da Matta's comments on IRL

tanalised · 28 May 2002, 19:21 (Ref:298693)

in an interview with Cart.com, Da Matta commented
"One thing da Matta is sure of: He has no interest in a full-time Indy Racing League career as long as the IRL maintains its all-oval format.

"I don't want to keep turning left for the rest of my life," he revealed. "I'll race in the ALMS (American Le Mans Series) or in Australian V-8 Supercars before I do that!"

macdaddy · 28 May 2002, 19:24 (Ref:298701)

The man has F1 aspirations, and I can't blame him much. I hated to see the road racing talents of Gil and Helio get "wasted" away in an all-oval series.

tanalised · 28 May 2002, 19:41 (Ref:298732)

be nice to see him in a aussie v8 supercar one day!
(this is from a selfish point of view in that they now actually visit NZ)

Lee Janotta · 28 May 2002, 23:39 (Ref:298973)

Gotta applaud Paul and Christiano for telling TG where to stick it!

f1manoz · 28 May 2002, 23:58 (Ref:298982)

You can tell who the loyal ones to CART are at least.

BootsOntheSide · 29 May 2002, 03:01 (Ref:299055)

"I hated to see the road racing talents of Gil and Helio get "wasted" away in an all-oval series. "

I know how u mean, but I guess equally you could say that its a shame that Montoya's oval skill is being wasted in an all-road-course series. To me, road course racing is sueprior to oval, in terms of both excitement and required skill, but a truly complete racer like Villeneuve, Montoya or De Ferran can triumpth in both, I dare say Schumacher or Jeff Gordon could too.

Liz · 29 May 2002, 03:13 (Ref:299061)

TGF is afraid to race in ovals. He says they are "too dangerous"

Probably because there is this strange phenomenon called overtaking .

But I agree that to be a really complete racer you need to display ability in all four varieties of tracks.

I hope da Matta does come to the ALMS one day. Bryan Herta seems to take to it pretty well, doesn't he?

paul-collins · 29 May 2002, 12:52 (Ref:299461)

Quote:

Originally posted by Liz
I agree that to be a really complete racer you need to display ability in all four varieties of tracks.

I hope da Matta does come to the ALMS one day. Bryan Herta seems to take to it pretty well, doesn't he?

I think that really complete racers also should show ability in other varieties of cars, too. I have to say I've got a lot of respect for Robbie Gordon in this regard. Too bad he can't maintain the respect in the pitlane in NASCAR, but that may be just NASCAR...

I too would like to see de Matta in ALMS. I'd love to see JV in an LMP900.

Emfa · 29 May 2002, 22:07 (Ref:299892)

I was wondering why Christiano specifically mentioned ALMS and Aussie Supercars ("I'd drive anywhere rather than the IRL, even ...") until it dawned on me - Bryan Herta and Max Wilson (duh!

). I wonder what they think of their new series'? As Liz said, Bryan seems to be doing rather well; and Max not quite so well.

Liz, I've got three of the four track varieties (road, street, oval) - what's the fourth? Rally???

Lee Janotta · 29 May 2002, 23:02 (Ref:299921)

I'm assuming Liz is going for short ovals, less than a mile. Dirt is the other possibility, but with dirt you've got both ovals and rallycross/offroad courses, as well as (possibly extinct with 4 wheels?) indoor arena off-road courses.

mac · 30 May 2002, 00:44 (Ref:299956)

Quote:

Originally posted by Emfa
I wonder what they think of their new series'? As Liz said, Bryan seems to be doing rather well; and Max not quite so well.

Max has been blinding in qualifying. He just doesn't have the most reliable machine. He needs to work on his consistency in races. But, he has been very impressive in qualifying.

**gomick** · 30 May 2002, 10:58 (Ref:300224)

max has been quick in qualifying - remember his team is only 6 months old and he dont know any of the tracks... damatta in a v8 supercar - hope not, rather see aussie talent race than international drivers (nothing against those drivers

)

f1manoz · 30 May 2002, 11:33 (Ref:300265)

I doubt we'll see many international drivers over here, simply because we can't afford to pay them.

paulzinho · 30 May 2002, 21:44 (Ref:300844)

Great attitude Cristiano!!

Anyone else hear that TG wants to make the IRL bigger than F1 worldwide? Yeah and I'm the king of Swaziland!!

mac · 31 May 2002, 00:48 (Ref:300965)

No, TG's the King of Swaziland.

Just ask him.

maddog76 · 31 May 2002, 19:37 (Ref:301811)

Road, Street, Oval, Superspeedway.

CART is the hands down most varied, complete, competitive, and fastest racing on the planet. Why people don't realize this just ****es me off to no end.

We need a better movie than Driven to hype the series.

Speedworx · 31 May 2002, 21:03 (Ref:301879)

Good to hear da Matta.

GoFaster · 6 Jun 2002, 04:08 (Ref:305970)

I never thought that I would think this,but It looks to me that the IRL may be winning the battle with CART.Yhe new engine rules may be the final nail in the coffin for CART.I've always been a CART &F1 kinda guy,but CART has me very POed with this bonehead decision.I've talked to others who feel the same as I

Jordi · 6 Jun 2002, 11:01 (Ref:306217)

there's a fifth... Airport!!

Liz · 6 Jun 2002, 16:12 (Ref:306522)

Oh, I forgot Airport. Remember when the Airport people tried to swap to Brand X and the city threw such a fit that they brought US back?

It oculd happen again. Let's recapture Motegi!

kwd · 20 Jun 2002, 01:38 (Ref:317277)

Quote:

Originally posted by Liz
TGF is afraid to race in ovals. He says they are "too dangerous" Probably because there is this strange phenomenon called overtaking .

I find it somehow ironic that Michael would feel this dangerous as that in f1 sometimes the most prominent thing drivers have to overtake in the rain is to listen to the engine revs of the car ahead to be able to hit your braking points.

Would love to see Da Matta in f1, see if he would be a Michael Andretti,or Jacques Villeneuve.

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