stop press!

[Jay]

rush1, you'd be wise to take fordtc78's advice, we don't take kindly to trolls here.

[jcclausen]

Let's face it, if Tony George had two brains one would be the size of a BB and the other would be a little bitty f...... If he had not been born into the Hulman family, he would be asking if you wanted fries with your order. As I stated before, T.G. is swimming with some big sharks. Eccelstone, France, Penske and now the likes of Honda and Toyota. If indeed they are supporting him it's only to fatten him up before the kill.

Bill France and his brother Jim are each worth over one billon seperately. Eccelstone is what, the 17th most wealthy person in Great Britian? Penske has more money than God. The resources of Honda and Toyota are mind boggling. By comparison George owns IMS, which by now is heavily indebted. Get the picture?

[theracegypsy]

Thanks McDaddy, I couldn't remember. I do too many races for the atmosphere and the enjoyment, never got into the statistics thing, but glad someone keep track.

[Bizzo5000]

"He will control merchandising, television rights, sanctioning fees, portolets at the track, ticket revenue and everything else associated with his series" -rush

Who really cares when no one is buying? I know when I'm out I always see Hornish Jr. T-shirts ALL over the place. Come to think of it, I have never in all my days have seen any IRL merchandise. Way to get the word out Tony! When you only have 5,000 people in the stands and only 1/8 of them are buying shirts, who's making the money? And television rights? With a .3 share and Indy barely cracking 1, you have to be kidding me.

[JohnSSC]

Wow! TG controlling all that IRL merchandise! I bet Bernie Ecclestone lays awake at night thinking about getting a piece of that action! Maybe he could include a free share of Enron stock with every Al Jr. bumper sticker he sells. Or better, tie in with World Wrestling and sell the rights to an Al Jr vs Giaffone "Death Cage" match. At Night. The day after Memorial Day.

[macdaddy]

Could somebody kindly enlighten me regarding this "Al Jr vs Giaffone" thing? I've read it here a few times, but have no idea what everybody's talking about!

[Muzza]

Originally posted by macdaddy
Could somebody kindly enlighten me regarding this "Al Jr vs Giaffone" thing? I've read it here a few times, but have no idea what everybody's talking about!

Felipe Giaffone and Al Unser Jr. had a close call during the Belterra Casino Indy 300, raced in the Kentucky Speedway on August 11th. Giaffone went on to win the race - his maiden victory in the category.

As it is common during IRL events, the race was made of many hair-raising moments - some indeed due to the competitiveness of the series, some owing to the lack of technical skills of a number of drivers, that were unable to proceed with consistent trajectories in consecutive laps (is there a problem with the IRL drivers, their cars or the tires? This people are always all over the place! Some of these days someone is going to get seriously hurt in a crash - I really fear a "bad one" every time I watch an IRL race).

During a post-race interview to ESPN Al Unser was asked about his views on the event. He (almost, as I write this from memory) literally replied "Some guys are using cars as weapons. Giaffone shoved me away and used his car as a weapon. The next time he does it I will give him a reprisal, and with a more powerful weapon - THIS!" And he branded his first to the camera...

Even if Al Unser, Jr. had some sort of merit on his argument - and, having seen the incident on tv, I think he did not - his reaction was unprofessional, impolite and unsporting.

[Jordi]

Must be the cars. It's always a hair-rising moment. Even more than Michigan and Fontana qith the Hanford devices.

Anyway, we're talking about invisibility

[greg.n]

if Tony wins this 'battle' (and Pook has said he will not operate in such a mannaer as to drive others out of business) what will TG win. Not respect and if his series cant draw crowds on its own merit how is it going to get the commercial support it needs to survive. It is not going to happen. all TG is going to do is to deplete his cash reserves untill IMS goes to the highest bidder(ISC) and Tony will have choked and lost the whole deal. ISC will go with whatever series is a realistic commercial propisiton and thats CART, not the IRL. Penske sold his interest in Penske speedways to ISC and they almost have a monopoly. That would be interesting if it could be proved that ISC was shutting CART out of speedways then the Frances could find themselves with an anti-trust suit knocking on their door. It happened to Bill Gates and it could happen to the FRance family too.

[greg.n]

What does Tony win? A series no-one wants to watch and no-one wants to drive in? the IRL will only survive if people want to weatch it and apart from Indy itself it has no redeeming qualities. the support series is a killer (they run with no wing and are flat-out the whole lap- yet there are huge discrepancies in speed. Are some people cheating?)with cars that fold up around the drivers (Halliday and Priestly). If no-one goes to it there are no merchandising opportunities. The big players aren't going to pour bucks into it and TG has no-ones respect? What Tony will do is deplete his resources till IMS is sold to the highest bidder (ISC) and they take over. They'll run a series people want to watch (which wont't be the IRL as it now is) and TG will have lost everything he had and hoped to gain. His series has gone back on nearly every plank it was launched on (all-american, cheaper, no foreign drivers taking all the rides)for what? toyota and Honda are in a race to be the first japanese manufacturer to win the Indy 500. they are not in it for the health of Amaerican open wheel racing. Their participation will push engine costs through the roof and if Greg ray has stepped out of his ride because foyt is running 3 cars on a "one car budget" then you can bet your'e life alot of other teams are hard up too. this is not a well funded series with a big future at all and its going no-where fast. Once corporate America gets the truth about the attendance figures it will wither and die, only Indy will remain.right now the only thing keeping it alive is the 500 and the rest of the races really only exist to justify the cost of running Indy. Phiilip Morris gains nothing from the event except from Indy and Roger P will have to find new sponsors when the 'baccy money goes. If ISC buys the speedway they'll make decisions on what is commercially viable. One thought though. If the ISC shuts CART out of oval racing, is there a case for an anti-trust suit?

[BootsOntheSide]

Greg's got it summed up pretty well. Tony George seems to have shied away from his original vision (or at least his original published vision). Now we're going to have high costs thanks to Toyota and Honda, lots of Brazillian, Japanese, French and everything else drivers, races all round the world, and just a failed money spinner with one big race. You can't conceal empty grandstands for long, although Tony George could always buy the Highbury murals Arsenal FC used when they were redecorating, to give an illusion of someone somewhere being interested in the IRL for racing reasons.