Andretti predicts CART will survive

[The Snout]

Mario's view on our world....


Andretti predicts CART will survive
By Tom Withers, The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Mario Andretti says CART can one day get back up to speed.
As usual, the always outspoken Andretti has some pointed views on the troubled racing series, which has lost sponsors, teams and fans in the past few years.

Last month, CART, a publicly traded company, hired Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns to help with its restructuring while exploring the possibility of selling the series.

Andretti, one of racing's best ambassadors, is confident CART will survive, and he can foresee a day when it will merge with IRL.

"I feel damn good about it," he said where CART is headed. "There are a lot of things that are happening. I'm hearing good things about the series — a title sponsor, things like that.

"I'm still bullish about it, and I don't think I'm wrong."

Andretti, who will step down from CART's board of directors in two weeks to become the series' spokesperson, said the best way to get open-wheel racing to catch up with NASCAR's popularity is for CART and IRL to work out their differences.

"I haven't given up the idea of bringing the two series together," he said. "I might make enough noise that they'll start talking. Both series have assets and we need to bring them together."

CART's steady decline and the sagging state of open-wheel racing in the USA has Andretti concerned. But he remains convinced better days are ahead.

"It's been totally undervalued, and I don't like that," he said. "We need to bring it back to where it used to be."

More from Mario: Andretti had one of those 1960s flashbacks.

After sliding into the front seat and behind the steering wheel of a new Ford GT on Saturday, one of the greatest drivers in history had his mind race back to Le Mans in 1966.

"I couldn't help it," he said. "It brought back many positive recollections."

Thirty-seven years ago in France, Andretti was part of an American racing team that went 1-2-3 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans while driving the track-hugging Ford GT40s. The sweep stunned the racing world.

"We were not given a chance to go there and steamroll the competition," Andretti said. "And that's what we did with a stock-block engine."

The motor company has honored that feat by building three prototype 2005 Ford GTs, designed with the same sexy lines as the original with some modern upgrades.

Andretti got into one for the first time before Saturday's Cleveland Grand Prix and drove it as the pace car around the temporary Burke Lakefront Airport track.

"The chief engineer is going to go along so I don't abuse it," Andretti joked.

[Jay]

Well it's good to hear he doesn't think it won't survive... I think the title was obviously written by someone anti-Cart to be that negative...he said a lot more than it will survive.

"I feel damn good about it," he said where CART is headed. "There are a lot of things that are happening. I'm hearing good things about the series — a title sponsor, things like that.

Interesting...I wonder who the interested title sponsor is, Mario isn't the first to mention it.

[Dov]

Here we go again.....ehhh, Snout. If CART is bought out by Bernie E., Forsythe, R. Murdoch or Pollock/Kalkovhen, does anybody think they (the new owner(s)) would consider or even want to unite CART and the IRL? I'm not so sure they would.

[macdaddy]

That's "where it's at", Dov.

As far as a new title sponsor is concerned, what's wrong with the ones we've already got? Bigger corps than Ford or BStone? Not likely. The only problem now is that you can't say the entire name of the series in just one breath.

[The Snout]

Yeah Dov, we said we needed Mario all along.

Hopefully come the 17th or after we'll know a bit about what's happening.

[Dov]

I would still like to no if anybody here thinks that the new owner(s) would consider uniting CART and the IRL or do they want to take CART in a different direction??

[Liz]

Unless the new owners are completely mad, they won't even suggest any such thing. You'd have a better chance of getting TGF to agree that his new teammate, Kimi Raikonnen, be allowed to race him in equal equipment with a "no gimmee" contract.

[Russfeld]

So we can expect unification any day then?

[Jay]

Oh yes, there's a big press conference scheduled in Toronto. Chris Pook, Bernie Eccelstone and Tony Gorge will be there with a huge birthday cake that says 'Friends forever'. They'll serve pieces to all of the reporters including the Iraqi information minister who will publish his report in the Indy Star.

Sorry...couldn't help it .

[Liz]

And shortly thereafter the streets of Toronto fill up with people demanding refunds.

An interesting article on AR1 analyzing injuries in racing, that shows 90% of injuries happen on ovals. The list makes sobering reading and fortifies my belief that oval racing should be eliminated except in taxicabs.

[GoFaster]

Read between the lines here"...and he can foresee a day when it will merge with IRL."

[oily oaf]

Interesting comments from Renault F1 test driver Franck Montagny, when asked about his future if he failed to get a seat in F1 zzzzzzz he said " the IRL is very important but too dangerous for me. Everytime I watch a car is flying thru the air. Champ Car has good links with Europe but i'm not sure about the future of the series. Hmmmm does he know something we dont?

[Bizzo5000]

Nothing Robin "doom and gloom" Miller doesn't tell us every week.

[Jay]

Did you read Robin's latest article about Cart? In recent years, I think Robin's been more supportive to Cart than many of the other journalists. He's not always right and possibly the worst dressed member of the media, but has a lot of contacts, and doesn't tend to make things up.

[macdaddy]

26 cars will take the green flag at St.Petersburg next year.

[Dov]

Originally posted by macdaddy
26 cars will take the green flag at St.Petersburg next year.

WHAT... :confused:

[macdaddy]

That's just my (optimistic) prediction. I'm looking at the 19 we've got now, adding second cars for Fittipaldi/Dingman, PK Racing and Rahal, and two-car teams for RuSport and Mo Nunn.

[Dov]

Sounds good to me!

[Dov]

Just remembered something....didn't Pook say that it would cost to much to have more then 22 cars on the grid? Something about having to get another plane to carry the added cars around and they (CART) couldn't afford it right now.

[macdaddy]

True... But I don't foresee anybody telling teams that they CAN'T join!

[paul-collins]

Don from champweb.net is reporting that "21 letters of intent have been signed."

[Neil C]

Originally posted by Liz
An interesting article on AR1 analyzing injuries in racing, that shows 90% of injuries happen on ovals. The list makes sobering reading and fortifies my belief that oval racing should be eliminated except in taxicabs.

Very convincing, unless we find that oval racing counted for 92% of all racing laps counted in the analysis.

I smell a statistical distortion to prove a point.

[Jay]

Ah yes, but there's a big difference between one lap of a small oval like say...Milwaukee and one lap around a road/street circuit such as say...Montreal. Anyway, just throwing something else into the statistical mess...

[Neil C]

...or the 2 1/2 mile Indy oval compared to some of the barely 2 mile street courses, not to mention the difference between a 500 mile oval race and a 160 mile road race.

A better measurement would be injuries per driver/mile, (total injuries divided by number of drivers times distance per event), which would also take into account the number of participants in either format.

But still, what would all this prove? That racing is dangerous?...alert the media!

[Jay]

Still...i think there's a lot more opportunities to crash on a barely 2 mile street circuit than a 2 1/2 mile oval... That said, the crash on the street course is highly unlikely to cause any major injury, where the crash on the 2 1/2 mile oval is about 50/50 leaving on a stretcher.

I think if you go around corners at speeds of 200 mph, it's just going to be more dangerous, no matter how many laps you turn or miles you cover. Hence, in general, ovals are more dangerous.