My $.02 on the IRL....(Indy Racing League)

[LaserModVee]

Pretty much growing up in Central Ohio, I was a three hour drive to Indy. Once out of high school, it was a given that you would find me camping out in the north forty for qualifying for the Indy 500.
That was until the breakup of CART and the formation of the IRL. I hated Tony George from that point on.
Since then, it was two or three years before I watched any of the 500. I wanted the IRL to give in and come back together with CART. It was within the last two years taht I actually sat down and paid attention to the entire race from start to finish. Last year I actually watched a good deal of qualifying/practice on TV. The migration of top teams like Penske, Rahal, and Green lured me over there also. I still called it the "Imitation Racing League".

This past weekend, I attended my first IRL race. It was the season opener at Homestead, south of Miami. My wife was given free tickets to all three days with passes to the paddock area from her work. The company she works for is a big sponsor on one of the teams. She had to give out tickets to her clients, and was expected to be there to shmooze. If it wasn't for the free tickets, we would not have been there.

With that said, I must tell you that the IRL put on one heck of a show. From the price of the tickets, (only $20.00 for the main grandstands and another $20.00 for pit pass), to the live music outside the stands, to the driver/garage access in the pits, this was by far one of the better racing events I have attended. Lets not forget the tire to tire action around an oval running over 200 mph for 200 laps. It was similar to the Cup cars at Daytona, without the safety of fenders. Tons of passing, tons of standing up out of my seat to see if they would stay three wide through three and four. It was awesome!

I've been to a bunch of NASCAR events, from Pocono to the Brickyard to Daytona and many tracks between, and have yet to get as up close and personal with drivers, cars, owners, and the garage area as I did at the IRL race. Not to mention for only $20. Hard to beat.

At those same NASCAR events, I have yet to see a live band jamming as I entered the gates of the race course and a concert taking place after the checker flag dropped.

All of this for literally HUNDREDS less than NASCAR at most tracks. Hell, pit passes like that aren't for sale in the world of NASCAR. Only in NHRA can you get so close as in the IRL.

Did I mention that after IRL qualifying on Saturday they opened up the road course section and held a Rolex Sports Car race with the Daytona Prototypes and the GT cars? That was a good show too!

Keep the ovals, but add more road courses to the IRL schedule and I think these guys are on to something. The ovals are fun to watch, but no CART guy, (myself included), is jumping ship entirely until they start turning right more often.

My $.02

[John Dorn]

I'm one of them guys that didn’t bail out with the split. I'm not much of a fan of Nascar. Nascar seam more like a parade every time I do watch a race. The IRL races have been getting better and better. I was at the Chicago race were the lead change hands twice a lap for last 5 or so laps.It ended with 1st and 2nd inches apart. I have gone to the Indy 500 for the last 15 years. No plains on stopping.

[stevek]

Lets face it Tony George won. The IRL is no longer what it started out as, an all USA driver round circle series. More influx from other well financed teams and soon there will be road course circuits. So CART (or its remnants) is really dead. They just don’t know it yet.
<O:p</O:p

[BarryStrawn]

From the bits of news I hear on TV it sounds like the IRL has become about like the old CART. Except Tony George runs things instead of the team owners and the fan base is a fraction of the old days.

$20 tickets sound like a problem for the promoter although I remember they used to just give them away for the races down at Disney. So I guess thats progress. Or does Tony George still fund the purse and several teams?

To bad really, I remember 15 years ago when American open wheel racing had better TV coverage, sponsorship, and crowds than NASCAR. But the Indy 500 was becoming kind of a sideshow. So now the 500 is the big fish in a very small pond. I'm sure Tony George and Bill France Jr. are very happy.

[LaserModVee]

I feel that the IRL has made progress and agree with SteveK on CART being dead. When Penske came over, that was all she wrote.

Last year it seemed that I always forgot CART was even televised. By the time I found it on Spike TV, the race was over.

I must add that even though I hated Tony George after the split, he became my best friend when he and Bernie Eccelstone started hanging out! Thank you Tony for bringing F1 back stateside and giving the brickyard a much needed facelift.

My only hopes are that of real American representation in F1. Maybe this could spark more interest in the open wheeled arena in America?

I also forgot to say that for those that have not been to Homestead Raceway, it is one of the cleanest, nicest, facilities I have been to. You did not have to be way up in the stands to see the entire track either. Plenty of parking, etc. And only 45 minutes or so from Key Largo.

[CDave]

I'll watch IRL road races but that's about it.

I'd love to see F1 at Laguna Seca, Portland or Road America.

[LaserModVee]

I don't know how far out of my way I will now go to watch IRL on TV, but if they are racing nearby, I'll be there to watch. In fact, they're coming to St. Pete this season to run the street course the Champ cars ran. I'll head that way to spectate....it's too cheap to pass up!

F1 at Laguna! Agree 100%.
That would be well worth a special trip out west for me.....just to see them go through the corkscrew.

[sms]

Anybody following the Indy 500 yet?
Rookie Danicka Patrick, former kart champ/ road racer dusted the boys yesterday with a 227.6. Pretty cool if you ask me. About 11 drivers right there in a shoot out for the pole this weekend. 35 cars on the track in yesterdays practice.

[John Dorn]

If I get the time, I'm going try to check it out on tv this weekend.

Will be there for the race! I'm going try to hook up with some of the members when I down there.

[Balzy]

Been there I think 7 years now and actually went in to see the race twice now :eek: :eek: :eek: More of a party than a race for our bunch though. Guess I will watch the race again this year. Se ya there Johnnyboy !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WARLOCK]

I stopped going to the 500 when they put a limit on how big you cooler could be for the infield. A few friends and I had a 104 quart cooler that we pulled on a wagon. When we got to the infield with it, they told us that each person could only have a six pack cooler per person. This it at 6:00 a.m.. so how long do you think 6 beers will last? Not long enough for me..so I stopped going. Later, Dave

[John Dorn]

Dave,
I’ve never been in the in field.

In the stands I have had no problems at all. We were bringing in case cooler for sometime. We have just started with 4-12 pack coolers the last year or so.

[fijjity]

From 1997 till 2002 when the engine shop I worked for closed it's doors (Brayton Engineering) I can say that the beginning was to get things more even for the low buck teams and create a more NASCAR type following. Things were rocky at first and the stands wouldn't see near the crowds that NASCAR did. Now that the big buck teams are back in it with a lot of different engine manufacturers, more fans are following. The split was a bitter one at first, but I think things are winding up where CART used to be. CART always had more money that the IRL. The engine package was set at a $130,000 aurora based package. Pretty soon, high end parts were added to some as the rules were bent a little to include better parts. Let's face it, the aurora wasn't a great engine and tryin to keep one together for 500 miles was a task ( considering thet the cylinder heads would only last about 400). We accomplished the longevity weakness by winning the Indy 500 in 98 with Cheever at the wheel with one of our engine packages. I think the IRL is goin up from where it began in 96.