The More Shizzle They Shovel the Dumber They Appear

[SurfaceUnits]

by Tim Mullin
IndyCarOnline.com

For ten years, IndyCar (or the IRL) has co-existed with another open wheel series which has held two different names, once CART and most recently Champ Car. The IndyCar Series has gone from a schedule of three oval races in 1996 to its 2005 schedule of 17 races, including three road/street courses.

The series has made some mistakes and improved upon the product each year. It steadily went from a bunch of no-name drivers with not-so-familiar team names with no series engine provider to the premiere open wheel racing series in North America. Every year, the IndyCar Series takes market share from their adversarial series (Champ Car) and even served as a force at its only competitions (CART) bankruptcy in 2003. Each year more is gained and, in light of NASCAR’s dominance, each year more is lost.

The presence of Champ Car has proven to be of little impediment to the increased presence of the IndyCar Series on the major sports landscape. If anything, it has served as a reminder of why Brian Barnhart and Tony George must go into work daily with a focus on further improving the product. The market has clearly rewarded the IndyCar Series for improvements in the past (CART bankruptcy as proof of that) and the market will "do in" Champ Car. What impedes the progress of IndyCar’s complete recovery is the over-saturation of NASCAR in American society.

NASCAR’s fans have shown an affinity for the Indy Car Series because a.) Half of them were diehards for IndyCar in days past, and b.) The other half was never exposed to the speed and fury that is the first lap of any IndyCar race. The IRL knew getting them back in the fold on a full-time basis would take three years, minimum, and the death of the open wheel infighting has turned them off. 2005 is year two of the three year, post CART bankruptcy, open wheel fan recovery plan. The second phase requires the help of the marketplace or the sudden wisdom of the owners of the Champ Car World Series.

I’ll put my money on the marketplace.

Either way, 2005 will be the last year IndyCar Series fans will have to contend with the specter of a “rival series”. Why do I have a reason to be so optimistic? Well, as investor extraordinaire Warren Buffett says: “when debt increases and revenues decrease, equity falls flat – debt kills”. More so, because IndyCar fans really don’t care about that stuff anymore. I have never seen a year in the past decade where IndyCar fans were more focused on the sport and its’ participants. The intensity going into this season is as great as I’ve seen in any form of open wheel racing in the past fifteen years.

IndyCar fan: keep focused, don’t worry, and enjoy the racing. The marketplace will take care of the off-track nonsense of the past decade that haunted IndyCar, Champ Car, and former IndyCar Waiting in Exile in NASCAR fans. Just enjoy the racing, as this website advised in December, 2004. The rest will take care of itself.

[racer2c]

I've never read more garbage since Tony saved open wheel racing.
The IRL is not the premier anything.

This piece reads like an 8th grader wrote it. Good thing no one will read it but the five gomers at TF.

[Spicoli]

They are scared to death of us.

Keep telling yourself everything is OK, and like Baghdad Bob, you'll somehow, someway reach full denial mode and believe it.

Gomer done got hisself backed into the corner. :gomer:


idiots.

[nrc]

Given that the writer presumes that his business acumen is greater than that of Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven combined, I can only assume that he's a multi-millionaire.

[Ozarkian]

Wonder what planet this guy's from? Even with a dirty telescope, he can't be watching the Earth's .1RL.

[Hot Rod Otis]

Who wrote that stinking, steaming pile of horse-crap? Defender? Turn13?

NASCAR fans in exile? Give me a break.

Its the same old .1rl :gomer: spin. Its all CART/c^rt/OWRS/Champcar's fault that nobody gives a crap about their chicken-sh^t series. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: I'm suprised that the "BOYCOTT" wasn't used as the excuse. :rolleyes:

[NismoZ]

Oh, man...that's IT. I'm bookmarking THAT site! We all need legitimate sources of credible information on which to base our opinions! (wonder where he gets his?)

[dando]

:rofl: :saywhat:

This cat must be like 18, and recently graduated from the Baghdad Bob Skool of 'Journalism'. That's the only way he could assess the intensity entering the '05 season as the best in 15 years. I wonder if this guy has ever heard of drivers like Emmo, Mansel, Mario, etc. He must have a pic of 'king Hiro on his mantle. :shakehead Perhaps he wrote apathy, but FFN edited the piece...

Kids, PLEASE don't try this @ home. This is what happens when you hit the Kool Aid bong. Just say NO. :gomer:

-Kevin

[Al Czervik]

The dood is trippin'. Big time. Kool Ade induced "visions" something akin to this:

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Lennon/McCartney
Lyrics:
Picture yourself on a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
and she's gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
that grow so incredibly high

Newspaper taxies appear on the shores
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
and you're gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah

Picture yourself in a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah

[oddlycalm]

Who wrote that stinking, steaming pile of horse-crap? Defender? Turn13? Nope, looks like CrackForum's gonna have some stiff competition at the Koolaid pitcher. :gomer: :laugh: :rofl:

oc

[cart7]

I want some of what he's smoking, injectin, snortin, etc. Ganja man. :cool:

[L1P1]

by Tim Mullin
IndyCarOnline.com

IndyCar fan: keep focused, don’t worry, and enjoy the racing.

Clearly, the IndyCar fans are worrying - as this response shows.

There is no arguing that the IRL/IndyCar is not more vulnerable to manufacturer threats and big CART! team loyalties than it's evern been since the split. If Toyota, Penske, Ganassi and Andretti pull out a second time (or any significant combination thereof), it's over. Period. Fini. Done. Stick a fork in it. TG will never be able to convince the smaller teams to do this ever again.

I suspect that this is why TG is (finally) creating his own team for his pet projects rather than changing the whole thing into his pet project. He's lost. It's not quite clear yet who he's lost to, but he lost. He's not in control. And he won't be in the future.

[Dave99]

Three-year fan recovery plan.

That guy's a hoot and a half! :laugh:

[RusH]

That site has less than 10 active forum members.
Talk about screaming fire in a crowded theater! :gomer:
:rofl:

[racer2c]

That site has less than 10 active forum members.
Talk about screaming fire in a crowded theater! :gomer:
:rofl:

Wow, that is one sad little corner of the Internet. I almost felt sorry for the Buddy lazier fan who's cheerleading a ride for the has been wanna be. Almost.

[Michaelhatesfans]

That is one big pile of *****.

http://h4h.com/louis/pile.jpg

[Methanolandbrats]

The moron is only about 10 years late to the whole innernet thing.

[SurfaceUnits]

If some of these peeps believe even half of what they write, does anyone doubt there will be mass suicide on the day the bricks come tumbling down. Well, OK, maybe a few dozen. And no, this isn't hate speech, it's true concern for the koolaid swilling lemmings. The others, que sera sera.

[Jervis Tetch 1]

More mindless, senseless, useless crap from the gomers :gomer:

[B3RACER1a]

OK, let me get this straight. I cant quite get his logic, so help me out here:

CART went bankrupt so we must be doing awesome. ;)

LOL. What an idiot. With all the proof out there, he finds the one thing that he can spin into 'good news'. The IRL had nothing to do with CART going bankrupt. CART's numerous idiotic moves and leaders did that to themselves and unfortunatly the racing got caught in the middle.

Thats some strong stuff that got over there...LOL!

[Andrew Longman]

OK, let me get this straight. I cant quite get his logic, so help me out here:

CART went bankrupt so we must be doing awesome. ;)

LOL. What an idiot. With all the proof out there, he finds the one thing that he can spin into 'good news'. The IRL had nothing to do with CART going bankrupt. CART's numerous idiotic moves and leaders did that to themselves and unfortunatly the racing got caught in the middle.

Thats some strong stuff that got over there...LOL!

Indeed. CART went bankrupt because they fell into an unsustainable business and governace model dependent on manufacturer funding, satisfying Wall Street, and pleasing owners who were not properly incented to support the series long term (the writer may have a point in that without the IRL many owners would have had no other place to go get rich, hence leaving the incentive to support CART strong). It had to die in order to be reborn under a more rational economic model.

Now TG has deliberately adopted almost the same model (sans public ownership). This time its supposed to work?

[Sean O'Gorman]

Heh, much to my surprise today, the teacher in my marketing strategy class is familiar with the open wheel situation. He knows about my interest in racing, and said "yeah, the IRL really screwed up a good situation, CART was doing really well."

Even non-racefans know the score. :cool:

[JLMannin]

Now TG has deliberately adopted almost the same model (sans public ownership). This time its supposed to work?
So, how long will it be before we see the IMS corp IPO? TG has emulated every move CART made up to this point.

[Andrew Longman]

So, how long will it be before we see the IMS corp IPO? TG has emulated every move CART made up to this point.

If ISC buys IMS they are practically there.

[Hard Driver]

This guy may be excited about the Idiots league, but somehow that hasn't seem to spread off of track forum to me. He needs to wake up to reality, but he will when the Indy 500 runs another shame, this time without 33 cars and the lowest ratings in years.

[Ankf00]

wow... just wow... talk about yer good ol' "moral victory" :rolleyes:

[TravelGal]

I'm never quite sure how "we're wasting all our money supporting the big name but has-been drivers" equates to "we're better than the other guys who have all the youngest and best up and coming talent."

One thing he's right about though. 2005 will tell the tale. ;)

[trauma1]

the sad thing is that autoracingdaily put his drivel on thier site, and the gomers believe he's god, the BS this idiot post makes me laugh then gag.

[RusH]

This guy may be excited about the Idiots league, but somehow that hasn't seem to spread off of track forum to me. He needs to wake up to reality, but he will when the Indy 500 runs another shame, this time without 33 cars and the lowest ratings in years.

Pushing the start time forward, and running up against nascar with no double attempts should really break the ratings record this year too. :gomer:

[JLMannin]

Pushing the start time forward, and running up against nascar with no double attempts should really break the ratings record this year too. :gomer:

And if Governor Mitch Daniels is successful in shoving Eastern Daylight Time up our ass, then that pushes the race yet one more hour forward into the NASCAR timeslot.

[Peter Venkman]

If Tony George, The inheritor (little i), ever stops short, they're going to have to send in a search party to get this guy Tim Mullin, out of Tony's colon.