Post TG IMS Regime

[Andrew Longman]

I was reading RMs mailbag today and questions about whether owners were happy about TG losing his position got me thinking.

How could this or anything possibly work?

Without IMS money, the IRL is nonviable. I think that's where they are headed and owners are right to be worried. So then what?

TG and the girls might sell the IRL and go back to running a track, but no one would buy it.

The 500 is still viable, but not without cars to race.

How to fix that?

Offer an outrageous purse that makes it viable to do it as a one-off? I don't think teams and sponsors are going to be content to just do a one off. Sponsor-wise it would hardly activate the sponsorship.

No, IMS would have to offer enough of a purse to either cover the rest of the season (which they won't do because that's what they've been doing and they just decided to stop) or they turn over control of the series such that the participants can build it up properly.

Who would take them up?

Current race owners in and outside of the IR in all sorts of seriesL. It might even attract manufacturers if the rules were right.

IMS gets their race. Teams get proper return on their investment.

1995 all over again, but now IMS has been properly neutered.

Hey, I can hope. No?

[Don Quixote]

Sorry, won't work. The brand has been damaged (run into the ground) beyond any hope of repair. Maybe Nascar will design some low tech ****boxes and run there on memorial day weekend.

[Gnam]

I misread the thread title and thought this was a plan to post FTG's resume online. He could use some help finding a new job, right? :tony:

[NismoZ]

Or...see my post of 5/27 on "TG Ousted..." Didn't think Roger would buy Saturn, either! Could work. The "family" realizing Roger the racer and his acquaintences having more on the ball than their IGS? Pretty obvious :tony:'s "2013 profitability statement" has just been cut 3 years short by the board.(?) Huh, Saturn-(Diesel) powered Championship Cars! An all-American race series.:rofl:

[Napoleon]

How could this or anything possibly work?


It can't.

This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

[JLMannin]

It can't work as long as the Hulman-George construct owns the track. I see the IRL becoming a one race series, just like USAC was from 1980 until 1996, except this time, there won't be another complementary series.

It's just like Charlie Brown doing the kick-off - he trusts that THIS TIME, Lucy won't yank the ball away at the last instant. She does, every time. How can we trust the current speedway management not to do the same thing at sometime in the future when their egos get bruised?

I still think all of this could have been ended in 1997 if CART had just listened to me and adopted the newly announced IRL formula as the specs for the Indy Lights series. :D

[Andrew Longman]

I still think all of this could have been ended in 1997 if CART had just listened to me and adopted the newly announced IRL formula as the specs for the Indy Lights series. :D

Whoa. Now there is/was an interesting idea.

-- Helps the ILS by giving CART team incentive to have/support the ladder series. At the time many alreade had ILS satellite teams.

-- Puts their teams and sponsors in the 500

-- Elevates the CART spec as the spec ABOVE the Indy spec.

-- Give backmarker/one off Indy teams something else to do with their equipment than go to lousy IRL events.

Actually that would have been quite clever.

Except it would have ruined ILS to run that crap.

[JLMannin]

Whoa. Now there is/was an interesting idea.

-- Helps the ILS by giving CART team incentive to have/support the ladder series. At the time many alreade had ILS satellite teams.

-- Puts their teams and sponsors in the 500

-- Elevates the CART spec as the spec ABOVE the Indy spec.

-- Give backmarker/one off Indy teams something else to do with their equipment than go to lousy IRL events.

Actually that would have been quite clever.

Except it would have ruined ILS to run that crap.

Right, this would have ruined/killed off the ILS, but that was a better scenario than taking on the IRL square on. I knew the CART owners would not stick to the US500 concept, as the allure of the speedway would never wane and it was not a manner of if, but rather when the CART owners would bolt to the irl500.

Amazing that all this was perfectly clear to the fans of the sport at the time, but none of those actually running the sport.

[extramundane]

Right, this would have ruined/killed off the ILS

It's not like it had a long life ahead of it anyway. I think sacrificing Indy Lights for the greater good would have been entirely acceptable, especially with the line between Lights & Atlantic being so blurry at that point. I'm not sure that it would have solved much other than gutting Lights, but it would have been worth a try.

[cart7]

With the money teet tied off, I don't see how OW racing is going to survive much longer with TG control. Any potential buyer of the series would do just a little research and realize he's gonna have to deal with the Hulmans for the foreseeable future. That alone would nix any deals IMO.

[stroker]

the only solution I can see is that IMS management really, honestly, does go to an independent source for finding a CEO who can put the thing right and then get out of the way.

I'm sure there are other people out there, but let's assume they hand the reins to Penske and tell him to:

1. Get a set of rules that meet the economic conditions
2. Get a set of venues the teams can run with their budgets
3. Get a set of people in place at IMS to run the thing with a new CEO in two (2) years.

I think he could do it.

[Al Czervik]

the only solution I can see is that IMS management really, honestly, does go to an independent source for finding a CEO who can put the thing right and then get out of the way.

I'm sure there are other people out there, but let's assume they hand the reins to Penske and tell him to:

1. Get a set of rules that will let me win all the time
2. Get a set of venues the teams can run and make me money
3. Get a my cronies in place at IMS to run the thing with a new CEO in two (2) years.

I think he could do it.

Fixxered

[stroker]

Fixxered

Yah, you're probably a lot closer to the truth than I was, on second thought.

But I'd be curious to know if you can suggest a serious alternative to Roger...

[Sean Malone]

I honestly believe TG will see this sinking ship all the way below the waterline due to nothing more than his massive ego and privileged attitude.
They've been loading the life rafts for some time now. Tony still can't land a title sponsor, implement a decent formula or string together a cohesive sentence during an interview.

A few more years of this will go by and Tony will pull the plug. The teams will disperse into other series or fold all together in a very anticlimactic, non event that just a few internet racing fans and Robin Miller even notice. NASCAR will pick up the 500 and IMS will celebrate what a brilliant decision it is.

If Penske cared he would have done something already.

[pchall]

Penske only cares about collecting as many mini-Borg-Warners as possible before the race is abandoned. Hulman George $$ and Honda ¥¥ will keep it going through 2011. Then kiss it good bye as an openwheel event, most likely turning into a Saturday Night Busch Race for NASCRAP.

[oddlycalm]

I honestly believe TG will see this sinking ship all the way below the waterline due to nothing more than his massive ego and privileged attitude.

Growing up with an utter lack of consequences tends to do that. He has no earthly clue how to get out of this situation or even how to step off before it goes under. He's as clueless as a week old Hereford calf and he'll just sit there looking dumb as things fall apart. It never occurred to him that managing something requires that you show up and know how.

oc

[Michaelhatesfans]

Growing up with an utter lack of consequences tends to do that. He has no earthly clue how to get out of this situation or even how to step off before it goes under. He's as clueless as a week old Hereford calf and he'll just sit there looking dumb as things fall apart. It never occurred to him that managing something requires that you show up and know how.

oc

As they say in politics, staging the coup is easy. Making the trains run on time is the hard part.

[Al Czervik]

Yah, you're probably a lot closer to the truth than I was, on second thought.

But I'd be curious to know if you can suggest a serious alternative to Roger...

I can't offer a name, but I do know that the person to set this ship right (if possible) is not involved in the IRL, or was involved in Champcar.

[cameraman]

He's as clueless as a week old Hereford calf.

oc

Most calves I have seen are smarter than that.

[JLMannin]

I can't offer a name, but I do know that the person to set this ship right (if possible) is not involved in the IRL, or was involved in Champcar.

Dayle Coyne?

[Indy]

I can't offer a name, but I do know that the person to set this ship right (if possible) is not involved in the IRL, or was involved in Champcar.

I vote for Gentilozzi.

[Andrew Longman]

... managing something requires that you show up and know how.

oc
I'll be quoting you. :thumbup:

Do you require royalties?

[Methanolandbrats]

Most calves I have seen are smarter than that. Nope, Tony is smarter, both found the tit when born, but Tony stayed on it for decades.

[G.]

Nope, Tony is smarter, both found the tit when born, but Tony stayed on it for decades.

God, that's funny.

:rofl: