Andrew Longman
03-15-05, 06:17 PM
Picked this up over there ;) http://web.archive.org/web/19991008173124/speednet.starnews.com/speednet/irl/before/111091sn_cart.html
Great RM piece from 1991. How much sounds like recent events, especially as in a court room in January 2004?
However, nobody's pride appeared to be in worse shape than Tony G's. Despite the fact he'd been warned how strongly CART's majority felt about their turf, the rejection almost seemed to come as a shock.
...There also seems to be some bad information about CART's solvency. George reportedly offered to assume all CART's debts and pay off any outstanding loans if the merger came down.
"CART just had the best year we've ever had. We've got money in the bank and we only have to pay (John) Frasco one more million and we're done with him," said Simon of the former CART chairman. "We're in great financial shape."
Derrick Walker, who campaigned Willy T. Ribbs this season, said maybe George had been misled. "CART doesn't need to be saved, it just needs to be helped. Leadership has been lacking, for sure, but we're not coming apart like everybody thinks.
It also obvious tha TG was out of touch and out of his league from the start and that CART owners were quite aware philosophically of the advantages of a closer relationship with IMS, but were completely rational in not accepting TGs initial terms.
"We are willing to make the board smaller and put Tony on it, but there's no way we are going to accept less than 50 percent representation," said one owner, who asked not to be identified.
"We want at least the same vote as the Speedway.
"The Speedway makes big money and the car owners spend big money and this has to make sense to us."
Another owner, who also chose to remain anonymous, added, "They want us to go from total power to two votes and that's not good enough . . . That's not what we want. There's a hankerin' for a democracy and we're not going to give it up.
"We also don't feel a driver or Binford belong on the board."
Dick Simon suggested, "Tony would have had a deal signed that day if he'd dropped the driver and at-large positions. His proposal was to make Indy-car racing a level playing field and that's all we want."
Great RM piece from 1991. How much sounds like recent events, especially as in a court room in January 2004?
However, nobody's pride appeared to be in worse shape than Tony G's. Despite the fact he'd been warned how strongly CART's majority felt about their turf, the rejection almost seemed to come as a shock.
...There also seems to be some bad information about CART's solvency. George reportedly offered to assume all CART's debts and pay off any outstanding loans if the merger came down.
"CART just had the best year we've ever had. We've got money in the bank and we only have to pay (John) Frasco one more million and we're done with him," said Simon of the former CART chairman. "We're in great financial shape."
Derrick Walker, who campaigned Willy T. Ribbs this season, said maybe George had been misled. "CART doesn't need to be saved, it just needs to be helped. Leadership has been lacking, for sure, but we're not coming apart like everybody thinks.
It also obvious tha TG was out of touch and out of his league from the start and that CART owners were quite aware philosophically of the advantages of a closer relationship with IMS, but were completely rational in not accepting TGs initial terms.
"We are willing to make the board smaller and put Tony on it, but there's no way we are going to accept less than 50 percent representation," said one owner, who asked not to be identified.
"We want at least the same vote as the Speedway.
"The Speedway makes big money and the car owners spend big money and this has to make sense to us."
Another owner, who also chose to remain anonymous, added, "They want us to go from total power to two votes and that's not good enough . . . That's not what we want. There's a hankerin' for a democracy and we're not going to give it up.
"We also don't feel a driver or Binford belong on the board."
Dick Simon suggested, "Tony would have had a deal signed that day if he'd dropped the driver and at-large positions. His proposal was to make Indy-car racing a level playing field and that's all we want."