Bryan Clauson wins the Indy 500.. Will that open the door to more USAC open wheel talent in the coming years without having to be pushed by the series? Or will the status quo continue with the unknown foreign ride buyers with zero oval experience?
I mean in reguards to the oval races and the Indy 500.. The part of the schedule that matters
Themeans I am kidding.. Well kinda
If the win results in more fans tuning in and attending, then there may be more resources to compete with NASCAR for top American talent.
The other thing that could happen is the win would get the attention of top American talent, who may spend more time and effort to secure IndyCar preparation and rides as opposed to having to bend towards NASCAR-related activities for support and encouragement.
Much as you may not believe it, Chris, you really don't know more about the sport than the IndyCar owners do.
"Each day well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this one day for it, and it alone, is life"
~ Sanskrit poem attributed to Kalidasa, "Salutation to the Dawn"
Brian's Wish
Please link when I have ever said that?Originally Posted by Turn13
Your a real likeable guy let me tell you..
You're*
O-Qua Tangin Wann
Qua Omsa Lagee Wann
I hope anyone winning will lead to increased interest and participation.
I like Bryan a lot, and I hope there's more interest from USAC participants.
But I also hope that people realize that isn't the magic solution that many think it is.
"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.
Seems to me to be a reasonable inference from your many assertions about the owners, the series management, the drivers, the vendors, suppliers, manufacturers, promoters, other fans, etc.Please link when I have ever said that?.
I can make some reasonable inferences about yourself from my dealings with you on here but I don't because I give you the benefit of the doubt since I don't know you.
I do. He's a good guy and a pretty sharp cookie.
If Clauson could follow up an Indy win with a few solid, competent performances on road and street courses then I'd say owners might start looking.Bryan Clauson wins the Indy 500.. Will that open the door to more USAC open wheel talent in the coming years without having to be pushed by the series? Or will the status quo continue with the unknown foreign ride buyers with zero oval experience?
I mean in reguards to the oval races and the Indy 500.. The part of the schedule that matters
The
I seem to recall Mo Nunn used to spend time at USAC races scouting talent in his early years of IRL ownership. Given his racing lineage, it would seem an odd place for somebody like him to be looking but he was there.
well we sure saw what happened when jimmy clark won, so could there be an american invasion?
I love the sport more than I hate the past,
Interesting take, paper
Quesrions deserve answers
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/sho...=1#post2788338
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/sho...=1#post2863273
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/sho...=1#post3006023
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/sho...=1#post3000116
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/sho...=1#post2993042
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/sho...=1#post2872471
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/sho...=1#post2868045
http://www.trackforum.com/forums/sho...=1#post2863863
Mo liked the Chesson family money for he and his wife's IPS team.
He had no more interest in American oval track racing as anyone else.
So Clauson has to not only win his first Indy Car race he has ever competed in at the Indy 500, but then also have competent performances on road and street courses (even though he has no ride for any of those events and has never driven a formula car on a road/street course at any level) just to get our beloved car owners to "look"?
Yea, that sounds plausable and doable. Maybe I'll win the lottery twice this year too.
Look, Clauson is a good driver. Very naturally talented. But lets not base his entire Indy Car career and any future involvement for anyone else in the AOW oval genre, on one 2 week excursion at Indianapolis. That is not fair to BC and its not fair to the other very talented youngsters out there that should be a part of this sport in the future.
BC needs to be given a few years in this sport (just like most get) to sink or swim. How this month goes is only a small part of that process.
Prime Minister of Gackland
If we see as many Americans come to Indy in the next 10 years as we saw foreigners after Jimmy Clark came in the mid 60's, then we might be down to 1 or 2 Americans soon.
Geez Mr. Happy.
A guy who has zero ties to any form of racing other than formula finds a kid with some money from OW dirt ranks and puts him in a car.
And you complain?Would him choosing Gonzago Bigacheck been a better choice?
Is it any wonder why NOBODY will ever try and revert or rebuild Indycar racing into something you guys keep insisting it needs to be?
You get an American and you whine about the reasons or motivations of the car owner. You're never happy with the drivers, they have to be just the "right" drivers, or the "right" oval race track or the "right" team owners, bla bla bla.
Pickiest bunch of fans I've ever heard from. You're never happy. Ever.
You should hear them bithcing about the texture of the dirt at Terre Haute at midnight after 8 hours of racingNo wonder they don't race in the rain...
BTW Todd.
Flat Out and Pure
Written by: Robin Miller
Indianapolis, IN – 6/22/2004
Living here affords me some excellent options, at least in terms of motorsports, and last weekend I took a couple of England's most respected exports to Ohio for some real racing.
Accompanied by car owner Morris Nunn and Autosport writer Nigel Roebuck, we watched a USAC midget/sprint doubleheader at Rossburg and shared one of those evenings that reminded us why we fell for auto racing.
Nunn, an accomplished Formula 2 racer for Colin Chapman who then designed, built and owned his own F-1 cars before coming to America in 1984, used his expertise to engineer an Indy win for Emerson Fittipaldi and CART championships for Alex Zanardi and Juan Montoya. He now fields an IRL team.
Roebuck has been reporting on F-1 since 1969, in addition to authoring Mario Andretti's book on his 1978 world title, and his weekly column in Autosport is recognized as a must read, as is his monthly contribution to MotorSport.
Nigel is a huge fan of Bob Sweikert, Johnny Thomson and anything relevant to Indy cars of the 1950s and 1960s, as his personal collection would show. He's been to a dirt show or two at the Indiana State Fairgrounds mile but desperately wanted to go to a race at Eldora since the USGP moved here in 2000.
Morris, on the other hand, had never seen a midget or sprint car except for a picture and nearly jumped out of my truck when I informed him we were heading for Ohio. "Bloody ****, isn't there anything closer?" he asked. Sure, I replied, but there's only one Eldora and I wanted to make sure he saw sprinters like god intended -- without wings.
We arrived in time for hot laps and it only took a few laps for the Brits to be impressed with 900 horsepower unleashed on a half mile.
"These guys are bloomin' crazy," voiced Nunn.
Added Roebuck: "I just can't believe the control these guys have."
We ran into a couple of past USAC stars, Larry Rice and Bubby Jones, and Morris quizzed Jones on sway bars, shocks and suspensions. "These cars haven't changed in 40 years and shocks are still the key," said Bub, who qualified for the 1978 Indy 500 before going back to his blue collar world.
Nunn walked away in total agreement. "That guy (Jones) understands."
It was a cool moment where two of the smartest guys in distinctly different disciplines spoke in a universal language.
Morris received several double takes from people in the pits, not so much due to his outfit of polished pennyloafers, pressed jeans and Toyota hat, but because obviously nobody expected to see one of those "squat to pee" road racers at a bastion of dirt racing.
But watching the expressions of Mo and Nigel during the heats and features were almost as good as watching Bobby East battle Dave Darland for 25 laps or Jay Drake overtake Brian Lee and Kevin Huntley in the 30-lap sprint main.
Eldora, unfortunately, no longer has a deep cushion or the ruts that made it famous and has been reduced to a hard, slick and dust bowl -- which makes it even more treacherous to negotiate.
But it also gave my guests even more of an appreciation for the skills required to run wheel to wheel and stay off the wall. There was nary a yellow flag in both features as Nigel and Mo marveled at the precision of backing into a corner at 125 mph.
Darland, one of those short-track treasures who sadly will never get a chance at the big time because he's closing in on 40, raced East as close and as clean as can be expected in every corner.
East, whose father helped launch the careers of Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Jason Leffler and Kasey Kahne, is rapidly maturing into a force at the age of 19 and is likely destined for NASCAR since nobody in the IRL pays any attention to USAC.
I told Morris that Bob East gets inundated with calls from NASCAR owners looking for the next Gordon because they realize that if somebody can handle 900 horsepower in an 1,100-pound car on dirt or pavement they can probably adapt to stock cars.
The evening was a success, even though Nigel couldn't find a Don Branson T-shirt and Morris couldn't find a capuccino at the infield snack bar. "I cannot believe you drug me over here in this dusty **** hole to drink Pepsi and eat murder burgers," he laughed. "But I'm glad you did."
On our ride home, he and The Buck reminisced about the launch of Nunn's Ensign F-1 car in 1976 ("It was Morris, Chris Amon and myself, outside of his garage in front of his house. Very big," said Roebuck with a chuckle.
My stories were about Gary Bettenhausen, Larry Dickson, Pancho Carter, Jan Opperman and the good old days.
We arrived in Indy just past midnight, 12 hours before the U.S. Grand Prix, and the boys from Britain knew they had witnessed the spectrum of open wheel. There were no suites, caterers or team orders at Eldora -- just another night of real racing -- flat out and pure.
From speedtv.com
Before Chesson was signed.
We can only hope.
Because I've been guaranteed that 26 Joey Hands = quadrupling the ratings.
Thanks for posting that story by Robin Miller, a good read.
And so we came to Road America where we burned up at the lake, but at the speedway of Nazareth I made no mistake
Who's complaining?:
A guy who has zero ties to any form of racing other than formula finds a kid with some money from OW dirt ranks and puts him in a car.
And you complain?
PJ and James Chesson's family paid Mo Nunn to race them in the IPS series many moons ago. Had nothing to do with Mo finding the Chesson's. It was the other way around. Just the way it is with most "relationships" in Star Mazda or Indy Lights.
That's not exactly the same as a Indy Car or Lights owner going to IRP or Eldora actually scouting talent. Or a owner knowing who the next potential Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart or Kasey Kahne is.
That's a nice little story that Robin wrote 8 years ago. Too bad nothing has changed. Eldora is still a dustbowl. There are still a lot of talented young kids in USAC. And Indy Car owners still have no idea and no care about either.
And also in a race that Chesson wasn't even in.
Before Chesson was signed.
Chesson wasn't even a USAC driver most of the time.
He was a decent dirt racing talent. But he'd get his doors blown off in USAC then and now.
I don't know about that, but a dozen / half-dozen guys like Newgarden and Clauson, if they were able to consistently run up front and win a few each year, would probably double them, easy
Just let us do Camp And Brew and charitable Viewing Parties to back them up
So you're saying Mo couldn't have just as easily found some foreign born, road racing bred, driver with F1 aspirations but without F1 talent to pay their way into his seat? Would seem as though the "squat and pee" circles Nunn traveled in were as far removed from Eldora or Knoxville as you can get yet he did take a chance on a driver from a spectrum of racing he had little experience with.
As you just stated, there's so little money in Lights or IPS back then that drivers got into those series with a check or bringing along some sponsorship. OW racing right now isn't in a cash flush position to hire drivers from USAC ranks and pay them to learn how to drive Indy cars. Unless you have a solution to fix that I'd suggest you start your own Lights team and hire those Americans you deem fit to put into Indy car rides in the future.....
Let me guess..... you can't afford to run a Indy Lights team, you'd have to take a driver on that could pay for his ride and team.... well, join the crowd
I wouldn't waste my time with a Indy Lights team. Its a completely irrelevant racing series and has been for most of its existence.
Let me guess..... you can't afford to run a Indy Lights team, you'd have to take a driver on that could pay for his ride and team.... well, join the crowd
Although at least there, you might be allowed to get an engine to race.
I don't think it would make a difference one way or the other... it's not as if USAC spridget drivers are somehow an unknown quantity to every team owner in this country, regardless of national touring series you want to talk about.
Heck, for that matter, I doubt there would be much disagreement amongst those same owners as to the ability of BC to wheel a car on an oval... any oval for that matter.
For BC to get a full time ICS ride he needs the exact same thing it would take for him to get a full time nascar ride right now... adequate funding.
This pins it, when politics get involved, it's all downhill.
Whoever has funding, whoever has a car, should get to run. I know this is OT to what this thread is about, but this is the elephant in the room.
"You just don't know what Indy Means" Al Unser Jr.
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