Open Wheel Racing War Is Over
Posted by
tgirsch
And the bad guys won:
With America’s two open-wheel series finally unified, the calendar poses the next roadblock: The season-opening race is just five weeks away.
At this point, nobody knows how many teams and cars will move from the now-defunct Champ Car World Series to the Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series in time for the March 29 opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
…snip…
Even before Friday’s announcement that IRL founder Tony George and Champ Car co-owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe had signed off on the agreement to close down Champ Car and run as a unified series, teams were preparing to make the move.
The open-wheel rivalry lasted 12 years. The peace process began several weeks ago when George, also president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, offered any Champ Car team interested in switching to the IndyCar Series a free Honda engine lease program, free Dallara chassis and $1.2 million in team incentives.
Champ Car team owner Derrick Walker said last week he already put his Champ Car equipment at the back of his Indianapolis garage and was beginning to work on new IRL cars in preparation for the move.
“The path won’t be easy in the beginning, but Walker Racing is ready for the challenge,” Walker said. “It’s going to be a rough old ride because we don’t have the familiarity with the Dallaras and it’s a more experienced formula. But the bottom line is that it’s great news to put this thing together.”
Long-term, it’s in the best interests of open wheel racing to have a single series. The problem is, the inferior series is the one that survives. Gone is the sleek Panoz chassis. Gone is the turbocharged Cosworth engine. Gone is “Power To Pass” (P2P), one of the most interesting innovations in racing in a long time. Gone is the Portland race, which was preparing to host its 25th anniversary. Gone are two of the best road courses in North America: Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI and Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.
Instead, we’re left with the bulky Dallara chassis, the naturally-aspirated V-8 Honda, and a series dominated by ovals.
I wish I could be more excited about this, but I really don’t see how this is much different than if Champ Car had simply folded. They’re calling it a “merged” series, but it just looks like the same old IRL to me.
At first I was like “what, he thinks Champ Car is better than IRL?” Then I read “and a series dominated by ovals.” Now I get it, you just don’t like ovals. To each his own.
Comment 2/24/2008
It’s both, actually. Up until a few years ago, Champ had the better drivers. Champ has the better chassis, and the better engine technology. And they have the better tracks. And it’s true that I’m not a huge fan of ovals, but I don’t want to do away with them, either. Ovals can be a lot of fun, in their own way, and it does make it easier for the spectators to watch the whole race. I just think the oval-to-road course ratio should be roughly the converse of what it is in the IRL. Road courses are, to me, a lot more interesting, what with having to turn in two directions and even navigate hills, and all that.
Comment 2/24/2008