Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 2:38 pm
Yeah, I thought it was a bit over the top, so to speak. I did like hearing about the PA announcer supposedly saying that they would "deport" Tag for pushing Power into the tirewalls, though.
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lol, he needs to speed up his citizenship.mlittle wrote:Yeah, I thought it was a bit over the top, so to speak. I did like hearing about the PA announcer supposedly saying that they would "deport" Tag for pushing Power into the tirewalls, though.
Now, why did Road America lose a Champ Car date in 2005? Two come to mind:1--the fact that attendance had fallen precipitiously from its' sellout days in the early 1990's when it outpaced college football in Wisconsin for attendance(in 2003-2004, the place was a vertiable ghost-town, rotting away with little or no promotion to the race), and 2--the former owners of the track refused to work with CART/Champ Car to increase promotion/attendance(back in 2003, it took yeomans' work from series legends Mario Andretti and Bobby Rahal to get the track placed on the 2003 schedule). According to track promoter(and track co-owner) George Bruggenthies, that will change.There's nothing else like it in the United States and now we've got the two best road courses in North America--Mexico City and Elkhart Lake. It's great news to us as drivers and for our fans. I love this place and I think I speak for just about everybody in Champ Car.
Added to those sentiments are those of Champ Car Operations/Promoter Services VP, Joe Chernlich:The Champ Car mangagement team that's in place right now, this is a whole new Champ Car that has never existed. I've got a lot of confidence that the promotion cooperation is going to be tremendous. And also the fans have had a year off and they have, I think, a better appreciation of what they didn't have in '05, and there is some renewed energy on our part also to make this event happen.
Now, what could they do to bring back all those fans? Here are a few suggestions:We want to work a lot closer with our promoters, trying new ideas and sharing those ideas between our promoters. Obviously, we've had some great successes this year, with Edmonton, San Jose, (and) Denver. Our new philosophy relative to promoters in the series is, we really promote communications between the promoters and the series. So if we have an idea that works, it's a transportable idea. So, I think this go-around, you're going to see a lot more collaboration of things we can bring to help re-energize the event. George, obvoiusly, has the years of experience of having been there when Road America was huge.....so we'll look at what worked in th epast. We're going to bring ideas that have worked in the past year. Combined, I think people are going to see a new energy and a new look, which are going to tell them, "You know what? It's time to go back to Road America.".
And that is the "keystone" argument for her making the jump up now. In 2007, the venerable Lola B2K/00 chassis and all its' variants will be relegated to boneyards, historic races and museums, to be replaced by brand-new Panoz DP01's. Rather than have Legge begin her rookie campaign in 2007, the team essentially decided to get her a year's experience on the tracks in the series now w/a Lola, and then use 2007 as a learning year w/the Panoz. As team co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven noted,I think everyone changes their opinion. Everybody was of the mindset that I would do another year in Formula Atlantic, and then we realized I am ready--maybe not experience-wise, but I'm ready speed-wise. And I will do the very best job I can and I think that will prepare me for 2007 and beyond.
Legge seconds that point of view.When it comes to the '07 car, we've got an advantage in that all the teams (will) have the same car on the same date. And we decided the best thing to do is use '06 as a transition year with the known quantity of the car and give Katherine a chance to understand the aspects of racing without having to worry too much about the engineering of the car.
She continued,I feel much more comfortable doing it this way around. I have 100-percent faith in the team. My mechanics and engineers have helped me through this whole experience. They have guided me through it because they know everything on the car. They have worked with it for years now and they are fully aware of every idiosyncrasy that it (has). So that has helped me focus on my driving, trying to improve myself, trying to learn about the car and learn about why this happens and why that happens; why you change this and you get this result. So I think it's a massive help to do it this year.
It will be interesting to see if PKV's decision pans out, not just for the team but for Champ Car officials, who, despite pubicially denying such thought, privately want their own series' version of "Danica-mania". But there are other thought processes' going on here as well. Besides the Lola/Panoz one, there's this gem; for what its' worth, Katherine's three Atlantic wins in 2005 were agst. an admittedly weak grid vs. the depth of talent Patrick faced in 2003-2004. That doesn't mean that the top drivers besides Legge--2005 champion Charles Zwolsman(who might end up in ChampCar this year), Tonis Kasemets, David Martinez and Antoine Besette, were'nt good competiton. But the list of competitors Patrick faced(2004 CCWS rookie of the year Allmendinger, 2-time Atlantic champion Fogarty, among others) were stronger than this year's grid. On the flip side of that, though, is one incontrevertible fact.......in two years, Danica won zero races, Katherine won three. And, timing is everything in racing. Like her IRL counterpart, Legge will at least have the luxury of a "multi-year" contract(the conventional wisdom is its' 3-yrs., 6 figures per year), so she isn't expected to "set the world alight". or, as she aptly noted.....I think everybody has a rookie year. Very few people go into their rookie year and set the world alight. It's a learning process. I think for me to go into 2007 and try to learn how to engineer a car as well as worry about driving the big car...it's really benefical to get one thing done at a time and get that done properly.
As I said earlier this week.....Congratulations Katherine, and good luck in 2006!!My lack of experience will go against me in some ways. I'm not sure how yet, but it will this year. I just have to make sure that I learn quickly and make as few mistakes as possible and learn from my mistakes. As long as I'm learning from my mistakes I'm happy....It's all about moving yourself forward. It's about moving the team forward and it is a continual process.
As for history.......the first two to attempt a three-peat, legends Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt, Jr., both tried and failed; ironically, they both prevented the other from accomplishing the prize. After Foyt won in 1963-1964, Mario then won in 1965-1966, setting himself up for the chance at tying Horn's record. But despite 8 wins and 785 laps led during one of the more dominant seasons in the USAC era, Mario fell just short of the mark. Now, had Mario won in 1967, he could've set an unassailable record of 5 consecutive titles, as he came up short in 1967 and 1968, losing both years to Bobby Unser before reclaiming the title in 1969.You need something--I wouldn't say you need luck--but you need things not to be against you. I think that's what we saw last year in the second half of the season. I think it is quite easy to relaize that being able to stay at the top in three consecutive seasons is extremely difficult. The real thing that saves us is that we all realize that you can drop off very easily. If we want to stay that we want to win the championship again, (we) are going to have to dedicate ourselves to doing whatever it takes.
The year was 1975 when Pook and Co. launched what has become, along with Monaco and Surfers Paradise, one of the great street races of all time, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.No question, Dan was instrumental in every way. And Phil Hill came to the rescue that first year when we needed a race director. We had two of America's greatest names on our side.
Now the stories of that inaugural Formula 5000 race could entertain people for a long time. Just ask Jim Michaelian, current president of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach(GPALB), which runs the event weekend. That first year, he served as not only director of marketing, but also assisted in financing, ticket sales....heck, he even helped put up some of the catch-fencing for that first race. His funniest story revolves around the trip he, Gurney and Pook made to San Francisco to meet with members of the state's Coastal Commision, who were concerned that the noise from the race could kill some of the fish in the nearby LB Aquarium. As Michaelian puts it,There are a lot of certifiable nut cases in this town and I had those thoughts when Chris first called me. I didn't think there was any way but I would have been ashamed if I didn't try. I guess when the city council said we couldn't do it, there's a human spirit that says you can. I'm just proud to have been part of what's turned into such a prestigious event for this city and for our country.
While Gurney provided credibility for Pook and other race officials, Hill also contributed as well, taking over the race director's duties when their first hire left prior to the race. While the 1961 Formula 1 WDC and 3-time 24-Hrs. of LeMans/12-Hrs. of Sebring winner is currently battling Parkinson's disease, he attended Thursday's event and even had a few words to say....We walk into this meeting and the first guy we see is a hippie with a ponytail. Dan and I looked at each other and thought this is going to be an uphill battle but then we looked at the guy's office wall. He had a color photo of Dan from his victory at Spa. Dan was his hero.
At the end of the festivities, Chris Pook summed it up nicely.....I'm proud to be part of this and I'm proud to be standing up here with Dan. We had some little street races in Santa Monica but they were nothing compared to this. Long Beach has really become one of the world's great auto racing events.
We started with four employees and big dreams. Thanks to Dan Gurney and Phil Hill, the Long Beach Grand Prix became a reality and this tribute (to them) is well deserved.
I'm glad to see Cleveland on the schedule, and Vegas on my birthday! Sweet!!Here is the expected schedule for 2006:
9 April--Long Beach
13 May--Houston(Sat. night)#
21 May--Monterrey, Mexico
4 June--Milwaukee(oval)
18 June--Portland
25 June--Cleveland
2 July--Philadelphia(Sat. night)#
9 July--Toronto
23 July--Edmonton
30 July--San Jose
13 August--Denver
27 August--Montreal
23 Sept.--Las Vegas(Sat. night/oval)
8 October--Beijing, China
15 October--Ansan, S. Korea
22 October--Surfers Paradise,. Australia
5 November--Mexico City
RE30B#16 wrote:I'm glad to see Cleveland on the schedule, and Vegas on my birthday! Sweet!!Here is the expected schedule for 2006:
9 April--Long Beach
13 May--Houston(Sat. night)#
21 May--Monterrey, Mexico
4 June--Milwaukee(oval)
18 June--Portland
25 June--Cleveland
2 July--Philadelphia(Sat. night)#
9 July--Toronto
23 July--Edmonton
30 July--San Jose
13 August--Denver
27 August--Montreal
23 Sept.--Las Vegas(Sat. night/oval)
8 October--Beijing, China
15 October--Ansan, S. Korea
22 October--Surfers Paradise,. Australia
5 November--Mexico City
ChampCar will be back, I promise. I believe American race fans are ready to come back as soon as they have a reason to. Danica Patrick has improved IRL's tv ratings tremendously since the Indy 500 last year. The series suffered with the loss of Tony Stewart [our modern day AJ Foyt] and the retirements of Little Al and Michael Andretti.
Even though Katherine Legge is a Brit, she will draw curiosity. All eyes will be on her this Sunday. I will be entertaining on the roof of the Trizac building in Long Beach, so for those of you who will be there, wave up at the roof top to ole RE30B#16!!!
IRL has a better tv deal for the moment. As soon as ChampCar scores a good network deal, it will be off and flying again. The series needs an interesting American star or stars to really get itself back together. Let's face it-- CART worked because of Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, Tom Sneva, Johnny Rutherford, Al Unser, Danny Sullivan and Bobby Rahal. It kept working because of Al Unser, Jr, Michael Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell and Paul Tracy. Not enough Americans know who SeaBass is. Some race fans I've spoken to think Paul Tracy is still the CART champion!!
Thanks mLittle for your info!
Did anyone else recall Jimmy Vasser's remarks from a few seasons ago about the IRL cars being too fragile after seeing some of the mechanical failures during the IRL race in St Petersburg, Florida last weekend? Broken half shafts and suspensions falling apart. Very interesting.
Chris
mlittle wrote:1}As to your posting of the schedule.....unfortunately, there were a few changes to that(I think I posted that around late July-early August 2005).....Beijing was dropped because they couldn't work all the arrangements out btwn. series officials/city officials(same as for Philly, alothough rumor has it that Philly could be added in 2007.... ); they dropped Vegas for a return to America's Spa, a/k/a Road America....other than that, the schedule's about what it looks like in the quote....
Soon people will want to see Danica versus Katherine Legge, and you know money talks. I just hope Danica's star did not rise too fast. She really needs to strt contending for race wins in a hurry. Race fans can be awfully fickle with rising stars.2}Your right about the IRL's ratings; Danica's presence did give the series a major ratings boost. I will say this, though.....if you thought the ratings went up last year, if and/or when she wins her first IndyCar Series race, there will be a major up-spike in ratings....
3}As far as the rival series' TV contracts.......the IRL does have a better contract(through ABC/ESPN) through 2009(I think...) while ChampCar has to split its' races btwn three networks(Speed, NBC and CBS). Here's something else to consider......ChampCar has to buy time from the networks to broadcast their races......ABC/ESPN give the IRL time to broadcast their races......
You are right, but I believe all the series need charismatic stars as well. Vasser and Allmendinger cannot carry the series because they are not household names and or notorious like Tony Stewart. I believe in all of our discussions on the topic, we forget how much auto racing [and all pro sports for that matter] is personality driven. How well do you think NASCAR would be doing now if there were no Jeff Gordon, TS, Dale Jr, Michael Waltrip, and Mark Martin?4}If ChampCar wants a better American presence, they definitely need more American drivers. It's sad that there's only one full-time Yank(Allmendinger) in the series this year.......hopefully, if there's a merger, that drivers like Michael McDowell, Jon Fogarty, Rocky Moran, Jr., Michael Valiante, among others, can at least get decent shots at rides next year.
I really believe that having a race down here in S.A wouldnt be at all a bad thing?? I mean, if they can travel down to aus. then I'm sure they could spare one round in S.A?Here is the expected schedule for 2006:
9 April--Long Beach
13 May--Houston(Sat. night)#
21 May--Monterrey, Mexico
4 June--Milwaukee(oval)
18 June--Portland
25 June--Cleveland
2 July--Philadelphia(Sat. night)#
9 July--Toronto
23 July--Edmonton
30 July--San Jose
13 August--Denver
27 August--Montreal
23 Sept.--Las Vegas(Sat. night/oval)
8 October--Beijing, China
15 October--Ansan, S. Korea
22 October--Surfers Paradise,. Australia
5 November--Mexico City
If there's to be a race in South Africa, T-K, IMHO it will happen after the two series finally decide to reunify. The only question, then, would be.....where? My guess, either a street race in Cape Town, a street race in Durban(perhaps the same course as the A1 race) or perhaps on the road course at Kyalami. One of those three.<T-K> wrote:I really believe that having a race down here in S.A wouldnt be at all a bad thing?? I mean, if they can travel down to aus. then I'm sure they could spare one round in S.A?Here is the expected schedule for 2006:
9 April--Long Beach
13 May--Houston(Sat. night)#
21 May--Monterrey, Mexico
4 June--Milwaukee(oval)
18 June--Portland
25 June--Cleveland
2 July--Philadelphia(Sat. night)#
9 July--Toronto
23 July--Edmonton
30 July--San Jose
13 August--Denver
27 August--Montreal
23 Sept.--Las Vegas(Sat. night/oval)
8 October--Beijing, China
15 October--Ansan, S. Korea
22 October--Surfers Paradise,. Australia
5 November--Mexico City
Milwaukee on my BDay....