaBUrean Prodooktionz naburu38.itch.io |
22 Aug 2015, 22:08 (Ref:3567777) | #386 | ||
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I try and watch every Indy car race and usually change the channel until the last 10 laps...it isn't indycar maybe but I will watch flattrack, speedway gp, NASCAR trucks start to finish...I watch f1 start to finish, what is Indy still doing wrong?
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23 Aug 2015, 02:58 (Ref:3567813) | #387 | ||
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Imo the racing itself has been excellent this season, far better than most processional snooze fests that F1 churns out plus there's a championship battle. The only detractor afaic, are unnecessary caution periods but then I'm not the clerk of the course, .
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"If you're not winning you're not trying." Colin Chapman. |
23 Aug 2015, 15:12 (Ref:3567932) | #388 | |||
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Whilst there's alot of facepalming clowning around and superstupidity that goes on behind the scenes in Indycar, the stuff they roll out on raceday is good stuff that's better than F1 and better than Sprint Cup - if not trucks. |
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If I had asked my customer what they wanted, they would've said a faster horse. -Henry Ford |
23 Aug 2015, 18:31 (Ref:3567967) | #389 | |||
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But the promoting horrible , I am watching the pocono race now, and wow can they make this dull. I wonder if they think the same NASCAR pagentry is what they need versus the glam of F1, largely I feel indycar doesn't know what they want to be. |
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23 Aug 2015, 21:29 (Ref:3568006) | #390 | |||
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Hasn't not knowing what they want to be kind of been IndyCar's (by whatever name) basic problem for about the past, oh, 40 years or so? |
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“Sometimes there’s no poison like a dream.” — Tanya Donelly |
23 Aug 2015, 21:37 (Ref:3568008) | #391 | ||
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Let me just add, the current state is crazy.
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24 Aug 2015, 00:12 (Ref:3568059) | #392 | |||
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I don't like the glamour garbage simply because this isn't 1950-80s, today's celebrities are basically oily low-grade idiots and we don't need to torture the audience with endless awkward interviews with surprised "Kim K" types, who's ignorance and stupidity is literally boundless, spluttering and mispronouncing the drivers she unconvincingly says she's rooting for. It was bad enough having Ashley Judd there week in and week out. Being spared the inane drivel of these torturous idiots, is one of the reasons why I take care to avoid the Monaco and Silverstone grid walks. I liked the way that the late Paul Newman and Letterman participated. It is/was a refuge for them, they were left alone yet it was known they were involved and I think that conferred upon Indycar a bit of elegance whilst Newman for example, very much remained a racing man. But the sport will need more than that kind of stuff to get going. I don't think they are mimicking NASCAR, the pre-pace stuff is shortened Indianapolis tradition that pre-dates NASCAR I think. They don't drag it out too much. An anthem, a bit of ceremony and off they go. For me, it's refreshing actually. NBC is doing a good job here, every credit to them. I had expected to watch half of these races as recorded but they are respecting the sport despite doing the NASCAR coverage. All these races remain live and they seem to be picking up some viewers with the NASCAR momentum. Particularly as Gibbs and Logano seem to be invincible, time now for Indycar to reap a little benefit with their different winners in their own series. The problem that concerns me is whether these multicar cartels and mangled multiteam mergers are fiscally sustainable and the lack of team turnover with no replacements with the teams that have left. These are the kind of big structural problems that threatens the sport that seems to to bely the robust on-track action. |
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If I had asked my customer what they wanted, they would've said a faster horse. -Henry Ford |
24 Aug 2015, 17:01 (Ref:3568316) | #393 | |
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This doesn't necessarily say anything about the series itself, but they have been playing with fire all year. There was an accident at Nola where a hole in the fence caught a car on the front straight. Looked like it could have ended badly. The entire race at Fontana could have been deadly at any moment. And now Wilson is in critical condition.
I'm not blaming anybody, just saying that there have been numerous very dangerous situations this year. Some of it may be that the drivers just can't stop taking extreme risks. The restarts at Nola were amateurish, for example. |
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24 Aug 2015, 18:08 (Ref:3568332) | #394 | |||
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It's races like that, which do IndyCar no favours. Why Michael Andretti got involved in promoting NOLA does beggar belief? The wisdom of promoting it was questioned at the time and since June, Andretti Sports Marketing, has been involved in legal proceedings against NOLA over what it claims are missing payments. The recent litigation between Andretti Autosport Holding Company and Andretti Sports Marketing, hasn't helped either and though they recently settled, this has put next year's Milwaukee Mile seriously under threat. He should have just concentrated on promoting the Milwaukee Mile; it's a classic race which must be on the calendar. Last edited by bjohnsonsmith; 24 Aug 2015 at 18:13. |
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"If you're not winning you're not trying." Colin Chapman. |
24 Aug 2015, 18:13 (Ref:3568336) | #395 | ||
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They have to drastically decrease the downforce to levels, where drivers can't take corners on ovals at full speeds anymore. Or else they'll completely kill open-wheel oval racing in North America.
What I'd also like to note are the outright insane restarts...7-wide, seriously? Had this been a CART race, the restarts would have been abandoned until the drivers got their act together. But I forgot, TGBB is back in charge of race control |
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24 Aug 2015, 22:25 (Ref:3568413) | #396 | ||
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Or let me put it this way: how many other tracks do you see 7-wide during restarts? |
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25 Aug 2015, 02:32 (Ref:3568474) | #397 | ||
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RIP Justin Wilson. The deaths are really mounting in open wheel racing last few years. Don't know that there's an answer, but it's getting rough. |
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25 Aug 2015, 02:38 (Ref:3568476) | #398 | |
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The Current State of the indy racing league?
After Justin Wilson's avoidable death, it's questionable. When and if an investigation is done, which like always the series tries to sweep everything under the rug, it might have an interesting revelation(s), but we will see in due time. |
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Wolverines! |
25 Aug 2015, 02:45 (Ref:3568479) | #399 | |||
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There's nothing to sweep under the rug. |
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"If you're not winning you're not trying." Colin Chapman. |
25 Aug 2015, 02:57 (Ref:3568483) | #400 | ||
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I'll just keep it simple: IndyCar's current casualty rate is unacceptable, particularly on ovals. The series must find solutions.
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“Sometimes there’s no poison like a dream.” — Tanya Donelly |
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