Retrie the number(s)
Don't retire number(s)
Alternative to retiring number(s) - Please post your suggestion
Oh Scheckter is rated pretty high by a lot of people, myself included. Except for perhaps James Hunt or Nigel Mansell, nobody came so far, from high odds and with a bad reputation than Jody Scheckter. And I saw Gilles race live about three times, all at Long Beach.Originally Posted by BADGER
To finish first you must first finish.
AND
Dont ever try to turn a 10th place car into a 5th place car
Faster than a bullet from a gun
He is faster than everyone
Quicker than the blinking of an eye
Like a flash you could miss him going by
No one knows quite how he does it but it's true they say
He's the master of going faster. -George Harrison
Jody rated him quite high.
Scheckter had paid tribute to a friend and team mate he described as “the fastest driver in the history of motor racing” and “the most genuine man I have ever known."
http://www.montrealgazette.com/sport...333/story.html
I wouldn't blame Doc, he did state a fact that Scheckter did win. Perhaps he didn't know about the orders--which were only instituted late in the season, not before.Jody got team orders, as states above.
Stay classy, doc.
Don't retire them, we'd run out of numbers due to the past.
But there should be some way of honoring them.
The best example I have is my favorite hockey team, the St. Louis Blues. They have retired numbers, but they also have these hanging from the rafters:
The numbers aren't retired, just honored. I think IndyCar should find a way to do something like that, particularly for recent deaths.
"Young enough not to care too much about the way things used to be.
I'm young enough to remember the future. The past has no claim on me.
I'm old enough not to care too much about what you think of me.
But I'm young enough to remember the future. The way things ought to be."
Give it up...
Greg Moore = Overrated
Of course I did. Scheckter said as much in 1979.
My point is that people were comparing those two guys. One drove smart, won a championship and stayed alive. Now, is it even close?
"Is that my *** that I smell burning?" ... Helmet Stogie from "Death spasms of the Mabuchi"
NO retirement of numbers. However I believe a memorial should be built at Indy for all the AOW (IndyCar, USAC, CART, ChampCar) drivers and crews that have lost thier lives going all the way back to 1911.
That would be very cool to see. Hopefully names are not added to that memorial for a long time though!
I don't believe in retiring ones number, but honoring it. Many pro sports teams like the Canadiens do this cause there would be no nimbers left
Disrespectful...
Why don't you do yourself a favor and watch a few old CART races.
White sunglasses and red gloves...
I get the reason for the poll and voted. I like the AMA's system. Indycar drivers don't use one number. They change when they move to other teams, and that happens fairly often.
Moore would probably have had a different number if he changed teams.
A lot of race fans and sports writers are of the opinion that Greg chose the number 99 in relation to Wayne Gretsky. In actual fact this was the number assigned to him when he registered with his first racing club.
http://www3.telus.net/archie/kart/greg.htm
Quote:
As of the November 1999 Club meeting date, the Westwood Karting Association has officially retired the now famous number 99 from all Club racing, in respect and to honour Greg. He ran his entire racing life with the same number, which he decided on by the fact that it was the number printed on his first Club membership card that he recieved from Westwood Karting. No Westwood member will be using the number 99 for Club racing.
Norris MacDonald wrote an article that was published on the 10th anniversary of Greg's passing. He covers how Greg managed to retain the number 99 throughout his racing career. Interesting read.
Quote:
Now, I have to tell you a good story from around this time about how Moore managed to maintain his tradition of always racing with the number 99, which was the number he was handed when he first started karting. He carried it with him through his Formula Ford years. He got to Indy Lights and discovered it was the property of my friend, Brian Stewart of Sutton, the long-time King of Indy Lights.
"I'd run Kat Teasdale the previous year," Stewart recalled, "and she wanted 99 on her car so CART had assigned the number to me. So when Greg entered his own team in the Indy Lights series in 1993, he had to come to me and ask for the number.
"I gave it to him but I wanted something in return. I had a lot of people asking me for passes to the Molson Indy Toronto that year so I gave him the number 99 and he gave me six of his passes for the Molson Indy and so everybody was happy."
http://www.wheels.ca/Motorsports/article/782680
Last edited by pitwall3; 05-09-2012 at 12:28 AM.
Scheckter could have stayed home and accomplished two thirds of that.Of course I did. Scheckter said as much in 1979.
My point is that people were comparing those two guys. One drove smart, won a championship and stayed alive. Now, is it even close?
As for the championship, winning by a hair with the help of team orders is pretty much the exact definition of "close." If the point of participating in Formula 1 is to score championship points, 'Startenparcker' and Villeneuve netted exactly the same number of points in their two years as Ferrari teammates.
The fans should be the absolute last people considered on any decision that could effect a participant. Doc Austin
Lying was a no-brainer for me. Robin Miller
"I thought they booed [Danica] because she was being a complete jerk, but then they applauded for A.J. Foyt. Now I'm just confused."
[QUOTE=richie;3008744]Was Moore's number at Penske going to be #99? I wonder.
Greg wrote an article "Looking Back - Looking Forward" for Sports Car International for the December 1999 issue. Good read. He talks about a possible number change with Penske.
Quote:
'll miss my #99 Player's race car, but I know Roger will pick the right number for me - a winning number.
http://members.shaw.ca/indycartchall...rearticle.html
And that's where the class falls into oblivion.
I guess any Indycar champion who has died during a race is less of a driver than Buzz Calkins, since he won a championship and "stayed alive".
Doc, I honestly don't know if you're a huge Jody fan or you think Gilles was overrated, but to bring death into ranking a driver is not only silly, but downright offensive. YMMV.
"Leave me alone, I know what to do!" -Kimi Räikkönen
The driver's team should change their car number for the rest of the season or following seasons (if they see fit), but the the series should not retire a number for ANYONE.
A big resounding NO to retiring numbers.
"You just don't know what Indy Means" Al Unser Jr.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. DO NOT RETIRE NUMBERS!
Gregg Sebald
well if you go back far enough there will be no numbers left,
I love the sport more than I hate the past,
I don't need too. Moore can't hold a candle to Zanardi.
A man who has less faith in human nature than I have might suspect that Doc (noted champion of Eddie Cheever, among his other comedy stylings) mostly is having fun.
'Bah! Give me Scheckter. Now there's a racer!'
I lol'd, but what was wrong with Eddie Cheever? Why is it cool to rip on him here at TF?
He ran with the big boys of CART in the 90's when he had okay cars at Ganassi and won races both overseas in F2 against stiff competition and even had podiums in crap equipment in F1. Sure, he had some crashes, I wasn't a fan at all. But are you against him because he didn't run great in CART when he was in Foyt, Simon or Turley cars?
Every race I run in is in preparation for the Indianapolis 500. Indy is the most important thing in my life. It is what I live for. - Al Unser Jr.
Everything I ever wanted in my life, I found inside the walls of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. - Eddie Sachs.
Not especially, though he was smart enogh to get out once he had achieved his goal.
I do. Not as a man, perhaps, but he didn't win any more Grand Prix than Ricardo Patrese.or you think Gilles was overrated,
It is relevant that he let his emotions get away from he and he did something stupid that got him killed. I think that right there is enough to disqualify you from being one of the greats.....but to bring death into ranking a driver is not only silly, but downright offensive.
BTW: It's an opinion and if you are offended, then just stay offended.
Thanks pitwall.
"Try some of these before or after your statements if you are not presenting them as facts. Things like - "In my opinion", or "I think that", JHMO, IMHO, IMO, JMO... Your opinions are not (necessarily) fact. That would clear things up some." - Seadog 03/25/2010 11:40am So the above is JMO.
Most drivers are superstitious about that sort of thing anyway. If a driver gets killed, I don't want to wear his number in the next race. OK< maybe the next year, but certainly not until the next season.
Back in the old days the car would ofter survive a fatal accident. They could beat out the body panels and have it ready to run again, sometimes even the same day. A lot of guys were creeped out and didn't want any part of something like that, and others would jump right in and go fast. Having said that, the number of creeped out people was considerably higher.
43 -- Joe Gosek -- ALTA Team Scandia -- Lola/Ford
95% against retirement. Can we put this to rest finally?
"Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate."
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I was a fan of both Zanardi and Moore they were the stand out drivers of that period in Champ Car. I always felt Moore if anything was under rated and Zanardi had far more praise in retrospect.
Fact. Moore started his first few races as a rookie in 1996 ppg indy car championship was instantly on the pace up at the front pulling off breath-taking moves showing incredible skill for a rookie. Zanardi had experience of Formula 1, a top team being team Target with Jimmy Vasser as his team mate and the best equipment being Firestone/Honda/Reynard. Moore came up from Indy Lights and was on his own with no team mate and Franchitti stated if it wasn't for him having a Mercedes engine which let him down towards his later seasons he have been much more of a threat.
I'm thinking some people didn't see him race and meerly see him as someone who won 5 races, in what was a very close and competitive time of indy cars.
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 asking? Now you know Gilles didn't want to die, but at the same time championships meant nothing to him. Winning did and if the title came along, that was just icing. People are always going to compare. Just human nature.
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