Reading all these articles proves only one thing to me.
As usual at 16th and Georgetown, nobody knows WTF to do, or WTF anybody else is doing either.
No direction at all from IMS on what the 'new' car and engine should be, so they are letting the inmates
(car owners) run the asylum.
Meanwhile the manufacturers have their own ideas. And bottom line is they are the only ones
that count, since they will end up paying for the whole thing. IRL the series, nor the owners have any money.
Say what you will about how awful the NASCAR COT looks or the hamhanded way the France family
mafia runs stock car racing, at least NO ONE questions what they decide, manufacturers or owners.
The IRL series either resembles a rudderless ship or a chicken running around with it's head cut off.
Take your pick.

It worked for CART, until 16th and Georgetown took exception to the asylum's ideas. Maybe this is a guilt thing.

I was afraid of this when I saw Simon Pagenaud had moved to Highcroft for ALMS. Gil DeFerran's team is closing its doors - no IndyCar, no ALMS. The last line on page two of Cavin's Indy Star column is the source. Losing Gil as an owner is a real shame, in my opinion. B²

http://www.indystar.com/article/20091218/S...oonlighting-gig

Edit: As shown on the Autosport home page, I'm glad to see that the rumor was unfounded.

Still on the 2012 car: http://www.f1network.net/main/s599/st144909.htm

Like it...

Gordon Kirby's latest column. Tony Cicale reflects on the time he spent in the CART Indy Car series and the way it is now. A favorite quote of mine from the piece:

"That's the part that really saddens me about the demise of CART. What we worked on and developed has been swallowed up into the IRL glob of nothingness."

http://www.gordonkirby.com/categories/colu...t_is_no215.html

B²

Edit: To clarify on my liking of the quote. I'm thinking of the cars in this context, not the many fine sportsmen who comprise the teams.

Still looks like a Penske/Ganassi benefit to me. Needs something to shake it up

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules.p...&sid=125032

I just couldn't hold myself from posting it

That green gives me a headache

"It doesn't even come close today," Cicale remarks. "I try to watch the IRL races and I can't. They're just so terrible. I watched the races this year, but I can't think of one that stood out as an even acceptable race. It has very little meaning to me, which is sad. From the start I thought the whole IRL business was ridiculous and it's very sad to see the results of all that power squabbling and politics. It was a dreadful period for racing."

Word.
Pretty much my feelings on the irl.
The whole article hits close to the bone with me, since I went to about 40-50 CART races in the time period he is speaking.
By far the best racing series in the decades of the 80's and 90's
Don't fret Tony, you gave this fan all his moneys worth and more, so you and your time in CART was not at all for naught.

Robin Miller's latest Speedtv mailbag:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ind...s-mailbag-1224/

On Robin Miller's Champcar timeline at the end of the article: Was the decision to float on the stock exchange the only serious misstep CART made? Given how the last recession more or less resulted in the Chevy And Rich Teamowners show post-1987, surely Champcar's management ought to have shown a little more circumspection about making the series any more beholden to economic volatility. The Dot Com bubble would've had serious effects on any racing series with CART's level of outside investment, but once CART's shares had fallen drastically by 2001, the series was over.

Not that it was solely responsible for the problems open-wheel racing has faced as a whole in the last 20 years: USAC's decision to ban rear engined sprint cars -- winged and unwinged -- was effectively an abdication of their responsibility for the health American open-wheelers. CART was some sportscar guys trying to fill the leadership void, but that only exacerbated the disconnect between grassroots racing in America and the big leagues. The presence of weekly open-wheel racing lower down the ladder is an amazing resource that's chronically underexploited. Any rejuvenation of Indy racing has to start from here, not some top-down Road to Indy lip service.

It's a little too late for that. Those open wheel kids in the lower ranks have their eyes on Daytona, not indy.And why not, they run ovals in front engined, rear wheel drive, cars.
Frankly, I can't imagine any rejuvenation of indy racing, not for decades, in fact, not ever.
Good ol' TG killed that sucker dead.

I was stunned last night watching the Chargers - Titans NFL game on the NFL Network. A commentator compared a running back weaving in and out of defenders as "like an Indy Car darting through lapped traffic." Or something close to the quote, either way it was a pleasant surprise to hear the analogy. B²

I don't know. With the Car of Tomorrow crap, autocratic leadership from Daytona, and a rulebook that makes genuine competition even less likely than it is in current IRL, NASCAR isn't exactly impregnable. Sure, the lower ranks are looking at NASCAR, because the cars NASCAR runs are much more relevant to entry-level speedway racing. But that implies that the health of Daytona and Indy is reliant on these independent grassroots guys, rather than some big Southern Bill France conspiracy. What I'm saying is that a large part of NASCAR's success is down to a couple of accidents of history: the introduction of rear-engined sprint cars just as an economic crisis was making it impossible to replace a fleet of obsolete technology just like that; and the 1978 plane crash that killed much of USAC's board, and helped push open-wheel racing into the hands of CART. Who were an excellent organisation, but largely made up of sportscar guys who were somewhat unsympathetic to the concerns of lower level short-trackers.

There's no 'too late' about it, history isn't going to end just because Darth Vader/Brian France is in charge of US motor sport. You could argue that with guys like Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon at the top of stock car racing, the likes of USAC are in a position of relative strength. This is all hypothetical anyway, AFAIK most of the leadership in IRL these days comes from the likes of Chip Ganassi and Michael Andretti. I'd say that they'd be much more likely to take Indycar in the direction of Petit Le Mans, rather than the Hut Hundred.

Helio Castroneves and partner welcome first child:

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15605

Sorry, but this is the only new "news" that I can find about IndyCar at this time. I know it's the off season, but it cannot be good to have absolutely nothing that is newsworthy to report in racing specialty sites. Curt Cavin (Indianapolis Star) is on vacation. Anyone else heard anything....? B²

Whatever IndyCar does going forward I hope they and F1 find a way to more closely align the two series technically, not to the point where the cars are interchangeable, but should engines, tyres, fuels etc be similar then it would help keep down the costs and make the business of going racing more viable for large car manufactuers (cost spread over more teams, wider market etc). Had they been running the same engine specs then it may have made sense for Toyota, Honda or BMW to continue to supply engines to both series even if they didn't build their own bespoke F1 car. With F1 costs dropping and both series looking to 2012 or 2013 for new regulations there is an chance to make open wheel racing more viable on both sides of the pond.

Congratulations then to Hélio and his partner and welcome Mikkaela to this world

wtf Mikkaela ?

did the name originate from a Scrabble game?

congratulations anyway

My brother & I have had this same type of discussion over the years. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever have to worry about this scenario - it makes too much sense. B²

Interesting that a lot of the teams are possibly fielding three cars.

Chip Ganassi: Franchitti/Dixon/Viso
Penske: Castroneves/Briscoe/Power (should be Wheldon)
Andretti: Kaanan/Patrick/Andretti
NHL: Rahal/Mutoh/Lloyd

So I'm just trying to think, the confirmed drives so far are:

Chip Ganassi: Franchitti/Dixon
Penske: Castroneves/Briscoe/Power
Andretti: Kaanan/Patrick/Andretti/Hunter-Reay (partial)
Luczo-Dragon: Matos
Panther: Wheldon
AJ Foyt: Meira
HVM: Doornbos
NHL: Rahal
Sarah Fisher: Fisher (part time), Howard (part time)
Vision: Carpenter
FAZZT: Tagliani
KV: Tracy (partial)
CURB/Agajanian/3G Racing: Antinucci

Empty cars:

Chip Gannassi: 1
Luczo-Dragon: 1, if they can find sponsors
Panther: 1, if they can find sponsor
De Ferran: 1? 2? Who knows at this point
Conquest: 1 full time, 1 part time
HVM: 1
NHL: 2
Newman Wachs: 1?
Vision: 1
Rahal Letterman: 1?
Walker: 1?
Dale Coyne: 1
Dreyer & Reinbold: 2-3
KV: 2
CURB/Agajanian/3G Racing: 1
Brian Herta Autosport: 1?

Unsigned drivers (rumored teams):

EJ Viso (Chip Gannassi, NHL, Dreyer & Reinbold)
Alex Lloyd (NHL)
Nelson Philippe
Hideki Mutoh (NHL)
Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne)
Milka Duno (Dreyer & Reinbold)
Mario Moraes (KV)
Mike Conway
Tomas Scheckter (Dreyer & Reinbold)
Oriol Servia

Did I miss anyone?

After nearly two weeks off, I'm left to assume that this is the best "new" information that Curt Cavin of the Indy Star can come up with on Indy Cars to start the new year. B²

http://blogs.indystar.com/racingexpert/201...i_and_izod.html

Robin Miller's speedtv mail bag from 12/31/09

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ind...s-mailbag-1231/

Finally, Ryan Hunter-Reay is confirmed at Andretti Autosport. Hopefully it will become a full season deal. Also seen on the home page of autosport.com B²

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15614

The reason the kids in the US look to stock car racing is the same reason Ronnie Biggs robbed the train. That's where the money is. F1 is anti American and limited spots. Indycar has been on life support most of the last decade. USAC is completely disfunctional and fubar. You can do sports cars maybe and make a living. Or you can circle tin tops and as long as you market yourself properly and are fan friendly you can be one of 100+ drivers making a full time living in the big leagues driving stock cars. I agree with Whitewater Tony George tanked open wheel formula racing in the US. There is a pretty good chance that it's not going to get better than it is right now. And that's a shame.

I'm not sure. There was as much or more money for drivers in CART until the economy tanked at the beginning of 2001. And thanks to Reynard and the interest from engine manufacturers there were about 20 competitive drives. But there were only a handful Americans, three of whom had legendary names at the Speedway, and most of the others, like Scott Pruett and Bryan Herta, had come up through the karting ranks (and proceeded to school the Europeans on the road courses ). But it was clear that for an American to succeed in CART, you needed kart titles, Formula Ford success; and enough sponsorship to match the Europeans and Brazilians who were colonising open-wheel racing in America. The situation ended up slightly akin to the NASL in the 1970s -- many of the teams had the money to pay for the best; so they neglected the underdeveloped college soccer scene. Similarly, below Indy Lights and Atlantics, American motor sports couldn't supply CART with talented drivers at the rate needed to keep a large American presence in the series. Asking USAC and other sprint car drivers to take up a career in Champ car racing was getting increasingly like giving an American Football player a pair of shorts and telling him to play soccer.

Only just noticed this on the Homepage, a great read if you're a subscriber:

http://www.autosport.com/features/article.php/id/2561

The track which IndyCars will be running in Sao Paulo. How uninspiring.

When you consider the volume of issues and the excitement the whole F1 'silly season' has managed to produce this year the general lack of stories to follow in Indycar is pretty worrying. I mean, "Helio is having a baby..."

Yeah... I'm pretty sure that it would not have been popular in F1 circles, but it would have been something to see Indycars at Interlagos.

A typical Indycar-track...

Curt Cavin's take on the current IndyCar lineup:



http://blogs.indystar.com/racingexpert/201...and_car_co.html

The typical Indycar track these days is D-shaped...

Dreadful... What a third-world layout

yes, not looking exciting but maybe the racing's gonna be awesome where's the start/finishline?

I was involved with feeder series drivers earlier in the decade and we were turning out far more quality drivers than there were top level seats. Scott Speed came out of that era, Almendinger just prior to that. The split had been going for six plus years and CART was suffering due to lack of exposure which impacted sponsorship and hospitality in a very negative way. Back then I attended at least six or so races a year and being there (and at the 500) it was very apparent that there was a lack of interest on the sponsor side that had more to do with the split rather than the economy. The only reason the IRL/ICS lasted was due to the Hulman-George family bank account and CART lasted that long was the fact that CART had a huge war chest from the IPO. If you look at things these days kids that were good in karts and looking to formula car rides have changed the focus to stock cars. Harraka, Mayhew and Bowles are a few that had strong karting runs, but went circle track because the opportunities in US open wheel are basically zilch these days.

you really need to see it in the flesh and some racing before passing judgement

I imagine, presuming it's clockwise, that it'll be just after the kink on the straight at the bottom of the picture, bordering the river. I think it looks like a good layout, with the hairpins, and it seems to encircle some sort of covered arena, so the surrounding roads are quite wide. Can't wait to see it in action.

This was the initial circuit proposal:

^ That looks better imo.

Of course, we will have to wait until the race before judging the track.

Doesn't this layout make you long for the beloved Jacarepagua?

Is the pitlane the opposite side of the track to the S/F line?

While I'm not a fan of street circuits, the layout looks like it could afford some overtaking. Look at Monza, only a few kinks, great racing. What a shame they won't be at Interlagos which is one of the best in the world.

Is that the one they will use, or will they use the crappy chicane-filled track that was on display further up on the page?

The crappy chicane-filled track.

Makes me long for my beloved Hungaroring

OK, $50 on Will Power for pole position

The updated team/ driver list & a few notes from the Indy Star's Curt Cavin:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100108/S...ions-in-earnest

Speedtv's Robin Miller looks at the last decade of IndyCar....ouch B²

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/mil...comes-indy-car/

This is a no go IMO. The sunday before christmas there was a Disney parade on that area and it resulted in 100 miles of jammed traffic on the city. Friday evening with thunderstorms rush hour alike stats. I live on suburbs by a major highway here and the was a 20 miles long line of cars and trucks from neraby here up to that area.

Hell would break loose if they closed it for a week. That article is from before such event, they must be looking elsewhere now.

EDIT: What is a pitty, because there is a huge line of grad stands there: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&q=...=18&iwloc=A

Why? Is he Indycar's crappychicanefilledtracksmeister?