Merger Continued

[Spicoli]

This thread rocks.

http://members.cox.net/bugchicklv/fs220_123.jpg

edit: page top YO! :rockon:

[Sean O'Gorman]

This thread rocks.

http://members.cox.net/bugchicklv/fs220_123.jpg

edit: page top YO! :rockon:

Is your computer upside down or something? :saywhat:

[Spicoli]

Is your computer upside down or something? :saywhat:

no. please stay on topic. :)

[CART T. Katz]

Since he is there for his kid, one should assume that its Conquest's or Gehl's decision on the shirt (more likely gehl cause he also has a gehl lanyard) , and since the Atlantic logo is new, perhaps they were just using up shirts they already had.

sounds good, except for one thing- rahal doesn't own a team in atlantics. if he was there in support of his son, wouldn't he be wearing a conquest shirt instead of a rahal letterman shirt then?

i don't doubt what you said is probably right. my theory is that rahal takes the lolas that he already has and re-enters selected races with gehl sponsorship, my guess is those races not on a league weekend after the 500.

[devilmaster]

sounds good, except for one thing- rahal doesn't own a team in atlantics. if he was there in support of his son, wouldn't he be wearing a conquest shirt instead of a rahal letterman shirt then?

i don't doubt what you said is probably right. my theory is that rahal takes the lolas that he already has and re-enters selected races with gehl sponsorship, my guess is those races not on a league weekend after the 500.

http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=208407&FS=IRL

Which is why it makes me believe that Gehl did up the shirts, and not conquest....

[Andrew Longman]

Which may well increase its chances of being sold...
Assuming the rest of the family would just as soon have a big pile o' cash.


All of which begs the question - If things have progressed to the point where freelance track announcers are informed about "it", when do us common folk find out?

When talk of a sale came up months ago, I suggest that the family may be facing some estate tax issues when Mari dies.

Still might be the case.

KK buying the IRL and letting them keep IMS doesn't solve that though.

But if I'm KK what does buying the IRL really do for me? I guess it would be cheap because other than the race in May what do they have that CC doesn't already have enough of?

Makes more sense for both parties if KK buys IMS

Now back to our usual level of speculation :gomer:

[FTG]

A client of mine, who's been in business for a long time, said, "If something makes sense, it will usually happen eventually."

[Stu]

But if I'm KK what does buying the IRL really do for me? I guess it would be cheap because other than the race in May what do they have that CC doesn't already have enough of?

It eliminates competition. It boosts the status of champ car. It gives you Indy and a better tv/radio deal.

Plus a ton of other stuff I am sure.

[G.]

http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=208407&FS=IRL

Which is why it makes me believe that Gehl did up the shirts, and not conquest....Gehl doesn't sponsor RLR or Conquest in the CCWS. CCA has their own logo.


Gehl+RLR +IRL=no story
Gehl+Conquest+CCA=no story

Gehl+RLR+ CCWS= WTF?!?

[rabbit]

Gehl+RLR+ CCWS= WTF?!?Exactly

[devilmaster]

Gehl doesn't sponsor RLR or Conquest in the CCWS. CCA has their own logo.

From Rahal's site about Graham - 'Signed with Conquest Racing to run the historic Champ Car Formula Atlantic Championship. Rahal will pilot the Gehl Company Cosworth/Swift a 17-year-old rookie.'

I guess I don't understand what is hard to believe here, and why is it hard to believe.

Graham is part of Team Rahal Letterman. (thats what rahal.com makes it look like) Gehl and RLR partner together to give graham and ride and hire team Conquest to run Graham for them in the Atlantics.

They make up shirts for it, with RLR logo, Gehl logo, and the CCWS logo. As I explained to kevin, my guess is that its probably old shirts or the fact that the atlantic logo is new, they didn't have the new logo on shirts yet....

Either way, I believe this shirt is as innocuous as it can possibly be. They have shirts made up for Graham's sponsorship... and that happens to be what it looks like.

Its either that, or Booby had everyone fooled, and he agreed to go to IRL with CC blessing as a double agent to infiltrate evil Lord Sagamore's castle so that they have an inside man when the times comes to buy up IRL and IMS and save the day for OW racing in this country so we can then go attack NASCAR with Humpy wheeler at our side and then we can control all of racing in america, have the president tell the CIA to investigate and find that Bernie E has been hiding WMD's all along and not allow him into the country anymore.

Or maybe its just a shirt they made up.



[edit]looks like its the shirts they had made up... graham wears em too.
http://www.gehl.com/images/gehl_rahalletterman_release.gif

http://www.gehl.com/images/graham_rahal.gif

[KobySon]

...he agreed to go to IRL with CC blessing as a double agent...

Off topic, and joking aside, I always wondered if Walker originally went to the IRL under those circumstances.

[G.]

devilmaster, you may be right. That would answer the "WTF?" question. I concede that to you (and others).

But, in my experience (which ain't all that huge, but more than some), that particular patch was placed there ON PURPOSE. No IF's, AND's, or BUT's.

They would leave it off, if the CCA patch wasn't available, 'cuz Bobby knows what wearing it means.

Now it could be a conspiracy, a shot over the bow to FTG, a mistake, a normal part of ALL CCA teams' uni's, a sign of the merger/Apocolypse, whatever.

But it was on purpose, IMO.

Could Graham's logo be this?: http://www.champcaratlantic.com/images/header/logo_06.gif

Having trouble getting the CCWS logo into mssg. to compare...

[devilmaster]

But it was on purpose, IMO.

Maybe, but i'm more inclined to believe he had the shirts lying around from when he still ran in CC and just used those up. Save a buck where ya can.

[Andrew Longman]

It eliminates competition. It boosts the status of champ car. It gives you Indy and a better tv/radio deal.

Plus a ton of other stuff I am sure.

Of course. I mispoke. I meant assuming the series merge, why buy IRL outright? Owning controlling interest is all he needs.

Buying IMS outright, killing the IRL, making the 500 a CCWS event and transferring the TV deal is the best possible solution

[devilmaster]

Could Graham's logo be this?: http://www.champcaratlantic.com/images/header/logo_06.gif

Having trouble getting the CCWS logo into mssg. to compare...

I don't think so. Both logos have the orange arrow thingy to the left and the blue ford circle on the bottom

[Andrew Longman]

G

In inclined to agree. Sponsor placements and presentation is critically important in this sport. Nothing is left to chance. The CCWS patch is not a sponsor patch but it falls in the same category.

They would cover it with duct tape if it wasn't supposed to be there

[G.]

G

In inclined to agree. Sponsor placements and presentation is critically important in this sport. Nothing is left to chance. The CCWS patch is not a sponsor patch but it falls in the same category.

They would cover it with duct tape if it wasn't supposed to be there
Holy ****! Did you intercept my PM to DM?? :eek:

[devilmaster]

Holy ****! Did you intercept my PM to DM??

Maybe, but I can't respond to you till you clear out your inbox G. :p :D

Sure. Give me your side but you set it up so you can't accept my response in the debate..... yer gonna be a wife someday ;)

So since G's left the website, I'll just post my response here...

I understand what you're saying, and part of me agrees with the understanding that a team would want everything to look perfect.

But i would submit, that in this day and age of NAOW, nothing is perfect anymore. An example: I went looking for conquest's site to see what they had about Graham, and their site isn't completed. Just a 'under construction' homepage, they run at least 3 cars and they don't have their site up and running?

My feeling on this shirt thing is that they don't have the shirts with the new atlantic logo in sufficient numbers for everyone or they didn't have them at all. So Rahal uses new CCWS shirts that CCWS gave them with their blessing or old shirts that Rahal had hanging around. I'm inclined to believe the latter.

I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist. IMO, Bobby doesn't care how the OW war ends up, as long as he still gets paid gobs of money to run his race team. If he gets paid to run in CC or IRL or some merged series, he will. If he gets paid to run somewheres else, he will. So I don't believe he's into 'messages' by the logos on his shirt. If the merger doesn't work out, he follows hondabucks and goes racing where he or honda wants him to.

If I play devil's advocate for a moment, and agree that the logo on his shirt is a 'message', I'd think its a f-you message to Kevin instead of FTG, because he's not wearing proper gear (no atlantic logo with Yoko and Mazda) and he doesn't care who sees it.

All of the scenarios mentioned about the shirt seem too far-fetched for me. I always try and look for the most reasonable explanation for something. Old shirts or not enough new logo atlantic shirts, to me, seems the most likely answer.

[dando]

not enough new logo atlantic shirts
Considering the lack of CCWS swag until last season, this is entirely possible. The @lantics site doesn't have a shopping link, and there isn't anything available for @lantics in the CCWS shop.

EDIT: ^^^ can you say Daddy? :rofl:

-Kevin

[pferrf1]

The GR/Gehl/RLR/Mi Jack Atlantics announcement was Jan 18. The Mazda Atlantics announcement was February 14. The series probably wouldn't release the new logo so far out from the announcement.

In my experience with this kind of thing, the most obvious answer is likely something as simple as Rahal's supplier for the team gear probably had the CCWS logo already set for embroidering, and the old Atlantics logo from the Danica Atlantics period had the Toyota on it. With no new logo available they went with the parent series logo. Perhaps they should have gone with just "Champ Car" logo but the supplier didn't have it and any extra expense was deemed worth it at the moment.

[JoeBob]

IIRC, the original plan was for Rahal to field the Atlantic team. At some point, it was switched to Graham racing for Mi-Jack.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Rahal had the shirts made when the Gehl deal was announced, assuming his team would be running the effort, and put the CCWS logo on them, because there wasn't an Atlantic logo yet.

I'd love for there to be deeper meaning, and I find it hysterical how a simple explanation has given way to a conspiracy theory, but I think DM is right on here..

[G.]

Maybe, but I can't respond to you till you clear out your inbox G. :p :D

Sure. Give me your side but you set it up so you can't accept my response in the debate..... yer gonna be a wife someday ;)
Just don't be calling me your *****! :flame:

cleaned out a few mssgs.

Like I said, you may be absolutely correct, but from my experience, this is a "slight" that just doesn't happen.

[racer2c]

Somebody should call Rahal HQ. the receptionist could probably answer this. Come on, depender would if he hasn't already. :gomer: