Portland a month off, and right on cue here comes the EARL

[oddlycalm]

With the Portland community busy getting revved up for the Champ Car race June 20th, as if on cue EARL officials showed up in town this week to muddy the water with the city council and the event committee. While we have a few newspaper articles and some TV coverage of the coming OWRS event, last evening the broadcast news also had coverage of the EARL officials in town to talk about holding a race here. :thumdown:

We have gotten accustomed to former event chairman and EARL "consultant" (shill) and Bill Hildick's annual fantasy statements about the EARL in the local press, but this year we are getting the full court press with an entire IRL clown squad in town.

The timing is obvious, and none of the city officials or local press seem to be able to ask the pertinent questions such as "are the IRL cars in their present form capable of road racing?" or "exactly when will the IRL have cars that are equipped for road racing?", "how much will it cost each team to update their cars?", or even "what dates are open on the IRL schedule and, if there are no open dates, which race will you cancel to make room for Portland?" Instead, there are simply vague references to some future date, and a lot of talk about how iffy the future of OWRS is.

Instead of focusing on the race at hand, it baffles me why city officials and the media want to have anything to do with a competing organization that doesn't even field road racing cars and has no admitted open dates on it's schedule.

oc

[jdcooper]

"Instead of focusing on the race at hand, it baffles me why city officials and the media want to have anything to do with a competing organization that doesn't even field road racing cars and has no admitted open dates on it's schedule."


Hit the "history rewind" button (two years) and remember the same scheisters convincing Cleveland to dump CART to run an EARL race at Burke Lakefront airport. None of the bozos in CLE bothered asking the FAA if they could turn an airport into a banked oval track..... Doooohhhh !!!!

Maybe the Portland folks don't talk to the Cleveland folks. They should. :shakehead

[Steve99]

And people don't understand why the OWRS figureheads (PG, PN, etc.) won't stop bringing up the EARL. Like it our not, the war is still going on. Anyone who denies has their head in the sand.

[ChrisB]

"are the IRL cars in their present form capable of road racing?" or "exactly when will the IRL have cars that are equipped for road racing?"

I'm sorry, but has OWRS ever come out and said that they're specifically a "road-racing series" and that "road-racing is all we do and what we do better than any other other American OW/formula series"? No?

There are some of us who could see this coming years ago... the IRL would eventually start positioning itself as a "diversity" series... the same thing CART was already doing... and as such CART/OWRS really wouldn't be able to make a GREAT case for saying why it was the better series for road courses.

Has OWRS come out and declared itself an all-RR series? And at least made plans public for a RR-specific car? No? Then it has nobody to blame but themselves if the IRL comes in and starts taking it's best RR events.

[Steve99]

That's a load of BS. It's well known that Champ Cars are good road course racers. EARL has never even turned right.

We know your agenda of having Champ Car dump the ovals, but it doesn't apply here.

[Wolverine]

People said the same thing about CART when they first started running raod courses in the late 1970s. The EARL can adapt to turning right if they want to, so Champ Car should think about how they will counter TG's move when he decides that the EARL should go road racing.

Champ Car and its fans are kidding themselves if they think there is something mystical about road racing that the EARLsters can never figure out. Heck, virtually every EARL team came over from CART, and I'm sure none of them have forgotten how to turn right. Champ Car just needs to focus on making their product so attractive that no one will even think about talking to the EARL.

[Steve99]

And if the EARL goes road racing they will try to get in Champ Cars face at every race in North America. Champ Car dropping all ovals forever will have no effect on this. FTG is at war, and he thinks he has the right kind of currency.

[Chief]

What a load of DUNG. The IRL has done NOTHING but meddle and muddy the open wheel waters in this country. They are UNPROVEN on everything including their very own OVALS where they've been rejected by fans and MANY MANY tracks including: Charlotte Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Dover, New Hampshire, Nazareth, Gateway and very soon their very own Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

PORTLAND OFFICIALS: This is SUICIDE for your race IF you sign the IRL to a deal. DON'T upset the fans, the passionate open wheel fans that were forced from Indy with the creation of the IRL have never returned. Do not accept this IRL legacy or this too may be the fate of your race.....Sophisticated fans know the difference between quality and crap. The IRL is CRAP.

[ChrisB]

It's well known that Champ Cars are good road course racers

Well known to whom? The small handfull of us hardcores who hang out on these forums? The local community folks who play a big part in these events have no friggin' clue about the comparitive peformance of an Indy vs Champ car on road courses... and the 3 amigos have made virtually no case whatsoever as to why Champ cars are better at road racing than Indy cars

To the non-hardcore casual race fan, next year:

CWS: 1500 lb/ 700hp formula cars on roads and ovals
IRL: 1500 lb/ 700hp formula cars on roads and ovals + the Indy 500.

Superficially the 2 series are about the same to them... and the Indy 500 is the extra ammunition the IRL has to be able to cherry-pick any CWS road-race it wants.

My "drop the ovals" agenda is for CWS to step up and become a better RR series than the IRL, and thus protect it's RR turf and survive... without it CWS is dead!

[Steve99]

Champ Cars could drop the ovals and specialize at road races, but your argument would still work against them. To the "non-hardcore casual race fan" they will still look the same, but EARL will have Indy and FTG's checkbook.

[JLMannin]

[QUOTE=ChrisBSuperficially the 2 series are about the same to them... and the Indy 500 is the extra ammunition the IRL has to be able to cherry-pick any CWS road-race it wants.[/QUOTE]

And maybe a cherry-pickes road course event could grow to be as Phenomenally sucessful as the IRL Pheonix, Gateway and Nazareth events.

They can poach all the events, they will not poach the fans. If the IRL is the sole surviving series, I won't watch it.

[Madmaxfan2]

With the Portland community busy getting revved up for the Champ Car race June 20th, as if on cue EARL officials showed up in town this week to muddy the water with the city council and the event committee. While we have a few newspaper articles and some TV coverage of the coming OWRS event, last evening the broadcast news also had coverage of the EARL officials in town to talk about holding a race here. :thumdown:

We have gotten accustomed to former event chairman and EARL "consultant" (shill) and Bill Hildick's annual fantasy statements about the EARL in the local press, but this year we are getting the full court press with an entire IRL clown squad in town.

The timing is obvious, and none of the city officials or local press seem to be able to ask the pertinent questions such as "are the IRL cars in their present form capable of road racing?" or "exactly when will the IRL have cars that are equipped for road racing?", "how much will it cost each team to update their cars?", or even "what dates are open on the IRL schedule and, if there are no open dates, which race will you cancel to make room for Portland?" Instead, there are simply vague references to some future date, and a lot of talk about how iffy the future of OWRS is.

Instead of focusing on the race at hand, it baffles me why city officials and the media want to have anything to do with a competing organization that doesn't even field road racing cars and has no admitted open dates on it's schedule.

oc

That is simple, most city officials and media don't have a clue about racing in general. After, who knows more about racing than the "Indy 500 Folks" logic to the ignorant. That is the only advantage TG has, and he uses it to great effect. The three amigos need to understand this dynamic. IN fact, If I ran OWRS Ii would send Mario Andretti and Paul Newman on a public promotion tour to current and future racing venues with widespread national media coverage to counter the twirl spin. THe amigos should pay for it too, because that is the only way to make it happen.

[Shamus]

Time to fire off a letter to the editor and some city council folks I guess...

With OWRS not really committing strongly to PDX next year I can see why the city council people would be interesting in covering their bases, but there would be more pull at a Star Mazda race at PIR than an IRL race and they need to know that. Plus, if the city were more committed to the Champcar event (promotion etc...) maybe OWRS would be more likely to stay.

They'd have some seriously ticked off CART fans that would not only stay away, but do so very loudly if they switched to the IRL.

[Chief]

Ask the Portland Chamber of Commerce this question: How well did the IRL races in Cleveland do?

When they find the answer only then will they understand there's alot more to this than just simple economics. They'll put 2+2 together and understand what NASCAR ticket subsidies aren't going to do for them and have the IRL explain how such a premiere series can have such small TV ratings and attendance. Heck, the IRL could use that "We're #6 in autoracing attendance world-wide" as the slogan for kicking out the world's #2 most attended race series, the CCWS. Portland, there's your justification..."aim lower" could be your catch phrase. It'll be a BIG seller.....

[oddlycalm]

What a load of DUNG. The IRL has done NOTHING but meddle and muddy the open wheel waters in this country.

Absolutely right Chief, this is nothing but an attempt by TG to kill off a struggling OWRS event. The EARL has as much intention of racing at Portland as it does on the moon. I suspect the only reason that it's been singled out for so much IRL attention is due to former race chairman Bill Hildick being on TG's payroll and event founder Bob Ames connection to Penske.

Hildick and Ames are the heavy hitters with the business community when it comes to getting sponsors. The chances of getting sponsors for our OWRS race are zero when Ames and Hildick talk about the EARL being the future every time they open their mouth. :mad:

Also overshadowing the June 20th race are TV stories every other night about NASCAR's hunt for a site in the Northwest for a super speedway. Apparently, news that NASCAR might hold a race at a yet nonexistant track that might be near here at some undetermined moment between now and infinity is much bigger news that the race that has been the largest single day sporting event here every year since 1984.... :shakehead

Unfortunately, people are depressingly predictable. Rather than putting forth the energy to make a good event great, they would rather spend their time worrying about pipe dreams and greener grass in other pastures. What they don't seem to realize is that their performance relative the race we currently have will be the gage other racing bodies uses to measure the feasability of future races.

oc

[fourrunner]

Promise a Politician a Free Meal & a Hooker, and he'll agree to most anything... The fact that the IRL has dismal attendance at most venue's and the fact that getting them to race anywhere is usually the last event that happens before permanent closure of the facility has little to do with common sense.... Very few politicians anywhere have common sense!

[Spinout]

Everyone has some good analysis about this. Now we need to make Portland city officials aware of them.

[Insomniac]

They should ask TG why now? When he tried to pick and choose the tracks to buy in January, Portland wasn't one of them. But I guess the choice between paying OWRS for a race and TG paying them to race is an easy decision. We can hope he has the wrong currency just like the bankruptcy hearing. ;)