ChrisB gets his props in Car and Driver magazine...

[RacinM3]

Page 128. They have and article ipdating the CART/IRL split and adapted ChrisB's timeline. They gave him the credit he deserved, too.:thumbup:

[cart7]

:thumbup:

[formulaben]

Which issue?

[RacinM3]

Feb '04 - the latest one - I just got it Saturday

[pchall]

C&D still puts out a magazine? I thought they just marketed cheap automotive products at outlets like Target...

[RacinM3]

Funny you mention that. The Feb '04 issue has to be the smallest issue ever, in terms of articles and page count. Why is it when they have their largest issue, they splash across the cover "OUR LARGEST ISSUE EVER!!!"

I want to see the "OUR SMALLEST ISSUE EVER!!!" on the cover.

[lone_groover]

The definitive reference. Definitely.

:thumbup:

[fourrunner]

ChrisB

Nice Job... You always seem to make sense!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

[FCYTravis]

Originally posted by RacinM3
Funny you mention that. The Feb '04 issue has to be the smallest issue ever, in terms of articles and page count. Why is it when they have their largest issue, they splash across the cover "OUR LARGEST ISSUE EVER!!!"

I want to see the "OUR SMALLEST ISSUE EVER!!!" on the cover.
Hahahaha...

I haven't liked C&D as much since they did the makeover. It just doesn't have the same heft it once did.

[ChrisB]

Thanks guys! I just got a copy of the magazine today.... but I'm a bit short on time right now, but I'll post more later on.

[JT265]

Originally posted by lone_groover
The definitive reference. Definitely.

:thumbup:

indubitably. :D

[TedN]

Link to story HERE (http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=2023&page_number=1)

Ted

[Ziggy]

Two references to Car and Driver in one week? Egads! You guys are really bored. Look for an article by Ted West in Road and Track magazine in the mid 1996 range. Then, do yourself a favor and subscribe to that magazine. Tis still the best American monthly, and they dont sling the Kool-Aid. They have started to cover IRL races however.........

Get a Hemmings, get Motorsport, get Autosport along with Road and Track. That should carry you through the month to month jones, and keep you up on what is going on. Throw in an occasional National Speed Sport News and along with your internet perception, you still wont know what is going on at the courthouse! :(

Which is where the big time deals in racing have taken place over the span of the split.

Ziggy

[ChrisB]

OK... it's the weekend, and I finally have time to address this.

The Feb 2004 issue of Car & Driver has an article called "CART vs IRL: Who won the War?" by Bob Zeller. The first page of the article summarizes how bad both series (and the sport overall) are doing as evidenced by the abismally low TV ratings: CART's LBGP may have had less viewers on SpeedTV than it had in the grandstands, and the IRL's ratings on ABC national TV were consistantly less than 1 point (about .7 to .8). Also mentioned are how CART was barely hanging on, and the IRL was struggling with safety issues in the wake of the Renna and Brack incidents.

In the middle part of the article, the question "Who won the War?" is presented to 12 notable people of the sport: Tony George, Chris Pook, Andrew Craig, Roger Penske, Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, Bobby Rahal, John Menard, Robin Miller, Bobby Unser, Pat Patrick, and Arie Luyendyk. In one way or another, everyone pretty much admits that there is no winner. Everyone has lost. Some are very blunt about it, and some put some spin on it (especially Tony George and Chris Pook, given their executive positions for their respective series) but the concensus is NOT positive.

No surprise, Robin Miller is the most blunt, and it's good to finally hear from Andrew Craig again. AJ is very critical of road-racing, and Bobby Unser admits that the grass-roots series envisioned for the IRL was a pipe dream. There's many other good comments in there.... I'm not sure if the article will appear on the C&D website in the future, but it's available on the newstand right now.

Oh... :) and the final part of the article is a timeline summary of "the split" which is an edited version of the webpage (http://www.netaxs.com/~gg1/race/cartirl.htm) I've been maintaining for a few years now (Yes, they asked permission). Though it was a kick to see my RE sprinter page (http://www.netaxs.com/~gg1/race/resc.htm) mentioned in RaceCar Engineering a few years back, actually having the text of something I wrote in one of the many car magazines I grew up with is kinda cool!

[ChrisB]

Guess what folks? Now there's a German version (http://mitglied.lycos.de/alexanderstannigel/motorsport/CART.php?show=indysplit) of the webpage! (Danke Alexander Stannigel)

Some more thoughts on all this.... One of the problems driving "the split" is the mixed expectations of what the sport should be, as evidenced by the broad-brush use of the term "open wheel". As an example, look no further than the same C&D issue for the article on the Caterham Super 7. Despite the minimal fenders, that car is essentially "open wheel". It's a front-engined roadster, with an emphasis on seat-of-the-pants driver skills. It's very much in the same family as the open-wheel sprint cars doing oval racing all over America. And yet on the very next page, there's an advertisement for "Epic Open Wheelers" featuring scale models of the '65 Lotus and '67 Eagle. Rear-engined formula cars derived from road-racing. Which "open wheel" are we talking about? The front-engined kind being driven all over American sprint-car oval tracks? Or the rear-engined kind designed from Euro formula road-racing? This duality is a big part of "the split". The CART side wants to hold onto some oval racing, and the IRL side wants to hold onto RE formula cars, despite both sides not really having deep roots in either.