View Full Version : Brilliant move by Champcar
Who is responsible for the schedule?
Nothing like being hooked up to life support and blowing a fuse eh?
It's going to be hard to make up what little momentum they paid for by broadcasting the first three races. A "sensational" Indy and they are swimming in the deep end with a barbell set IMO
Who is responsible for the schedule?
Nothing like being hooked up to life support and blowing a fuse eh?
It's going to be hard to make up what little momentum they paid for by broadcasting the first three races. A "sensational" Indy and they are swimming in the deep end with a barbell set IMO
Even if they had the Zuhai race in May it's still a very stupid scheduling mistake. They really should have talked to Don Panoz about running at Road Atlanta on the Memorial Day weekend. No North American presence in May is just plain dumb.
JLMannin
05-11-07, 10:06 AM
Why Champcar leaves this annual, yawing hole in the schedule every year is beyond me.
I, for one, am cured of indyitis, and its analog, mergeritis.
They need to do more than just race on Memorial Day weekend. Champcar needs to do two, maybe even three races in May.
Andrew Longman
05-11-07, 10:16 AM
Just a thought, but if you were a track promoter and 10 or so months ago when they would have been negotiating race contracts, given all the talk of merger and such at that time, would you have signed up for a CC race in May? If it were me, I'd pick another month and rest more easy that any sort of merger would be less likely to shove my race around the schedule.
Today, with merger talk pretty much dead until Honda pulls support for the IRL, I might be a little more willing. Still, who knows how long Honda will keep at it.
But otherwise I agree, they should be running twice in May and in the US. Getting a track/city to agree to that is another deal.
Methanolandbrats
05-11-07, 10:51 AM
Why Champcar leaves this annual, yawing hole in the schedule every year is beyond me.
I, for one, am cured of indyitis, and its analog, mergeritis.
They need to do more than just race on Memorial Day weekend. Champcar needs to do two, maybe even three races in May.
Probably lots of talk with potential sponsors about Indy and pressure to try and get back there since that is the only open wheel race the general, product buying public knows about. I'm not taking about the 50 or so people left on Champcar and IRL message boards, I'm talking about the general public. Because of that, they leave May open.........just in case.
Andrew Longman
05-11-07, 10:58 AM
Probably lots of talk with potential sponsors about Indy and pressure to try and get back there since that is the only open wheel race the general, product buying public knows about. I'm not taking about the 50 or so people left on Champcar and IRL message boards, I'm talking about the general public. Because of that, they leave May open.........just in case.
In a nutshell, that's at the core of why OW racing continues to hurt.
Until and unless CCWS can clearly differentiate itself from Indy and build a market for itself OR unless there is some merger, that question will continue to come up.
Could be really dumb. Personally, I think there's a smart reason to play nice with Honda, who wants all the attention on Indy. We'll see.
jonovision_man
05-11-07, 01:44 PM
The gap is longer than it has to be for Indy anyway, April 22 to June 10? No reason for it. There's an extra weekend off in June (the week after Indy) and a couple weekends off before Indy. This past weekend was open, just the rookie stuff.
The other question is... why does preparation for the Indy 500 take a whole month? I know it's not in ChampCar's control, but c'mon, setting up for the 500 shouldn't take any longer than setting up for any other IRL race. One extra week should be more than enough to get qualifying and bump day all taken care of, get a little extra gate revenue and do all the celebratory stuff... it's excessive... and almost nobody attends anyway.
jono
Andrew Longman
05-11-07, 02:03 PM
The other question is... why does preparation for the Indy 500 take a whole month? I know it's not in ChampCar's control, but c'mon, setting up for the 500 shouldn't take any longer than setting up for any other IRL race. One extra week should be more than enough to get qualifying and bump day all taken care of, get a little extra gate revenue and do all the celebratory stuff... it's excessive... and almost nobody attends anyway.
That sort of talk from CART 12 years ago got the faithful all up in arms. At least then they had the fact that fans actually showed up for the month on their side. And back then you had a lot of different cars on the grid all looking for speed. Now with a spec engine and chassis how much development and testing will do any good anyway.
The concept of Opening Day (to see who is quick out of the box), pole day (to see who's quickest) and bump day (to see who makes the show) is a good one and designed to build interest and excitement. I like(d) it.
But it only works if there is actually news to report. Teams need to all run opening day. Pole time needs to be truly/scary up there. There has to actually be bumping.
May at the Mile.
nuf said.
jonovision_man
05-11-07, 05:57 PM
That sort of talk from CART 12 years ago got the faithful all up in arms. At least then they had the fact that fans actually showed up for the month on their side. And back then you had a lot of different cars on the grid all looking for speed. Now with a spec engine and chassis how much development and testing will do any good anyway.
The concept of Opening Day (to see who is quick out of the box), pole day (to see who's quickest) and bump day (to see who makes the show) is a good one and designed to build interest and excitement. I like(d) it.
But it only works if there is actually news to report. Teams need to all run opening day. Pole time needs to be truly/scary up there. There has to actually be bumping.
You could still have Opening Day, Pole Day, and Bump Day, just compress them rather than having so many practice sessions in between. Drop a week off the schedule, maybe two.
Don't think it'll ever happen, especially not just for the sake of helping out ChampCar.
jono
Next thing you know, you'll be asking to bring in your own catering!
Like I was just getting to know this new set of ride buyers and now a 2 month layoff till the next race. I guess it won't matter if half the field changes at that race since I already forgot who was running in the first 3 races. :gomer:
Jag_Warrior
05-12-07, 02:57 PM
I know this is a crazy idea... the ramblings of a mad man and all... but maybe, just maybe the powers that be in CCWS should have spent a bit more time building the marketing side of Champ Car, and a lil less time talking to the press about their half-witted idea, of what it would have taken to get Champ Car drivers/teams to the IRL's premier race.
If the end goal is to race at Indy, then f'ing buy some Dallaras and lease some Hondas already!!! Like the police chief in Miller's Crossing, I know I don't know nuthin', but when CCWS' premier race (Long Beach) can't even get to a 1.0 Nielsen, I think it might behoove Los Tres Amigos to work on THAT... instead of talking about Tony George and the IRL every frickin' May. But then again, I'm told that the secret weapons are hidden in the basement. And when they're rolled out, this genius plan (Wile E. Coyote, anyone?) will show itself to be the back breaker for the IRL (no Dallara pun intended).
I raise my glass to others who were born at night... but not last night.
I'm less bothered by this gap than the fact that the season goes much too far into fall with too long between races at the end. They did at least improve the start of the season with three races back to back. Now they just need to shift some dates out of Oct-Dec and into May.
The gap is longer than it has to be for Indy anyway, April 22 to June 10? No reason for it. There's an extra weekend off in June (the week after Indy) and a couple weekends off before Indy. This past weekend was open, just the rookie stuff.
The other question is... why does preparation for the Indy 500 take a whole month? I know it's not in ChampCar's control, but c'mon, setting up for the 500 shouldn't take any longer than setting up for any other IRL race. One extra week should be more than enough to get qualifying and bump day all taken care of, get a little extra gate revenue and do all the celebratory stuff... it's excessive... and almost nobody attends anyway.
jono
jono, spend some time lurking over at TF right now and you'll figure it out.
There are guys there in their 60's, 70's and 80's who brag about having the same seat at Indy for God only knows how many years and how they've got an *** groove worked into it just right. They fork over $100 dollars for a bronze badge each year and hope a droplet of sweat might flick off of Tony's brow onto them. They are the truest form of groupies you can find and don't want to see anything change.
BTW
I have no idea why that place holds onto archaic rituals like, spending 3 weeks just to run one race. It's a massive waste of team resources, it's a throwback to a time when guys actually built racecars in their garages and even if the the split had never happened, the average Joe racefan or sportsfan won't pay attention to any single sporting event that takes 3 weeks to run.
To top it all off, there isn't a damn thing going on at that track for at least 6 days out of those 3 weeks except for some parades and cotillions that maybe only someone like Spicoli might attend. :gomer:
Next thing you know, you'll be asking to bring in your own catering!
zing :laugh:
Insomniac
05-13-07, 12:24 PM
Are there any promotions running on ESPN for CC?
I would not be surprised if there were two reasons for leaving May open this year. What might have been considered some progress in merger discussions (until TG figured - with the help of RP - that he was still going to get CC for nothing - he keeps forgetting that he has to get us too or he gets nothing) would be the initial reason and the possibility of 2 trips to Europe with the first being a double header in May could be the second. The latter being a possibility that would be contingent on the success of the two races this year.
I'd like to see a race in the UK in May along with another is Estoril or somewhere in Germany or France.
Selfishly, I do prefer 8 AM EDT races as then one has the full day to do other things.
High Sided
05-16-07, 12:01 PM
May at the Mile.
nuf said.
springfield/bikes?:thumbup:
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