Indycar News & Rumors.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by HJJ

Aero kit update.

http://blogs.indystar.com/racingexpe...is-first-pole/

Tentatively good news but not until 2015?

I don't quite get this bit, ''Waiting to introduce kits in 2015 gives IndyCar time to address the flat-bottom cars that are susceptible to getting airborne.''

The DW12 has a ground effect underbody, the specs for the car can be found here, http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...fications//P2/

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

All the bills weren't in fact paid for however why let that get in the way of your story

The contract was for 18 cars with champ car not the 26 or how many ever showed in 2008. That was the issue

Pretty much they were paid for unless you wanted a lady friend at night. It cost the teams no more to go here than it did across the USA.

When it came down to it rather than doing a deal, tony george told them to go pound sand. Now it's boo hoo hoo we want to go back.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Tentatively good news but not until 2015?

I don't quite get this bit, ''Waiting to introduce kits in 2015 gives IndyCar time to address the flat-bottom cars that are susceptible to getting airborne.''

The DW12 has a ground effect underbody, the specs for the car can be found here, http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...fications//P2/

2015, too little too late. What they should be doing is introducing a totally new series and rules by then, not just slapping a few winglets or curves on an old beater.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Pretty much they were paid for unless you wanted a lady friend at night. It cost the teams no more to go here than it did across the USA.

When it came down to it rather than doing a deal, tony george told them to go pound sand. Now it's boo hoo hoo we want to go back.

Haha so now it's pretty much they were paid for

It was a considerable expense, considering it was the teams themselves blowing up about it explains a lot.

Once again, don't let facts get in the way of your story telling mountainstar

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

Haha so now it's pretty much they were paid for

It was a considerable expense, considering it was the teams themselves blowing up about it explains a lot.

Once again, don't let facts get in the way of your story telling mountainstar

When your travel is paid for and the sanctioning fee is paid for then yeah it's pretty much paid for except for your petty expenses. It didn't cost the teams anymore to go down there than traveling across the USA to race in California or Florida.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

When your travel is paid for and the sanctioning fee is paid for then yeah it's pretty much paid for except for your petty expenses. It didn't cost the teams anymore to go down there than traveling across the USA to race in California or Florida.

Travel wasn't all paid for. The contract with the qld government was for 18 cars, not 26. Hence the shortfall. The teams were up for considerable expense which was vented to indycar and the promoter. The 2008 race almost didn't happen.

So no it wasn't like racing in Florida mountainstar.

Hopefully with all the info we can now have a factual and meaningful discussion

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

Travel wasn't all paid for. The contract with the qld government was for 18 cars, not 26. Hence the shortfall. The teams were up for considerable expense which was vented to indycar and the promoter. The 2008 race almost didn't happen.

So no it wasn't like racing in Florida mountainstar.

Hopefully with all the info we can now have a factual and meaningful discussion

That's not my understanding. When it came down to it tony george told em to go and stick it and they bailed. It was a successful race for almost 20 years and they dumped and ran and said they didn't need them. Now they cry because they want to go back.

[one five five]

It was pretty heavily covered by the motorsport media in Australia in mid-2008 that the original deal with ChampCar was not enough money to cover the larger IRL grid, indeed initially Ganassi and Penske were not going to come because the teams were going to have to dip into their own pockets to attend as it wasn't a championship round (and therefore not budgeted for at the start of the year).

Some emergency talking behind the scenes was obviously done, because in the end all attended.

It was known to all at the time of the 2008 Surfers race that the Indycars would not be back in 2009.

Originally Posted by mountainstar

It was a successful race for almost 20 years and they dumped and ran and said they didn't need them.

It was a successful CART/ChampCar event for 17 years.

The IRL season was always finished before the traditional Gold Coast date, and naturally the IRL wanted to finish their season in the USA.... both sides didn't want to shift, so they parted ways

Now look at the Gold Coast event, on the verge of finishing up....

[marcostraz]

And now? Who will race at Texas for Coyne? Beatriz again?

[bjohnsonsmith]

More on the technical changes.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107834

[TheMightyM]

Gordon Kirby really likes Mark Miles:

I've known Walker for more than thirty years and his move to IndyCar gives me more hope and confidence about the future than I've had in many years. As I've written, Walker is one of the most respected men in the IndyCar paddock, a successful mid-level team owner who was able to beat the bigger teams from time to time.

Walker is renowned as a first-rate race strategist and is well acquainted with the struggles of owning and operating an IndyCar team. He's also lived in Indianapolis for more than twenty years. In fact, I can't imagine anyone being more prepared to tackle his new job.

I don't know Mark Miles. I met him for the first time in Indianapolis last month. I attended a press conference for Miles and Walker on the Thursday before the Indy 500 and enjoyed a short chat with Miles after the press conference. That evening I shared a table with Miles and Tim Cindric at Team Penske's annual Indy 500 media dinner and went to sleep that night with a very favorable impression of Miles.

More here.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

Gordon Kirby really likes Mark Miles: More here.

That's an interesting article, especially on Miles's background with ATP.

So Audi are potentially back in the mix. I remember their name being bandied about a few years ago, when talk of the new chassis was first mentioned and while on the subject of the DW12, I hadn't realised the IRL had locked themselves into a contract with Dallara through to 2016.

"But as Walker says, it's going to take time and the fact that IndyCar is stuck by contract with the current Dallara DW12 spec car through 2016 means the sport's primary plague remains in place for another three and a half years"

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Interestingly it has been discovered this year that Fort Myers/Naples is one of Indycar's strongest television markets and the strongest television Market for Indycar outside the Midwest. What does Fort Myers/Napes/Sanibel-Captiva have? Lots of old white retirees.

Indycar got a 0.8 rating at detroit, up from a 0.7 rating last year where half the broadcast was a red flag and the ending was moved to ESPNNews. F1 at 9 am got a 1.0 rating on NBC last weekend. Montreal ratings will likely blow Indycar out of the water.

[Last2LiftOff]

Interesting stuff Cosworth...source? but I believe it. Curious if you have what last year's SpeedTV ratings were for F1 - Monaco maybe, or whatever race you're referring to. Don't go to any trouble.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by Last2LiftOff

Interesting stuff Cosworth...source? but I believe it. Curious if you have what last year's SpeedTV ratings were for F1 - Monaco maybe, or whatever race you're referring to. Don't go to any trouble.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130528/F1/130529771

With ABC you get to see what the actual market ratings are as well as the overall rating. Indycar spinned a 1 point increase for a non-interrupted race versus a red flagged race last year as amazing and mentioned their top markets.

Like the Indy 500, the markets went a bit like this:

1. Indianapolis (duh)
2. Dayton, Ohio (midwest)
3. Louisville, Kentucky (Smack dad close to Southern Indiana)
4. Oklahoma City (midwest)
5. Cincinnati (in the heartland of indycar)
6. Fort Meyers/Naples (old white people? interesting change from rest of top markets which are all in one region, has to be a reason beyond geography)

For Reference, the top Daytona 500 markets were:

1. Greensboro, NC (Heart of NASCAR country)
2. Indianapolis (Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Racing Town) (Daytona 500 got over double the viewers of indy 500 in the Indianapolis market)
3. Charlotte, NC (Heart of NASCAR country)
4. Jacksonville, FL (close to Daytona, nascar does well here for some reason, 'rednecks' in certain areas)
5. Dayton, Ohio (would appear to be a racing town)

[Last2LiftOff]

Thanks for that Cosworth. Again, an interesting read.

The Monaco Grand Prix, broadcast live on U.S. network television for the first time, was watched by 1.456 million viewers and scored a 1.0 household rating...

...Viewership for the race was up 241 percent, NBC claimed, over last year's Monaco telecast on Speed, which drew 427,000 viewers,

[bjohnsonsmith]

Mann gets Texas Coyne drive.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107867

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

That's not my understanding. When it came down to it tony george told em to go and stick it and they bailed. back.

Might need to do some more research then mountainstar.

As that's not what happened. Thanks for your input though

[bjohnsonsmith]

Servia gets Texas and Iowa Panther drives.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107879

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

Dayton, Ohio (would appear to be a racing town)

"The Dayton area was ranked the 10th best metropolitan area in the United States for higher education" (Forbes 2009, via Wikipedia)

It's a major defense and aerospace hub. There's the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, Advanced Technical Intelligence Center, Air Force Research Laboratory, and University of Dayton Research Institute. It sounds like a place where people are interseted in watching 700kg cars run at 350km/h.

[NaBUru38]

Miller says that "this IndyCar season only gets better".

The irony was as overwhelming as Mike Conway was on Saturday afternoon. On the weekend IndyCar announced its aero kits and timelines for embracing innovation, the series staged a showcase on why it’s the best form of four-wheel competition anywhere in its current state of spec racing.

The Chevy Dual in Detroit produced further testament that any team with a good driver/engineer combination and solid pit stops has a legit shot at Victory Lane.

In what may be the most level playing field since everyone had Watson roadsters and Offenhauser engines, the grid is all Dallara DW12s with either Chevrolet or Honda power.

It is worth risking what we’ve seen the last two years? Fourteen different winners in the last 22 races. More passing on every kind of track than we’ve ever seen. A truly level playing field. We know all this great racing hasn’t translated into television ratings and something else needs to happen.

But IndyCar has got to be very careful and very wise by the time we get to 2016.

Because it can’t get much better than it is right now.

It's hard to argue that reasoning.

[QUOTE]“We don’t have the star power of a Mansell, Zanardi or Montoya right now but I’m telling you this field is as deep as the late ‘90s in CART,” said Dario Franchitti. “It’s not outrageous to say but there are 20 drivers who could win one of these races.”

I agree about the depth of the field. But I'd reduce the number of possible winners to only 15.

“I think this is the most competitive racing series in the world and it showed again this weekend,” said Jakes.

I don't like that kind of comparisons. F1, MotoGP, ALMS GT, WEC, DTM, Blancpain, TC2000 and Super GT are extremely competitive too. To me, it's enough that IndyCar is among that list of major professional championships.

[Jonerz]

[QUOTE=NaBUru38;3258655]Miller says that "this IndyCar season only gets better".



It's hard to argue that reasoning.

“We don’t have the star power of a Mansell, Zanardi or Montoya right now but I’m telling you this field is as deep as the late ‘90s in CART,” said Dario Franchitti. “It’s not outrageous to say but there are 20 drivers who could win one of these races.”

I agree about the depth of the field. But I'd reduce the number of possible winners to only 15.



I don't like that kind of comparisons. F1, MotoGP, ALMS GT, WEC, DTM, Blancpain, TC2000 and Super GT are extremely competitive too. To me, it's enough that IndyCar is among that list of major professional championships.

Conservatively I count 16, including Mike Conway who has won a race, but is a part-timer. But somewhere between 16-20 guys could win, if you include EJ Viso, James Jakes and Graham Rahal. And the people who I don't list, Oriol Servia, Josef Newgarden, Simona de Silvestro, aren't lost out there.

I also add both RSCS classes, Conti and GTC to the list of most competitive classes.

Chris

[FordCosworthPanoz]

“We don’t have the star power of a Mansell, Zanardi or Montoya right now but I’m telling you this field is as deep as the late ‘90s in CART,” said Dario Franchitti. “It’s not outrageous to say but there are 20 drivers who could win one of these races.”

Great, that's working perfectly for the series.

Mansell and Montoya brought in crowds and television ratings from around the world (in Mansell's case) and Latin America (in Montoya's case). The only star you had couldn't afford a drive in the series and dumped it for Brazil stock cars. No Stars: Nobody cares.

Who knew that ex-GP2 midfielder Mike Conway was the umpteenth person to win an Indycar race this year? The racing is great, but it looks like Robin doesn't have the guts to answer the real questions. If the racing is so great and the championship so competitive, then why is the interest in American Open wheel racing the lowest it's ever been?

The Boring, Boring, Boring 1994 season was one of the most publicized seasons in history. Al Unser Jr was a major star and he played the 'hero' role against his Penske teammate Emerson. Add that to Andretti and Mansell, and nobody cared about how dull the racing was considering 1994 ratings were some of the highest in AORWR history. Will technical innovation help yes? But will it be the end all end all the many here suggest? No.

It should say a lot when the biggest moment of national media attention during the Month of May except the 500 itself (and even then it wasn't that big a deal) was Kurt Busch testing an Indycar.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

Great, that's working perfectly for the series.

That's not what Miller nor Dario is saying.

Take the bitter pill out for a sec and read the article.

They don't have the stars they need or had in the 90s however despite this it's one of the most talented fields in Indycars history and the racing is great.

Nothing more nothing less

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Jonerz

I also add both RSCS classes, Conti and GTC to the list of most competitive classes.

I really don't know what competitive means. But I wouldn't rank them as "major professional championships". Ok, perhaps the top 8 cars of Rolex DP.

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

it looks like Robin doesn't have the guts to answer the real questions. If the racing is so great and the championship so competitive, then why is the interest in American Open wheel racing the lowest it's ever been?

It's marketing.