What Tony Should Have Done to Realize His 'Vision'.

[racer2c]

If his vision had beenbased on reality instead of just a veiled attempt at control of the sport, he should have purchased Indy Lights and used his deep pockets and ownership of the Brickyard to establish strong ties with the spridget gang. Created a schedule of diverse venues including road, street and oval that duplicated the Champ Car schedule (which Lights had). He could have gone as far as having them run at Indy, at least the in-field. CART would have remained the series that raced at the Brickyard but he could have contractual agreements implemented that guarantee seats for Lights drivers (at least the champions) to progress to 'IndyCars'. This would insure a strong US driver presence in the 'big cars'. *The Infinity series that he started is a joke and I don't see it lasting long.*

Through savvy business decisions he could have actually had significant control of the sport of American open wheel through the control of the ladder series that fed CART with the 500 as the carrot of control. History will show, and we are seeing the signs now , that Tony has severely (if not worse) negatively impacted the sport (understatement). Ol' Rog made a comment at this years Homestead race that it took 15 years to build CART and it will take time to do the same for the IRL. What BS. Tear down the sport to rubble so that he and Tony and Chipster (with the Japanese) can build it back up again in 15 years? Hey Rog, checked your age lately?

Tony had options, in my opinion it seems that he didn't see any of them. Now, this may sound like crying over spilt milk and an old tired topic but how long will the media and the IRL fans stick by Tony and his manipulations now that there is definitive proof of damage. Damage that may very well be irreversible. And once they start, en masse to call him out how long before he takes a proactive stance to right the obvious wrongs? I think his ego will get in the way and we will never see that day. Do we, as CART fans even want them back at the Brickyard? Personally, it's a distant memory and I haven't thought of a CART / Indy reunion in two years. Tony should have purchased Lights, owned Indy and been written into the history books as a visionary Brickyard owner...

[Spicoli]

Originally posted by racer2c
If his vision had beenbased on reality instead of just a veiled attempt at control of the sport, he should have purchased Indy Lights and used his deep pockets and ownership of the Brickyard to establish strong ties with the spridget gang. Created a schedule of diverse venues including road, street and oval that duplicated the Champ Car schedule (which Lights had). He could have gone as far as having them run at Indy, at least the in-field. CART would have remained the series that raced at the Brickyard but he could have contractual agreements implemented that guarantee seats for Lights drivers (at least the champions) to progress to 'IndyCars'. This would insure a strong US driver presence in the 'big cars'. *The Infinity series that he started is a joke and I don't see it lasting long.*

Through savvy business decisions he could have actually had significant control of the sport of American open wheel through the control of the ladder series that fed CART with the 500 as the carrot of control. History will show, and we are seeing the signs now , that Tony has severely (if not worse) negatively impacted the sport (understatement). Ol' Rog made a comment at this years Homestead race that it took 15 years to build CART and it will take time to do the same for the IRL. What BS. Tear down the sport to rubble so that he and Tony and Chipster (with the Japanese) can build it back up again in 15 years? Hey Rog, checked your age lately?

Tony had options, in my opinion it seems that he didn't see any of them. Now, this may sound like crying over spilt milk and an old tired topic but how long will the media and the IRL fans stick by Tony and his manipulations now that there is definitive proof of damage. Damage that may very well be irreversible. And once they start, en masse to call him out how long before he takes a proactive stance to right the obvious wrongs? I think his ego will get in the way and we will never see that day. Do we, as CART fans even want them back at the Brickyard? Personally, it's a distant memory and I haven't thought of a CART / Indy reunion in two years. Tony should have purchased Lights, owned Indy and been written into the history books as a visionary Brickyard owner...

you give the idiotgrandson far too much credit in the Brain Dept.

[Ziggy]

I caught it the first time, no need for a repost

Ziggy

[RTKar]

racer2c, I thought of essentially the same thing a while back, another idea was to have two leagues under a CART umbrella; road and street courses in one league and ovals in another with an overall championship made up of the two. Drivers could have raced in one or the other, or both. Had there been better management on both sides, CART and IMS, along with a little vision, it may have worked.

[cart7]

I also thought the league was designed to give spridget guys the oppurtunity to get RE aero experience and allow proverbial back-marker and one-off teams the chance to compete. Of course, then came 25-8 and then reality set in.:gomer:

[oddlycalm]

Originally posted by racer2c
If his vision had beenbased on reality instead of just a veiled attempt at control of the sport

Absolutely, there is more than one way to part a feline from it's fur. There are a half dozen different scenarios that would have been a win/win, but the others wouldn't have allowed TG to be the central figure, or piss all over the CART owners. We have all seen the price of his decision thus far, but it may not be over.

Hulman Sr. bought the IMS out of bankruptcy at the urging of some community elders, and we may see it go bust again. Given the current economy, which is getting worse, not better, by the way, I predict that I500 ticket sales will be off 20-30% off the already lower levels of recent years, the USGP will record a major financial loss, and the Brickyard 400 will be down 15-20%. When you figure what the debt service and overhead of the IMS along with the losses from the IRL, TG may be getting extended pretty far hisownself. If ticket sales are off more than my estimates, which is a real possibility, then he could be in trouble very quickly.

TG has some severe personality flaws that prevent him from doing the wise thing, and in this economy, that could easily prove fatal.

[RaceGrrl]

Tony shoulda had a bigger hammer.

[lone_groover]

Originally posted by RaceGrrl
Tony shoulda had a bigger hammer.

That ain't all, grrl! When Pimpski and France told Anton that he needed to go after CART "Hammer and Tongs", the stupid Gomer ordered-up a dozen pair of sissy drawers from the INTERNATIONAL MALE Catalogue.

:gomer:

[JLMannin]

"Killing off CART" and "restoring the Vision" as executed by TG are incompatible stregeties.

The "Vision" was Indy as part of a series with other piss-ant, meaningless races. The prestige of Indy alone could not kill CART, especially after 25-8. 25-8 was the stupidest thing that TG did in my opinion - that move elevated CART demonstrated to the world that the IRL was less than equal to CART. 25-8 is what made the US500 a reality. Without it, many, many CART teams would have bolted.

Of course, TG was in a situation where he needed to guarantee starting positions for the wanker teams so that they would participate in the meaningless, piss-ant races. Another option he could have persued was to enlarge the field to accomodate the wankers and the bolters. After all, tradition obviously did not mean much to TG after what he did.

_| [] |-| |\| <-- I did that for you, Mike! :D