Indycar News & Rumors.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

Bump day 2011 doesnt ring a bell?

2011 you could get Dallara chassis at ridiculously low prices for obvious reasons. That's what led to 34 cars at the Las Vegas Russian Roulette 300 and so much bumping at Indy.

[icemachine]

I don't think they can drive the cost of the series down anymore, what they need is better promotion and better ratings so sponsors will write bigger checks.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by icemachine

I don't think they can drive the cost of the series down anymore, what they need is better promotion and better ratings so sponsors will write bigger checks.

Exactly, bowing down to the owners for costs reductions has done jack for AOWR. The question is how are they going to get these ratings and attendances so sponsors and the general public do indeed care.

[Canada ALMS fan]

More on DRR:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107064

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Canada ALMS fan

It's official:
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...fter-indy-500/

I think one has to take into account the current economic climate, things are tight and it is going to affect how much money companies are willing to spend on sponsorship. The current economic climate will also impact on race attendance as well but it doesn't help the situation, where the product itself is at the heart of the problem, imo.

What is also potentially worrying is Chevrolet have now lost a team, all be it a single car team but if other teams were to fold, because of similar problems faced by DRR, engine suppliers will start to be come concerned.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

2011 you could get Dallara chassis at ridiculously low prices for obvious reasons. That's what led to 34 cars at the Las Vegas Russian Roulette 300 and so much bumping at Indy.

How it was achieved isnt the point was it? Based on your previous post.

There was bumping, drama and excitement all the way up to and after the gun

[FAS33]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

How it was achieved isnt the point was it? Based on your previous post.

There was bumping, drama and excitement all the way up to and after the gun

teammate gets bumped out, it rains, how exciting..

Indycars looks like it's going downhill, they should've known that the economy was going to be like this, right there and then try and change things around to help struggling teams out, apart from the 500 they don't seem to be getting decent crowds, back in the days they were huge.

[Yannick]

It's sad to witness another team shut down. Here's hoping D&R will find some more sponsorship to add some further races this year after they score a very good result in the Indy 500.

[bjohnsonsmith]

DRR not completely finished according to this Autosport article.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107064

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by FAS33

teammate gets bumped out, it rains, how exciting..

Have you even seen bump day 2011?

Alex Lloyd's run for example?

Originally Posted by FAS33

Indycars looks like it's going downhill, they should've known that the economy was going to be like this, right there and then try and change things around to help struggling teams out, apart from the 500 they don't seem to be getting decent crowds, back in the days they were huge.

What do you mean by change things around to help the smaller teams?

Costs have been reduced and there is the winners circle funding going to teams. Incoe is the main area that needs to be turned around.

[David A Scott]

Originally Posted by icemachine

I don't think they can drive the cost of the series down anymore, what they need is better promotion and better ratings so sponsors will write bigger checks.

"I don't like spec racing." None of us do and it is one of the factors holding the series back from growing."

Simon Pagenaud Long Beach 2013.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by David A Scott

"I don't like spec racing." None of us do and it is one of the factors holding the series back from growing."

Simon Pagenaud Long Beach 2013.

To whom did Pagenaud make this comment?

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Another example of Indycar's scheduling and contractual stupidity.

Today in North America there is next to nothing on television. NASCAR was last night, the NFL Draft has finished, and Golf is in a relatively small event with the NBA being the only major competition.

On NBC proper right now there is nothing but filler. Seems to be a good day to have a pre-500 race on network television with next to no competition... but OH WAIT, thanks to the genius television contract with ABC they cannot be on NBC despite 3/4s of the series races being on it's niche cable network that nobody watches.

Next week, the Brazil race will be up against the NBA and on top of that almost directly up against the ratings monster known as Talladega on FOX while Indycar is stuck in the wasteland known as NBCSN. Geesh, I wonder how ratings are going to fare then..

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

Another example of Indycar's scheduling and contractual stupidity.

Today in North America there is next to nothing on television. NASCAR was last night, the NFL Draft has finished, and Golf is in a relatively small event with the NBA being the only major competition.

On NBC proper right now there is nothing but filler. Seems to be a good day to have a pre-500 race on network television with next to no competition... but OH WAIT, thanks to the genius television contract with ABC they cannot be on NBC despite 3/4s of the series races being on it's niche cable network that nobody watches.

Next week, the Brazil race will be up against the NBA and on top of that almost directly up against the ratings monster known as Talladega on FOX while Indycar is stuck in the wasteland known as NBCSN. Geesh, I wonder how ratings are going to fare then..

It really begs the question, does the IRL understand that there's such a thing as competition, when it comes to Sports and TV broadcasting?

It might have been a good idea to have held the next race when it's not going to be swamped by competition from Talladega or the NBA.

[TheMightyM]

IndyCar is considering holding 2014 finale on the IMS road course. Which would, of course, be a complete mistake but with this bunch probably par for the course:

http://www.indystar.com/article/2013...MS-road-course

And Robin Miller, in response to a question, also thinks it's a bad idea and says his e-mail is running way against. Divers don't like the idea but team owners and Jeff Belskus think it's a great idea.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...lbag-4271//P2/

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Idiots.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

IndyCar is considering holding 2014 finale on the IMS road course. Which would, of course, be a complete mistake but with this bunch probably par for the course:

http://www.indystar.com/article/2013...MS-road-course

And Robin Miller, in response to a question, also thinks it's a bad idea and says his e-mail is running way against. Divers don't like the idea but team owners and Jeff Belskus think it's a great idea.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...lbag-4271//P2/

I don't think this is necessarily a bad idea in itself but it's not going to fix the series and if the IRL and IMS do, then they are deluding themselves. The problem is with the product. No one is buying into the series and therefore this just comes across as a quick fix, a gimmick, as far as the series is concerned.

To quote from the Indystar article:
'Michael Andretti, a team owner and former driver, said the interest is highest in the Midwest. “You cannot forget that our core fans are in that area,” he said. “If we can get 100,000 people, that would be huge for the sport. It could end up with the second-largest crowd of the season. Why not do it?” '

That's all very well but as far as core fans go, that's down to the history of the 500 itself and some of those fans will include people from outside of Indianapolis and the US. For example, if you go to LeMans there's a very strong hardcore following from the UK.

[HJJ]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

Idiots.

This.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I don't think this is necessarily a bad idea in itself but it's not going to fix the series and if the IRL and IMS do, then they are deluding themselves. The problem is with the product. No one is buying into the series and therefore this just comes across as a quick fix, a gimmick, as far as the series is concerned.

To quote from the Indystar article:
'Michael Andretti, a team owner and former driver, said the interest is highest in the Midwest. “You cannot forget that our core fans are in that area,” he said. “If we can get 100,000 people, that would be huge for the sport. It could end up with the second-largest crowd of the season. Why not do it?” '

That's all very well but as far as core fans go, that's down to the history of the 500 itself and some of those fans will include people from outside of Indianapolis and the US. For example, if you go to LeMans there's a very strong hardcore following from the UK.

If they think Indycar will get anywhere near 100k for a road course race at Indy they are stupid. The Brickyard 400 gets about that now. What they'll really get is what most Indycar road courses get, 30-60k on raceday. In a facility with 250,000 seats plus the infield general admission. It will look like a ghost town.

All it's going to do is decrease attendance for the 500 as some people from the Midwest who are hardcore place fans will go to the track for this second date instead because tickets will be cheaper.

[David A Scott]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

Another example of Indycar's scheduling and contractual stupidity.

Today in North America there is next to nothing on television. NASCAR was last night, the NFL Draft has finished, and Golf is in a relatively small event with the NBA being the only major competition.

On NBC proper right now there is nothing but filler. Seems to be a good day to have a pre-500 race on network television with next to no competition... but OH WAIT, thanks to the genius television contract with ABC they cannot be on NBC despite 3/4s of the series races being on it's niche cable network that nobody watches.

Next week, the Brazil race will be up against the NBA and on top of that almost directly up against the ratings monster known as Talladega on FOX while Indycar is stuck in the wasteland known as NBCSN. Geesh, I wonder how ratings are going to fare then..

All the 'braintrust' at 16th and Jonestown care about is the Marion County 500. Everything else is there to keep the teams busy until the next month of May. Sorry, week of May. Just like the good old USAC days.

It is this Indycentric thinking that got Gurney to write the white paper.

[TheMightyM]

This is about as huge an admission of failure as the series could ever come up with aside from folding. What having the season finale at IMS would signal is that IndyCar simply can’t develop anything even vaguely resembling a signature event outside the state of Indiana. Or put another way, that IndyCar is at this stage really just of regional importance. At best. And events of regional importance have a rather difficult time attracting national advertisers.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Unfortunately, I don't think the IRL/IMS see this as a failure.

If the series were healthy it wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea but it's not healthy and this doesn't fix what's fundamentally wrong with the series.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Down F0rce

1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier has apparently purchased the car Fan Force United ran last year.

http://www.wibc.com/MikeThomsen/blog...tryID=10535777

Brother Jacques is also looking for a ride. Other sites claim he has bought a brand new car from Dallara.

A shame about Fan Force United. They had a pretty good media process during the Month of May, that explained a lot about their trials and tribulations, without blaming anyone too much.

[TheMightyM]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Unfortunately, I don't think the IRL/IMS see this as a failure.

If the series were healthy it wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea but it's not healthy and this doesn't fix what's fundamentally wrong with the series.

The series has multiple serious problems: the product, certainly, but also that it has no strong events besides a certain race in late May in Indiana. What’s the next most successful Indycar race after the Indianapolis 500? Long Beach I suppose, but IndyCars share the weekend with ALMS, and the ALMS race got higher TV ratings... and even ALMS, which has fewer races each year, has two legitimate signature events, Sebring and PLM. And PLM is an event whose prestige the series has built the past 10 or 12 years.

Fixing the product is at best a necessary but not sufficient condition to restoring IndyCar's health. Many companies have had wonderful products and gone out of business.

IndyCar also needs strong events aside from Indy, which has historically been a problem for the series. One of the best opportunities to create such an event is the season finale. Having it at IMS on the road course is, as you said, just a gimmick. It will make for poor racing and even worse visuals (way too many empty seats.)

It’s a gimmick that detracts from the product problem but also from the marketing problem — for the series to become health again its got to draw in more places than just states that begin with the letter “I.” If the finale is at IMS, it says that even Indycar management doesn’t think it can do that.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

IndyCar is considering holding 2014 finale on the IMS road course.

I guess the only reason for this is that they want to try at least something, maybe anything, that the report from Boston Consulting Group suggested. Why don't they try staging a race in Boston? At least, that would be a new market for IndyCar.

If they want to move the season finale away from Fontana, why not get back in contact with the promoters of Surfers Paradise, as long as they still have all those Aussie and Kiwi drivers in top rides?