What if people like the way things are? How many times do they need to express that?Originally Posted by Ken-Paul
What if people like the way things are? How many times do they need to express that?
Cancer sucks.
You're right. I'm in the wrong forum for that.
Actually it was pretty smart because now I am sitting in better seats in J Stand and I dont have to pay my buddy for them until April when the tickets come in..
My Indy 500 friends either agree with my point of view or attend the race mainly for the party..
If you do not like my opinions or opinions like mine the Series Direction forum is not for you..
The Indianapolis 500 interests me.. Scott Dixon, Will Power, Dario Franchitti, and Ryan Briscoe do not.. Looking at the recent TV ratings I am not alone..
Clauson, Newgarden, Hildebrand, Carpenter, Andretti, Rahal, Rice, and Hunter-Reay interest me..
I hope the Indy 500 returns to the popularity/respect level is rightly deserves..
BTW: I am bringing 4 people with me this year, 2 are rookies.. I am doing my part..
i'm not in indiana any longer, however i did read there were going to be "hearings?" or something about the class system in basketball. whether they happened or not, nor the outcome, i don't know.... but it was cool going to a small school and kicking some big school's butt in the playoffs; i know that from personal experience....
and it was way cool to see some driver/team throw together a last ditch effort at indy and through some big azzzed nads and a bit of luck put a car in the field at the last moment possible.. the crowds for "bump day" were almost equal to the crowds for pole day and that is a fact i know too from personal experience..
i take offense at you saying that i am throwing a tantrum over anything.. i am simply stating an opinion that i believe to be shared by many; however, even if it is not, by no means should it be declared a tantrum.. you want to see me throw a tantrum? do ya? r e a l l y?
Last edited by R22; 04-20-2012 at 01:03 AM.
returning to the days of ignorant bliss..
Cool. Glad you're bringing a group.
Too bad you will poison their minds with nonsense.
I mean Dario Franchitti and Will Power don't interest you (two legitimate talents), yet "talents" like Greg Ray do interest you.
It is a unique world you live in my friend.
"I think of Indianapolis every day of the year, every
hour of the day, and when I sleep, too. Everything I
ever wanted in my life, I found inside the walls of
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway."
- Eddie Sachs.
Hard to argue with this statement.
Seems like a long way to travel for a beer though.
I haven't been to Baltimore in a while, but I assume they have parties there where you can drink beers, wave American flags and complain about how much stuff sucks, without the time and expense of travel.
Last edited by lotuspoweredbyford; 04-20-2012 at 01:31 AM.
I do too.
The LOTUS teams are in terrible shape. Even if they can keep their engines together, they are going to be way off on speed. Plus, nobody should have any faith in Legge or Alesi on a oval. There may only be 10 LOTUS engines total for the entire month. And we all know a few of those are going to blow up, being stressed as they are at IMS.
You have a Michel Jourdain, who hasn't been in a Indy Car in years (or a car of any kind in years) and hasn't been to Indy since 1996. You have Bryan Clauson, trying to make his first Indy Car start, with a team who has had some trouble running more then 1 car before. You have Wade Cunningham, trying to make his first Indy start, with a 2nd Foyt car that traditionally (in recent years) has been shaky at best.
When you only have 34 cars, you pretty much have to have everything go perfectly. The smaller teams (who may not have a backup car for their extra cars) have to stay clean. All the LOTUS teams have to somehow stay clean and keep their engines running. There is really no wiggle room. They got away with it in 2003 and 2004. Mainly because the couple cars added at the last minute had very little practice time and had veteran drivers who were smart enough to just put 4 conservative laps together and not screw it up. The bottom 1/4th of the field this year is likely to be filled with very young and very oval inexperienced drivers. With new cars and new engines, and no oval races before Indy to try anything.
If I am (almost said Tony George for a second) Randy or whoever has some influence on this sport, I'd be twisting some arms to try and get one more Chevy and one more Honda shaken loose. Because I have said before, this sport cannot and will not survive the negative PR they will garner if they start less then 33 cars this year. It would be a fatal blow to a sport already gasping for air.
Prime Minister of Gackland
They are going on now (for some asinine reason....thanks to some moron elected official who I guess has nothing else better to do). And they have been a colossal waste of time, showing the complete lack of interest in the "class basketball" topic that has been beaten to death even moreso then the IRL/CART split was. Maybe finally, folks will realize this subject is over, has been over and will always be over.
so thar ya go.... the famous "different strokes, for different folks".. hmmmm do they have a forum too?
They don't deserve "a pass".
Not when its a known fact that there are drivers with the money to run Indy this year, who can't. Not when its a known fact that there are car owners who would like to run a car at Indy this year, who can't (even if they have the money to do so).
Not when there are ZERO one-off race teams being allowed to compete at Indy this year. ZERO. I'd guess that hasn't happened at Indy in the last 50 years (Dave will have the stats, I am sure).
I can remember months ago, that there was real talk about 30+ cars running the full-season. Of course, that was back when LOTUS was expected to adhere to the contract they signed. And back when Newman-Haas was still in business. And Shank was going to run. And Conquest was going to run. And HVM was going to run 2 cars. And Foyt was even going to run 2 cars. And some new teams were trying to form, for at least a Indy run, because of the new equipment and getting in on the ground floor with everyone else.
But alas...the engine folks decided to do it their own way. Which means we'll do just enough to scrape by and fill the field at Indy. But not any more then we need to because we don't want to screw our full-time entries, a few of which we are basically supporting (Sato and Pagenaud come to mind).
Why will it change next year? As long as the engine manufacturers can dictate, then we are the mercy of whatever they want. And they don't want 40 cars at Indy. If they did, we'd have 40 cars this year. There are enough engines and enough chassis to do it.
If they want 33 cars at Indy, then that's what we will have. If they want 37 cars, that's what we will have. No matter if there are 50 fully-funded car/driver combos who want in or not.
You guys are pretty entertaining, ya know that right?
"You just don't know what Indy Means" Al Unser Jr.
just to be fair paper, this 500 would have around 65-70 entrants based on how the entrant list was then. your post gives the perception that almost 60 went home. yeh it would be nice to have more engine supply for other teams, but that's just not the way it is. so do people hate the 500 this year or just deal with what is there. i'll take the later.
that's exactly whey what happens in 2013 should already be done. if another engine manufacturer is coming in, everyone should have the 2013 specs and everyone should be getting prepared now. otherwise, they will be in a similar situation as lotus is this year.
actually, iics should cap it at 3 manufactures and create more demand for the maufacturers to want to get in.
todd,
othere than msr, what team has said they want to run indy? msr from my memory is not running due to funding, not engine supply. what driver is REALLY fully funded to run? what one offs are prepared to take 7 days of practice to build a car and make a run? i not asking who we want, because i can make a long list for that, but who is really prepared to step up and do this if engine supply was more open from the manufacturers?
Yep. Spot on. And absolutely DESTROYS the incredible momentum the event built up last year.
Unfortunately it seems many have chosen this path.....
...Always follow the money
Off the top of my head I don't recall any year since 1962 in which there were no one-off teams. That's not to say that one-offs always made the race, of course.
And to make a long post short, I'm sick of being told, "Wait till next year".
The Ayn Rand of Indycar
No one had to badge the Offy.
AFS Racing isn't a one-off this year?
Conquest isn't a one-off this year?
Newman/Haas isn't a one-off this year?
1+1+1=0.
And there you have TrackForum math in a nutshell.
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On Twitter as @indycaradvocate
And yet...
My son and I will be there. I have been following things since 1978, so I'm aware of what's going on in the background, but it's his second year. He doesn't care about the politics. It's Indy.
That's the bottom line. And you either get it or you don't.
TrackForum Pick 5 2013 Point Standings
"Dogs flew spaceships! The Aztecs invented the vacation! Men and women are the same sex! Our forefathers took drugs! Your brain is not the boss! Yes! That's right! Everything you know is wrong!"
Brian's Wish * Jason Foundation
Its most likely 1 year maybe 2. We had great bump days the last couple of years because we had a ton of equipment laying around. See Cavin's explanation in his Q & A today
Answer: No, you’re not going to see teams rolling out extra cars during the month for a number of reasons: The engine contracts that must be in place in advance, the shortness of the month, and the size of most of the teams to begin with. Remember that KV, for example, is already three cars. That’s a nice size, and I think the team has two legitimate chances to be in the top five with Kanaan and Barrichello. I think we have to remember that it’s pretty remarkable that the 500’s entry list is as strong as it is given all the equipment changes. Teams made huge investments for 2012, and I think we’ll see larger fields as we move to 2013 and 2014. Most of the Chevrolet and Honda teams are as large as they can be — Panther is one that could have another car but it has chosen not to. Fact is, the extra cars you’d like to see would come from Lotus teams. Dreyer & Reinbold has often had three or four cars; this year it has one due to the Lotus situation. As I often remind people, don’t judge this 500 on the back half of the field; keep your eye on the front. I think we’re in for another exciting month.
And this is a tantrum thread. Granted this forum is for these type of threads but that what this thread is.
I'd rather have 10% of the world interested in the ICS than 50% of US that NASCAR currently has
AFS isn't running the #17 car. Andretti is.
Conquest isn't running the #25 car. Andretti is.
Newman-Haas doesn't really count either, since some of their personnel have been with Dragon to get them going. At best, I'll give you a 1/2 for that one.
No one-off teams running their own entries. Zero.
First, off those bump days were good, not great. With the new rules, all you need is a few extra cars to make the final 2 hours of quals exciting. It just comes down to the same 5 or 6 guys and gals doing all the qualifying, and getting 3 shots on Sunday to do it too. Instead of the 10-15 we used to have, for about 40 years running (which ended in 2003).
We still have only had about 36 or 37 cars during those so-called "great years" in 2010 and 2011. Which is probably the max will ever see, as long as the engine manufacturers (and also Will Phillips and gang) are calling the shots.
But they aren't the right "one-offs" for this part of the board.
The only acceptable one-offs here would be Joe's Racing who builds engines in his garage and who's driver is the new hot star performing in front of 4,000 at Gas City because he has a massive built in fan base.
Then you clearly don't understand what the word "tantrum" means.
The actual Indianapolis 500 will be fine. Should still see 33 cars taking the green flag. That day will not be compromised.
The rest of the month though, will not be the same. Not when just about anyone who can put 4 laps together gets to race.
But they aren't the right "one-offs" for this part of the board.
The only acceptable one-offs here would be Joe's Racing who builds engines in his garage and who's driver is the new hot star performing in front of 4,000 at Gas City because he has a massive built in fan base.
No, a nice one-off team would be Mike Shank Racing with their people running Alex Lloyd or Paul Tracy in the #60 car.
Or Sarah Fisher Racing (from 2007, I believe) starting a team from scratch with their people, to try and make the Indy 500.
Not having 33 cars would be a fatal blow to the sport? A little hyperbole there? Other than the hard cores I challenge you to go to wherever a large public area is near where you live and ask 20 random people how many cars start the Indy 500 this year. If more than 3 answer correctly I would be shocked. EDIT, if Gackland is 30 miles or less from the speedway then it doesn't count
Also don't believe the sport is gasping for air. Its in a deep rut as a niche sports that shines brightly once a year unless something major happens (Wheldon's crash) Time and the correct business decisions will decide whether it moves on from there or stays where its at.
And they can do it 6 different times if they want, geeeesh, talk about dumb.
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