Iroc

[Shadow101]

Does anyone recall the year that the IROC series ran a group of qualifying races to determine the final 12? I believe that they ran the Indy cars guys as a group, NASCAR guys as a group, and F1/IMSA guys as a group and took the top 4 "qualifiers" from each. Does this ring a bell?

The reason I ask is that I think IROC needs to look back to re-invent itself. Run the races in Nov-Jan during the off-season so you could get some full fledged participation from every discipline. Throw in a road course or two. Give us diehard fans something to watch. Anyone else have a brilliant idea?

[Doctorindy]

Pretty good history here...

IROC History

Indeed, they need changes. IROC stinks in it's current form, in fact, it's downright awful. They should either completely revamp it, or take a year or two off.

[diftw]

Is it actually running in 2004? I thought all of their deals had run out.

Dave

[Doctorindy]

Originally posted by diftw
Is it actually running in 2004? I thought all of their deals had run out.

They have "so-called" announcements coming soon. Maybe an announcement that it's over

[Shadow101]

Originally posted by Doctorindy
Pretty good history here...

IROC History

Indeed, they need changes. IROC stinks in it's current form, in fact, it's downright awful. They should either completely revamp it, or take a year or two off.

Thanks for the link. Let's hope they either fix it or just let it go away.

[cheeseczar]

I can't figure out if I like IROC or not.

[MikeT]

&nbsp The IROC history site shows what the problem is: it's basically become an all-NASCAR benefit. Only 4 IROC races since 1995 have been won by non-NASCAR drivers. As NASCAR is already the best covered (overexposed?) form of motorsport in North America, it's hard to get excited about the IROC.
&nbsp If the IROC is going to stick with the current pseudo-NASCAR cars, then it should give up the pretense that it's a battle between the top drivers from different disciplines and go for a completely different format. Or, it should change to a different kind of car.
&nbsp If Penske wants to stick with the stock cars cars, I'd suggest two things:
1) A short-track legends race. A quick lesson for people who think that NASCAR is all there is to stock car racing. Bring in guys like Dick Trickle, Bob Senneker, Junior Hanley, and a bunch of regional stock car legends for a shootout on a 1/2 mile oval.
2) A stars-of-tomorrow series. Run the best young stock car drivers from different regions on a short track, a mile, and a superspeedway. Exclude anyone who has already driven in Winston Cup or the Busch series. The upside for Penske is that he could use it to scout his future drivers.
&nbsp Or maybe they should drop the stock cars and go for an oval/road series with identical formula cars, like Formula Atlantics. They could use IRL and CART drivers. There a bunch of NASCAR guys who could win in open wheelers. Maybe throw in a USAC driver or two. Now that would be fun.

P.S. Best IROC moment: Steve Kinser winning at Talledega in 1994.