As anyone who has been following the NASCAR blogs page knows over the last week or two I've been writing opinions and posting links for Robin Miller's articles on the Indycar/Champ Car merger from the speedtv website.
My general opinion, and that of quite a lot of the people who took the time to comment on my other posts, could be paraphrased as such "Great News....but".
We've had concerns over the tracks, with the possible loss of venerable events such as those in Toronto and Cleveland, in favour of a very oval friendly calender. The worry about the road-course specialists being outsted by teams who are suddenly looking at a whole new type of races.
Overall, we liked the idea, but we'd rather that sorted it out now and had the first season of unified racing in 2009, rather than cobble together an eleventh hour deal that had more holes in it that a moth-eaten jumper.
Yet it appears a gigantic hole has appeared around Long Beach and Montegi - here's a link to Miller's latest article.
Two equal points scoring races for the same series on different continents, consecutive days, using different cars. Oh dear.
I think this is a sign that this merger needs to be worked out properly. They're trying to patch-over, over a decade's worth of divergence, in technology, events - everything, in 10 days. It is quite frankly impossible. The various parties - the heads of the series, the team owners, the track owners - need to spend a year sitting down to work this out properly, or I fear we're headed for an entire season of this type of madness.
Announce that they're merging for 2009 now and it could be even better, they then get a year not only to iron out the mountainous creases, but garner the no doubt greater sponsorshipa and TV deals a combined series will bring, plus get additional teams in on a newly profitable series.
...and they should have listened to Robin Miller about 5-6 years ago. Still jbroomy, if everthing works out as has been speculated, it would seem that Tony George won the battle of attrition.
jbroomy
This needed to be done some time back. The financial viability of both organizations had to be on the line if something wasn't done. Calmer heads prevailed and that's a good thing for the sport at this juncture. Hopefully it'll further raise their profile once and for all. It can't really help that the most widely known drivers in the sport are more recognizable for feats achieved off the track than on it.
Helio Castroneves race car driver and performer on Dancing With The Stars. Danica Patrick race car driver but more widely known for her poses in Maxim and other gentlemanly quarterly journals. Not that there's anything wrong in seeing Patrick scantily clad. But if she wants to be seriously taken in her sport. Then she'd better start winning a few races. Then we can appreciate her even more.
jb....The only reason they want to merge now instead of '09 is that either one, or both of them don't think they can stay afloat financially for another year.
tophatal - There's someone who must privately hate this merger thing - Danica Patrick - she must have seen her best opportunity to win a race coming and suddenly at least a dozen new guys are coming in.
cj - Or they can just see the money a merger would bring in. Actually, it was rumoured that Champ Car had filed for bancruptcy.
YeeMum - could a botched merger hurt any and all series resulting from it? Absoloutely. If they get it wrong teams, drivers, TV, tracks etc. are not going to want to enter into contracts with the series. Making a re-split more than probable.
The only thing I've read from DP on the subject is an interview on the Speed website, where she's publically for it, but when she's not conscious of being a team PR drone I wonder what she REALLY thinks.
jbroomy
She was always of the opinion that she could compete amongst the 'big boys'. Now let's see if she really possesses the talent to do it and win ? If not then she can ride off into the sunset and do her own Playboy centerfold expose'. Not that you'll hear any complaints from me on that score. Her bod' ain't too bad to look at mind you !
Bottom line on this merger...IRL will still be running races, competitive and gaining fans...whether this is done in 2008 or 2009. It is CCWS that is really just limping along. Both the owners are pouring millions of their own funds into the series for the last several years to keep it afloat.
Other than the Long Beach event, much of their racing has largely been ignored the past couple years. Mainly composed of foreign drivers and those who prefer road coarses to ovals. Not that this makes it bad, just not enough interest in the US to keep it afloat financially.
Looks like something will be happening in 2008, we'll wait for the official press conference from Indy with TG. Possibly happening on Monday now. Yeah, I agree it would have been easier to deal with had there been a whole year to iron out the details, rather than the last minute. Still I think both sides will gain something from the deal. Thanks for keeping us in the loop, broomy.
Last edited by Gerrel on February 22nd at 4:04 PM.
I always want to write something witty here, but my wit is always confused with something worse ------------- ------------- ----NASCAR and Auto Racing in general mostly here, but I get distracted by shiny sporting objects as well and give them an airing too---------- ------------- -----Pastimes include rooting for the underdog and trying to fathom why Golf is considered a sport-------- ------------- ---
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