New single seater series in America?

[mountainstar]

The feeder series are shriveling up because there is no series at the top worth fighting to get into.

If you've got a million bucks lying around, you are not going to spend it on something like indy lights, only to have to raise millions more to get into the irl, a series which is on no ones radar anymore.

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

Then why Indy Lights postponed the introduction of their new car? It truly is outdated now, too slow.

I don't know, probably a cost issue? That kind of indecision is quite common for IndyCar sadly, after all the same happened in the main series with the IR/03-07, until Randy used his power to introduce the new car in 2012.

The Lights car is in use since 2002, and it was designed with oval racing only in mind, so yea, it probably is quite irrelevant today.

Originally Posted by mountainstar

The feeder series are shriveling up because there is no series at the top worth fighting to get into.

If you've got a million bucks lying around, you are not going to spend it on something like indy lights, only to have to raise millions more to get into the irl, a series which is on no ones radar anymore.

I don't always agree with mountainstar, but unfortunately it's the sad truth.

[ivanalesi]

The same applies to F1 where most of the teams are too lazy to find sponsors and thus need pay drivers

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

The same applies to F1 where most of the teams are too lazy to find sponsors and thus need pay drivers

I don't know, IndyCar is quite a different animal... The media coverage is so small, it's very hard to find any non-driver related sponsor. But on the other hand, it's not so hard to find drivers with a season worth of personal funding.

Hence why new coming drivers with minimal backing are always having a very hard time to join the series, let alone make a living out of it on long term.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by W.A Trichlorostyrene

I don't know, IndyCar is quite a different animal... The media coverage is so small, it's very hard to find any non-driver related sponsor. But on the other hand, it's not so hard to find drivers with a season worth of personal funding.

Hence why new coming drivers with minimal backing are always having a very hard time to join the series, let alone make a living out of it on long term.

If you can imagine how non existent the irl is in the market, just imagine what it is like for indy lights.

People complained 20 years ago about Barber Saab, Toyota Atlantics and Indy Lights, but all of those series had great prize money versus the costs and were on ESPN on Sunday afternoons with decent ratings. I don't think at the time people realized how good they had it.

I actually think you are wrong about personal funding being that freely available. I don't believe it is. Usually these deals are cut rate deals down to the bone and it's just a rich kid from overseas whose dad is doing some type of contra deal or tax scheme. The weak US dollar has also helped.

20 years ago the sport attracted current and former F1 champions and race winners and these days in almost all cases, it's Euro formula rejects that were Pedro Dinizing around the back of the grid in Europe.

In terms of making a living, I think most people would be surprised how little some of these drivers make these days.

It should be of interest that of the 2 US F2000 series, which has bigger grids(at least last I checked), the series that is the "Road to Indy" or the other one that caters to people out having fun?

If any driver asked me for advice, I would tell them to exclusively focus on Nascar. It's your only real chance these days. It's what every common American out there understands today to be motorsport. It's also what sponsors will understand as well. And it has real returns and revenue that flow through the sport.

When it comes down to it, the country of the USA and the public has closed the door on open wheel formula racing as something they are interested in and It's Over. Whoever was at fault for it, the damage has been done.

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

If you can imagine how non existent the irl is in the market, just imagine what it is like for indy lights.

People complained 20 years ago about Barber Saab, Toyota Atlantics and Indy Lights, but all of those series had great prize money versus the costs and were on ESPN on Sunday afternoons with decent ratings. I don't think at the time people realized how good they had it.

I actually think you are wrong about personal funding being that freely available. I don't believe it is. Usually these deals are cut rate deals down to the bone and it's just a rich kid from overseas whose dad is doing some type of contra deal or tax scheme. The weak US dollar has also helped.

20 years ago the sport attracted current and former F1 champions and race winners and these days in almost all cases, it's Euro formula rejects that were Pedro Dinizing around the back of the grid in Europe.

In terms of making a living, I think most people would be surprised how little some of these drivers make these days.

It should be of interest that of the 2 US F2000 series, which has bigger grids(at least last I checked), the series that is the "Road to Indy" or the other one that caters to people out having fun?

If any driver asked me for advice, I would tell them to exclusively focus on Nascar. It's your only real chance these days. It's what every common American out there understands today to be motorsport. It's also what sponsors will understand as well. And it has real returns and revenue that flow through the sport.

When it comes down to it, the country of the USA and the public has closed the door on open wheel formula racing as something they are interested in and It's Over. Whoever was at fault for it, the damage has been done.

USF2000 also had to add the Formula Enterprise car to bump up grid sizes.

[Fiorentina 1]

I remember when there was the Barber Pro, Pro F2000, F.Mazda and Fran-Am series all competing for the same 30 customers. What happened? 10 guys ran all season in a give championship and it made winning those series completely useless.....
You basically have 20-30 (maybe) drivers in the US who could afford the 1/2 mil plus budget to run from F.Mazda & Indy Lights during a season. Adding another series will only decrease grid sizes in these championships and lower interest in the American junior series'. Adding GP3 USA is not going to increase the number of drivers; it's just going to take guys away from F.Mazda, Indy Lights and add a few cherry pickers from Euro GP3.