Champ Cars & Indy Racing League Merger

[Don]

USA Today Feb 12:

Race is against time in open-wheel merger talks
By A.J. Perez, USA TODAY

As talks continue to end the split in American open-wheel racing between the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series, at least one team might not wait for an accord.

Longtime Champ Car owner Derrick Walker said he's considering taking his two-car operation to the IndyCar Series, a move that would leave Champ Car with as few as 15 confirmed cars if an agreement isn't reached in the coming days to end the 12-year rift between the two Indy-style racing series.

"We're just a small company who is trying to sell our wares, which for us is getting sponsors and going racing," said Walker, who is in discussion to keep his drivers (Will Power and Simon Pagenaud) and main sponsor (Aussie Vineyards) on board if he makes the transition. "That's our business. So we had to look at the IRL and look at the Indy 500, which we thought had a comeback year in 2007."

Walker, however, said he hopes he doesn't have to pick sides, something race fans, drivers and teams have done since the IRL made its debut in 1996. Many within open-wheel racing were cautiously optimistic Sunday that a deal could be worked out before the 2008 season that would merge both organizations under the IRL umbrella.

"Certainly, this is the closest the two organizations have been to finding a way to unify the sport," IRL spokesman Fred Nation said. "Unfortunately, time is short."


IRL founder Tony George and other series officials met with Honda executives in Japan on Monday in hopes of clearing the first major hurdle toward reunification: moving the date of the race at Twin Ring Motegi, the Japanese track owned by Honda.

Champ Car's season-opening Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 20, the USA's biggest open-wheel event outside the Indianapolis 500, takes place the same weekend as Motegi. The LBGP receives clearance from the city to run on its streets a year in advance, making a date change impractical.

"I sure wouldn't want to be the person or entity that stands in the way (of a merger)," said Bobby Rahal, an IRL team owner and Indy 500 winner. "If all that's in the way is moving Motegi to the fall, I sure hope (Honda officials) can see how a merger would benefit everybody."

Moving Motegi's date is just the first step. Merging the rest of the schedule and getting Champ Car teams the IRL's engine and chassis package would need to be worked out quickly since the IRL opens its season March 29.

"When I see it, I'll believe it," Rahal said. "We've been down this road so many times."

[Ron61]

Don,

I just don't see either series surviving much longer. They don't draw many people to the races, the leadership just seems to want to fight, and drivers are going to NASCAR as fast as they can. But NASCAR isn't going to save them if they don't get their own mess straightened up and start gaining back fans. I saw a report on last season and NASCAR lost a huge amount of fan appeal and many sponsors are looking for other things to put their money into. Now we have Sprint Cup and I can't even remember the name of the old Bush Series. And in another year or so of their stupid rules and lack of racing, Sprint will most likely leave. The LeMans series and other types are gaining more and more now.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

Ron,
It is the Nationwide Series.

The Sprint Cup is because Sprint bought Nextel, and are slowly phasing out the Nextel name. First it was Sprint and Nextel toegether, but the 2 really were 2 complete different services. Then Nextel was an option that you could get from Sprint, Do you want Sprint or Nextel service? Really still seperate. Then it was Nextel by Sprint. Nothing more than a service you could get depending on your phone capabilities. Kinda like the power vision vs regular vision. Now, I don't even see Nextel advertised any more, but it is still offered. This is just the next step in phasing out the name completely. I think that Nextel sponsored the series as a last ditch effort to keep in business, but it was already too late.

[Ron61]

Joe,

How long before Nationwide sells out to another company? I just received my tax forms from the broker yesterday and learned that I had some deductible foreign tax and I didn't even know I had any stock in a foreign company, I don't really. It seems that Lucent Technologies was bought by a French company and I got some stock from that. Darn, I can't keep up with what companies own which ones any more.

Ron

[Wayne Maybury]

It was just plain stupidity that the IRL / Champ Car series split up in the first place. Open wheel racing has never been all that popular in the US (except for the Indy 500) then they fragment their product into two competing race series. The only thing that surprises me is that they have lasted this long.

As far as the sponsorship of NASCAR goes, I think that we will continue to see sponsors pull out as NASCAR becomes more of a show and less of a competition. Beyond the locked in 35 cars, how can the rest of the teams ask sponsors for millions of dollars when they don't have much of a chance of even starting the race.

By the way, isn't Rousch Racing cutting back one team next year?

Wayne

[Ron61]

Wayne,

Yes, that was another NASCAR rule. No team may have over 4 cars. I wouldn't be surprised to see him cut back to three. Ray Everham has sold most of his team and said he is not going to be very active as he has just gotten burned out by the continual crap. Give NASCAR three more years of their no racing and all show crap and they will be hunting for a way to survive.
Throw out that dam top 35 rule, let the teams get cars from any dealer and make them safe and then do whatever work they want to make them better like they used to so the team that makes their car the best wins. Do away with the dam yellow phantom caution flags so they can get in their TV commercials and race. Next step will be NASCAR will script who is to win which race. I don't even like it any more and didn't watch any of the stuff so far except the 24 hour Sebring race.

Ron

[Don]

Wayne: Rousch Racing from 5 Teams to 4 Teams, no choice, to conform to the NASCAR mandate that the maximum number of Teams with one owner is 4. Believe their reasoning was to potentially reduce the influence on competition of the high dollar Teams. Realistically, could also be that NASCAR did not want any one dominant Team in a position to challenge the race series rules.

IRL/Champ Car merger: The Indy 500 would also regain some of the past prestige, within the last few years, only 33 cars were available, some at the last moment, for the race. Qualifying was not a concern, missing was the suspense of being on the bubble

NASCAR: With all the cons and dislikes, still remains the dominant race series in the US. Why would Speed have programmed ,with sponsors, 100 hours of coverage for the Daytona Speed Week events ?

Business conditions, marketing reasons and financial concerns change for the race series business sponsors , Craftsman is dropping the sponsorship for the Truck series next year. Anyone's guess whether there will ever again be a sponsor that remained as long as Winston. As much as I enjoy ALMS, the series has a long way to go to have 100,000 + or - fans attend the races and on-going TV coverage by any of the 4 major networks. This year the Rolex 24 had 6+ hours of caution laps, 25% of the race

Included with the specs of the COT is an attempt to level the playing field, time will tell. Joe Nemechek qualified 3rd for the 500 as a single car Team based in OK or NE using a Hendrick engine, sponsored by Furniture Row. Mentioned was their Team had a permanent staff of 4. Robby Gordon is another single car Team, uses Everham engines. After the practice wrecks, Teams were using for this past weekend Saturday night race, their medium/short track cars at Daytona, which would not have been possible with the race cars prior to COT. Johnson's # 48 started at the back and finished 3rd, with a non-super speedway car. Maybe there is some logic that the COT approach will either reduce or stabilize the cost to build a car. But, Teams are also utilizing experts which adds to cost. Michael Waltrip has a PhD aeronautical engineer on his staff to determine the settings of the front splitter and rear wing.

Baseball had it's down times, but recovered, even in Boston which has one of the highest ticket prices of any baseball Team. With Dale JR's win Saturday night, the NASCAR's PR and Marketing Dept's must have been elated.

Will be interesting to revisit the topic in November. Kyle Petty struggled to make it to the top 35, but supports NASCAR's direction to reward those making a commitment to run the entire race series.