An Open Letter To Randy Bernard and Eddie Gossage

[Disciple]

Dear Randy And Eddie,

It is not difficult to see that conflict between the two entities you represent is not being resolved amicably, and has begun to mutually fester with what appears to be pompous animosity. That is a genuine shame and is completely unacceptable. I am speaking purely as a fan, and probably represent other fans as well. As an American racing fan that enjoys Indy Cars on ovals far more than Indy Cars on non-ovals, I do not EVER want to see the Texas Motor Speedway annual event ever go away for any reason.

Randy, Eddie built that event from scratch. For fifteen years it has been second only to Indy in the number of people who attend. Eddie has done more for Indy Car than any other track operator outside Indy. Do not be stupid. Letting that event wither and die, especially over personality conflicts and lack of respect (not to mention a seemingly noble direction that preaches balance but in reality practices imbalance), would be the most incredibly foolish thing an Indy Car CEO has ever done. The list of incredibly foolish things Indy-style racing CEOs have already done through the decades is extraordinarily long but that feat would take over the top slot. Fans always bear the brunt of such ill-advised foolishness and most of us have had enough of either sheer ignorance or insolence (or both) putting absolutely great venues at risk.

Eddie, I offer the same sort of advice. I understand Indy Car has never afforded you the kind of respect you deserve. Join the club. Whatever entity that has been in charge has mostly always alienated peers, partners and many fans consistently for decades. Dealing with Indy Car for long periods of time requires really thick skin and a penchant for masochism on multiple levels. Further, I do not really care about how deals get put together, just that they are. If you are able to make some money with the Indy Car event every year, that should make everyone happy. If Indy Car prevents you from making money by jacking up the price every year, why not gripe about that publicly and work it out privately? That is relevant. I do not care that you and Randy butt heads for whatever reason. I do not care that you seem to hold a grudge about something that happened over ten years ago. Just stop it. You risk further punishing fans that regularly support the events, buy the tickets and the merchandise, and watch on television.

Randy and Eddie, just work it out. Be adults. Divorce is not the answer. Losing the great Texas oval is definitely not an answer regardless of how divergent the general Indy Car direction gets. Remember the fans FIRST, and stop both bickering and posturing. It is tawdry and counterproductive.

Also, a note to Indy Car drivers: Climb into the cars and just race. We want to see you run the cars. Not your mouths. The new car has not even turned a wheel in competition on any oval, much less that one. Further, it is designed to minimize the kind of airborne mishap that puts drivers at risk of one-in-a-million accident. I have also been told the fencing/mesh at Texas is on the outside of the posts, which are closer together than at other tracks. Why is any of this still an issue?

You can also stop posturing about Eddie’s reaction to April of 2001 as well. My party was the third car in line at one of the gates as they closed them and turned everyone away. This after driving a few hundred miles to get there. It does not really matter how good the reason was for calling it off, fans got screwed that day too. By the thousands. I am over it, but fully understand Eddie’s wariness given the cast of characters then, many of whom dominate Indy Car today.

Finally, it is difficult enough to be an Indy Car fan over time anyway given the economy, rampant inconsistency in race scheduling, increasing inaccessibility, willy-nilly dropping of events that have been around for years, a procession of mostly no-name foreign formula drivers with money who come and go…not to mention an increasing predisposition away from what made Indy Car great in the first place. When you add in the kind of catty backbiting being reported by folks like Speed and TSO, the fans get left in the crosshairs and that is not good.

Straighten this out once and for all, and please keep the Texas event on the schedule after 2012 no matter what. A lot of fans actually care.

Sincerely,

-The Patience Has Worn Thin Disciple of INDYCAR

[ndcrs]

dis,
i like reading you normally, but not here.
1. you can't tell someone who lost a family member to lung cancer to start smoking, or tell someone who nearly drowned to start swimming...it's something they must overcome on their own under what makes them comfortable. the drivers knew how good dan was and their voice needs heard, otherwise, the quality of drivers who jump in the dw12 will go down significantly.
2. randy and eddie are both professionals and both promoters. sitting on the sidelines as fans, we shouldn't assume that they are not communicating routinely. what we all see may completley be scripted. again, you and i are not the target audience for them because we are already hooked. they both understand they need to do things to pull others that think differently from me and you into the sport. their efforts or actions may seem counter to what typical fans think.
3. many biz folks disagree with the thinking that fans views trump everything. again, they have two symbiotic businesses and they will find the middle ground on moving iics in the right direction. maybe rb wants a lower sanction fee and can't make it happen for eddie internally without eddie voicing dissatisfaction and then the board will lower the sanction fee and create a deal. again, us typical fans don't know how the boardroom operates or what latitude randy really has on his own.
4. agree that a real schedule with diversity and balance will be good and both of these guys should help us get there.

[Disciple]

So in other words us insignificant fans should just go ahead, be sheep (preferably silent), and watch another great legacy venue go down in flames without even raising a ruckus.

That does not seem like the right approach to me.

-The Hopes This Is Not The Last Texas Event Disciple of INDYCAR

[ndcrs]

So in other words us insignificant fans should just go ahead, be sheep (preferably silent), and watch another great legacy venue go down in flames without even raising a ruckus.

That does not seem like the right approach to me.

-The Hopes This Is Not The Last Texas Event Disciple of INDYCAR

not completly saying that, but i am suggesting that we (on TF) tend to make assumptions without details and then create big deals of out something that was not a big a deal as we (on TF) made it. again, not slamming, just think there may be different methods and thoughts to be used with less assumptions being the basis of the argument.

[Z28]

I appreciate that you have a passionate opinion and you should try to get it across to both parties.

What I don't see is a personality conflict. Eddie Gossage has his racetrack to run and he has been there for 15 years for the Indycar series putting on the best promotion of an event every year and drawing the biggest crowd. He did that twice a year for a while when the series needed his track far more than he needed the series. Now he did and does that because those races have been his second and/or third biggest revenue events every year and he likes making money. He is also quite often selfish in his thinking and demanding that his needs should supercede even that of the series, so it's not like he's always a team player. When people start dumping on Eddie recall that many around here yelled loudly that he should be in charge of the entire series.

You are correct in pointing out that decisions coming from the IRL/INDYCAR office have not always been consistent towards the entities they deal with and far too often shortsighted, selfish and wrong. Let us remember that Eddie was on the ICONIC committee only two years ago, the date for his June event has been on the same weekend but now two different venues have been placed in front of it after Indy.


My view of the problem is that Randy doesn't have or isn't willing to form a long term plan, probably because he's under increasing pressure to make things happen and make money NOW. It's all the short term score. And having already dropped Kansas and Chicagoland from the schedule after a ten year run, ending 15 years at Texas is going to be justified by a manufactured personality conflict. When in reality what the series needs isn't to run from people with the bluster of Gossage but to seek out more who aren't afraid to stand up and make some noise. Going back people remember Andy Granetelli, he was both a promoter and self promoter. What he was promoting changed but the new thing got attention because HE was the one talking about it.

The business model of giving away tickets for the Las Vegas event wasn't going to work long term nor transfer anywhere else. The poor choice of the 2011 Milwaukee promoter. The first Baltimore promoter. The unwillingness to alter the way it worked with a willing New Hampshire track in a needed market that drew a crowd the first year back in a decade to try and built the event. No consideration given to cut Jerry Gappens some slack to see if he couldn't make the event work for him.

Today things like the new chassis and engines have to be done quickly because there is pressure to turn things around quickly. There hasn't been any chance to test groups of cars on ovals like TMS or any other 1.5 mile track to see if there can be separation between the cars and eliminate pack racing. Because time is short before the season starts, changes are being made to basic designs of the chassis and partly because there aren't enough engines in enough cars. So with TMS being the only 1.5 mile left the short term solution is to feud with Gossage, run this years' race, hope for the best then dump it and buy time to get the cars in a configuration to run those type tracks 3-4 years in the future if that becomes the next new course. Posturing isn't the way to build. But worry about that later and fill the schedule with street races in the meantime.

[lkchris]

I'm a big fan of Texas Motor Speedway but last year's Indycar race was the most boring race I've ever seen there. It reeked.

So, Eddie, et al, get your eyes on the prize, i.e. making the racing entertaining. Splitting the race into two parts with a lottery in between isn't the solution, by far.

Gimmicks aren't the answer, but real race drivers are.

And, maybe you can convince some sponsors that some outside-the-track activity and shopping opportunities could be profitable. You had next to nothing last year.

And pre-race entertainment? Some guy from Sweden drifting a Mustang wasn't that exciting--how about Midget, Sprint, or Silver Crown cars? Or how about a "nostalgia" race--I'd love to see--and especially hear--some 1990s IRL cars again. That 90-degree V8 sound was the best ever.

You've got a lot of promotion work to do--especially when fans will know the finale will be cars with really silly rear fenders and guys from Venezuela driving them.

[Todd Gack]

There hasn't been any chance to test groups of cars on ovals like TMS or any other 1.5 mile track to see if there can be separation between the cars and eliminate pack racing.

There hasn't been much (if any) "pack racing" at TMS for years.

Maybe instead of coming up with yet another road racing/euro-based/aero-dependent/engineer driven race car, they could have come up with a more "oval friendly" race car instead. One that was based more on the biggest race in the sport and not the road/street races that dominate our sport/mindset. But that would have taken real "vision" and nobody in this sport has much of that.

So now, we are stuck with another over-downforced, underpowered, simple to drive on ovals car. Or at the least, a car that was designed to be better on road/streets and whose oval racing package seems to be an afterthought.

[irloyal]

Here my $0.02

No TMS IndyCar, well it's been a great 100 year + run for the sport, but I'm not interested anymore.
I'll go back to Knoxville, in place of Indy, A good sprint car show at Calistoga in place of Fontana, and spend my money on the cabs at TMS.

I'll probably listen to Indy on the radio where ever I do my memorial day weekends...

[Muskie4041]

There hasn't been much (if any) "pack racing" at TMS for years.

Maybe instead of coming up with yet another road racing/euro-based/aero-dependent/engineer driven race car, they could have come up with a more "oval friendly" race car instead. One that was based more on the biggest race in the sport and not the road/street races that dominate our sport/mindset. But that would have taken real "vision" and nobody in this sport has much of that.

So now, we are stuck with another over-downforced, underpowered, simple to drive on ovals car. Or at the least, a car that was designed to be better on road/streets and whose oval racing package seems to be an afterthought.

The races are there on YouTube, and there are plenty of examples of a half dozen of more cars running together with no one capable of making a pass.