Well, in reality, it is more like the IRL acquired Champcar.

Personally, it is probably better for open wheel racing in the USA. However, it burns me up because I am not a fan of the IRL and the owner Tony George is a brat who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. He single handidly screwed up racing in the USA for a dozen years over his ego.

So the war is finally over.. and after a decade both sides have nothing to show for it.

Well, if Kalkhoven hadn't stiffed Katherine Legge, maybe she would have hung around and my prediction would have been accurate:

http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?p=217735

After being reminded by some of the (delusional) "Champ Car Fanatics" that this Champ Car wasn't CART, and the disgruntled CART fans should stop looking back at the good old days, and see the bright new (European, street racing) future that The Three Amigos were building for us all... I didn't see that I had a dog in this fight any longer.

Still it's sad to see how what remained of CART was squandered and came to such a pitiful end. But it was being run as a semi-pro club racing series anyway. From a series that once attracted the attention of Formula One World Driving Champions, to a series that relied on third rate ride buyers to fill the grid.

Hopefully Tony George can continue shelling out $2 million+ per car to keep the grid to a respectable size. Then maybe, at some point, the value of running an Indy Car will return and more legitimate racers and teams will show up... not just people who have no other options in the world of racing.

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"Tweeter was a Boyscout before she went to Vietnam and found out the hard way... nobody gives a d@mn."

indeed.. what the Indy500 has been reduced to now. Before the split it was the premier American race and CART was on top... now everything is NASCAR.


But yeh guess I should look at the bright side, that the rebuilding can now happen after a dozen years of dissention, factionalism, and internecine warfare. It's gonna take atleast a decade to rebuild tho.

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"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

Wasn't very long ago when the Indianapolis 500 lived up to it's billing as "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing", and the IMS was the Mecca of motorsports.

You being for Indiana, I thought you would have more pride over the Indy500.





PS
Not that I mind Daytona taking over those positions. Makes life easier for me ..just wondering is all.

I was poking fun Ted.

BTW... I just moved here a year and a half ago from Texas.

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"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

ohsh*t.. The TexasMotorSpeedway. Thats even worse. I've lost track of how many drivers that monstrosity tried to kill in the past.





more useless trivia:
TMS was supposed to host the Firestone Firehawk 600, a CART race, on April 29, 2001..

21 of the 25 drivers who qualified for the race complained of dizziness and disorientation during two days of practice. They had expected speeds well above 220 mph, and in fact the lowest qualifying speed was 219 mph. During Saturday practice, several drivers complained of lightheadedness and dizziness. Drivers experienced G forces as high as 5.5; a G-load in the 3's is considered the maximum that a driver can endure in a typical race.

With the possibility of drivers blacking out on the track, CART postponed the race two hours before the scheduled start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Motor_Speedway

^^^Which of CART's talking heads du jour was to blame for that one, Booby Rahal or Jargon Joe Heitzler?

Wasn't it also at TMS that Robby Unser went skidding down the front straight on his lid in an IRL race... late 90's maybe? TMS is also the track where Kenny Brack ate it and almost died.

For open wheel cars, TMS is the closest thing to the old board tracks that I can think of.

__________________
"Tweeter was a Boyscout before she went to Vietnam and found out the hard way... nobody gives a d@mn."