[Racer Duck]

As Joni Mitchell said, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone,” and I’m starting, already, to miss the sublime talents of (at least) three drivers who have been at the top of their games in the North American open wheel arena. Say goodbye to Sebastien Bourdais, Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr, among others.

Think about it: It has been so easy to take someone like Bourdais for granted: since 2003, he went out on any given day and gave everything he had. Losing was never an option for Bourdais; he always looked ticked off when he wasn’t on the top step of the podium. Throughout five seasons and an unprecedented four consecutive championships, Bourdais’ race- and pole-winning ratios are simply amazing at 42.4 percent, with 31 poles and wins in only 73 starts. Wow.

.....

The same can be said of the No. 27 Canadian Club crew and their driver, Dario Franchitti. They did the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series “double” this year, taking a long merited victory at the Indianapolis 500, overcoming three disasters – a pair of highlight reel end-over gymnastics and being politically assassinated by one of three Andretti Green Racing team bosses – to help their driver earn his first American championship. Franchitti, it might be recalled, was Honda’s longest-tenured driver until the close of this season.

.....

Hornish Jr., the IRL’s poster boy has done it all, now that he got the elusive Indy 500 title last year along with his third League championship. The road courses have been a problem for Sam, but he appeared to be getting with the program as of late, so you’ve got to wonder if that was part of the reason for his change?

.....

Open wheel racing on the North American continent continues to be in disarray and the departure of these three gents for greener pastures is disheartening, as is the news that Paul Tracy might be dismissed from his position with Gerald Forsythe’s Champ Car team. Should Tracy not accept a lower fee to race – after signing a long contact with Forsythe last year – there’s no telling what the result will be, particularly in his home nation of Canada.

more....

[Bob Tanner]

Being a native of the Indianapolis area, Charlie, I honestly feel your pain. As I've stated here before, I pretty much gave up on Indy racing in the '60's when the rear-engined onslaught began. After growing up watching Big Cars (what the Indy cars used to be called), sprint cars and midgets, I just never warmed up to engines in back of the driver. (FWIW, I still would prefer to see a front-engined AA/D over what they run now)

To the very depths of my cynical little heart, I think Tony George absolutely did the right thing in splitting with CART, for multiple reasons. I think if he were then to have also dumped the rear-engined cars and made the Silver Crown circuit his major circuit he might have kept open wheel alive. The WoO is a good circuit and the Knoxville nationals is a fantastic race, or so I've heard. But Knoxville is no Indy. If the open wheeled cars were to have a race with the stature of the Indy 500 I think things would be a bit different. The numbers of the followers of the WoO prove to me an Indy 500 run with front engined open wheel cars would make it.

But it's all moot, right? I think CART is on life support and IRL might not be terminal yet, but its immune system is rapidly breaking down.

Those are my thoughts on your post, anyway.

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

Being a native of the Indianapolis area, Charlie, I honestly feel your pain. As I've stated here before, I pretty much gave up on Indy racing in the '60's when the rear-engined onslaught began. After growing up watching Big Cars (what the Indy cars used to be called), sprint cars and midgets, I just never warmed up to engines in back of the driver. (FWIW, I still would prefer to see a front-engined AA/D over what they run now)

To the very depths of my cynical little heart, I think Tony George absolutely did the right thing in splitting with CART, for multiple reasons. I think if he were then to have also dumped the rear-engined cars and made the Silver Crown circuit his major circuit he might have kept open wheel alive. The WoO is a good circuit and the Knoxville nationals is a fantastic race, or so I've heard. But Knoxville is no Indy. If the open wheeled cars were to have a race with the stature of the Indy 500 I think things would be a bit different. The numbers of the followers of the WoO prove to me an Indy 500 run with front engined open wheel cars would make it.

But it's all moot, right? I think CART is on life support and IRL might not be terminal yet, but its immune system is rapidly breaking down.

Those are my thoughts on your post, anyway.

Thanks, Bob...your thoughts are always welcome.

However, I just pulled some paragraphs out of the writer's article and posted them. the conclusions are strictly the writers. (That doesn't mean I agree .. or not, just that I didn't express my thoughts.)

I was able to be at the Nationals in Knoxville for one night courtesy of my ex-wife's niece's husband who was a partial sponsor (he did the lettering) of one of the cars racing out of Des Moines. It was my 3rd time to the track, but my first Nationals. Folks who've never seen an event like that can't imagine the spectacle nor the tension in the air. I've never been to Indy, so can only transpose what I heard, saw and felt from that small dirt track to what I can only imagine would be what one would see, hear and feel at Indy (with an equivalent field). Awe-inspiring is certainly one adjective that would be used...

This brings to mind something I realized one night sitting in the stands at the local track watching a "filler race" .. of carts. There were no "rules" on the type of cart, only the engine size and modifications. As such, there were both the "enduro" style carts as well as the "sprint" style carts buzzing around this 1/4 mile central Texas bullring. And I noticed that one particular sprint cart was steadily moving up thru the field while the leader, in an enduro, was steadily pulling away. When the sprint finally cleared the field and set about running down the enduro, what I thought would be an evenly divided stands turned probably 80-90% in favor of the sprint. (Yeah, I know, everybody loves the underdogs .. but that wasn't what I saw) The people were generally cheering more for the sprints than the enduros. I don't know if it was 'cause of the general difference in looks or what, but there was a tangible difference between the number of enduro fans and sprint fans. Visually the difference between the two carts are striking: in one (enduro) the driver reclines very far while in the other (sprint) the driver sits straight up. The enduro body has size pods and a stylized nosepiece while the sprint resembles a traditional roadster. The sprint always drew larger crowds of admirers/gawkers in the pits, whether from racers and crews or from fans.

That, to me, is why WoO and similar bodied racers would do well at venues like Indy (crowdwise). It's also why the "aerodynamically stylized" rear engined "Indy Cars" of today can't seem to get a lot of traction with the "traditionalist" fan. There's just something about seeing the driver sitting up in the cockpit with the engine roaring in front of him that generates excitement that the laid down driver with the engine behind can't.

At least, that's how I see it...