All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

Autoweek's Dutch Mandel comes out swinging against the Austin F1 proposal.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110622/FREE/110629946

 

One helluva IndyCar race tonight in my old Iowa stomping grounds. Race was dull while Dario dominated, but Marco charged hard and held off TK. Great racing up front at the end, definitely the best race at Iowa to date.

 

And now we know: DRS and KERS cannot, in fact, make a race at Valencia entertaining. Uggh.

 

Blow it up ... or turn on the sprinklers.

Props to my man Alonso for grabbing second, but other than that, blech.

 

So Fontana gets a second Cup date, dumps the IRL. Fontana loses said second Cup date, takes IndyCar back. Who knows, maybe they'll even put near-twin Michigan back on the schedule. Probably not, but they should.

 

What?

I just read a story about IRL returning to Fontana and said to my wife I'd buy her bro a ticket if he'd go with me.

I mean, this conversation was yesterday!

Where are you reading this?

 

I fancy murphyc was just summarizing the last few years. IndyCar at Fontana is on for 2012. Might not be the only ISC track it goes to, either.

 

OK, I see what he was saying there.

Anyway, here's the LAT story...

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/05/sports/la-sp-fontana-indy-car-20110706

 

From your mouth, to ISC ears, CT. It's probably hoping to much to see the ICS back at MIS.....but I'd sure love it.

 

I haven't heard much about IndyCar back to Michigan, so it's probably a pipe dream about my home state track. But Michigan has produced some incredible open-wheel races. I know Curt Cavin has talked about Chicagoland quite a bit. Personally, the races at the 1.5-mile ovals scare the crap out of me. I much prefer the two-mile tracks.
And yes, I was just summarizing the last few years with Fontana. When that track added a second Cup date in 2005 or so, IndyCar was dropped. Now the track has lost that second Cup date and IndyCar is coming back in 2012.

 

Would love to see MIS back -- to say it's produced some incredible OW racing over the years would be an understatement. But as long as the IRL insists on running that snoozer on Belle Isle, there's not enough room in the market for both. The LA market can support two races -- especially if the Long Beach and Fontana are on opposite ends of the calendar. Chicagoland is probably the most logical possibility to get back on the sked just because of the market -- Chicago is an important market, close to Indy, and it sounds like Milwaukee is probably done after the sparse attendance.

As far as ISC tracks, I'd love to see Chicago, Michigan, Phoenix and Watkins Glen back on the schedule. Of those, I might anticipate two happening -- Chicago and WG, but WG has had some pretty sparse attendance. There have been decent crowds at Chicago despite some pretty bad dates.

 

I'm continually fascinated by the ISC-NASCAR dynamic, particularly when it comes to how it deals with open wheel. ISC and NASCAR are literally connected at the umbilical cord, leaving Little Lesa Jane to try and balance the books after her Lil' Brudda Brian does his Nero impersonation.

It's a manic relationship. ISC needs IndyCar. ISC doesn't need IndyCar. ISC suddenly decides it needs IndyCar again.

With the complete and utter lack of promotion for nearly every IRL/IndyCar event at an ISC track in recent years, it appeared the Frances were trying to seriously restrict the number of oval venues available for open wheel, perhaps in an effort to put it out of business or buy it at a discount.

But it didn't work, mainly because NASCAR's attendance (and revenues) is in the tank as much or worse than IndyCar.

Because NASCAR has made some incredibly stupid business decisions -- Motorsports Authentics, anyone? -- it's killing ISC's bottom line. Because he's not beholden to shareholders, Brian can burn through the family fortune. But Lesa can't. She's got to show positive cashflow or ISC stock will drop in price.

Tracks, which are fixed costs, have to hold events to generate revenue. So Fontana needs a race. As perhaps does Michigan. And Chicagoland. And suddenly, IndyCar is the least worst option. At least until ISC changes its mind again.