Like it or not, open-wheel racing needs Tony George
This week I came across a story that confirmed the IRL was adding two (and as many as four) road courses to its touring circuit for 2005. My first comment was, "It's about damn time!" Maybe open-wheel racing folks can get past their squabble and get back to providing a good racing product and hopefully good racers.
This doldrum goes back a few decades. Back in the late-1970's Dan Gurney wrote a White Paper on the state of affairs and a new vision for open-wheel racing in America. Gurney's issue centered around USAC's lack of vision and non-existant input allowed from the team owners. He proposed a new sanctioning body where the team owners contributed to decision making, and a commissioner who, interestingly enough, worked on commission. Basically, the owners owned the series and provided the product while the commissioner acted on their behalf to organize and promote the sport. This idea was the beginning of Championship Auto Racing Teams or CART. CART was a publicly traded company, and the racing team owners had controlling interest.
It is hard to tell where CART went wrong, but something did. Despite having legendary racers like AJ Foyt, Al Unser, Mario Andretti, and Emerson Fittipaldi, CART never really expanded. I suspect it's because the owners who provided the product tried to maximize their earnings. In other words, they got greedy, but that should not have been a surprise. After all, Gurney's main inspiration for writing his white paper was the low profitbalitity of owning a race team. With CART, the foxen guarded the proverbial henhouse.
In the mid-1990's, Tony George, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway decided he had enough of these primadonna owners, and formed the Indy Racing League. Without question, the Indy 500 is the 5,000-lb gorilla of open wheel racing. The IRL emphasized a lower-cost spec and exclusive oval racing to keep cost down. To drive the point home, he stripped sanctioning of the Indy 500 from CART and turned it over to the IRL. All qualifiers for the Indy 500 would now have to have competed in a minimum number of IRL-sanctioned events before they could enter the Indy 500. The fury over this announcement was indescribable. George's move essentially castrated CART. CART's answer to the Memorial Day classic was the U.S. 500 held at Michigan.
The damage was done, however. CART had the product, but the IRL had leadership. Over time, CART's attendance and ratings dwindled, they stopped racing on ovals, and their key drivers and teams migrated to the IRL. SNAFU's like the TMS cancellation emphasized the lack of leadership. Even Gurney himself had to pull out in 1999.
As much as I dislike the smug prick, Tony George is to open-wheel racing what Bill France was to stock car racing, a not-always benevolent dictator with a keen sense for expanding a business. Sure he will profit from it, but guys like Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush, and Richard Childress have found ways to make a living from NASCAR too. Bill France and Tony George, while they may be profiteers, have made it possible for all the dogs to get a bigger bite of a bigger steak instead of a bunch of hungry dogs fighting over a bare bone. Moreover, maybe American open-wheel racing can finally be good enough to supply a driver or two to Formula 1.
Now, if we could just figure out how to get more road courses on the NASCAR circuit and how to replace Bud Selig with someone like Bill France...
This doldrum goes back a few decades. Back in the late-1970's Dan Gurney wrote a White Paper on the state of affairs and a new vision for open-wheel racing in America. Gurney's issue centered around USAC's lack of vision and non-existant input allowed from the team owners. He proposed a new sanctioning body where the team owners contributed to decision making, and a commissioner who, interestingly enough, worked on commission. Basically, the owners owned the series and provided the product while the commissioner acted on their behalf to organize and promote the sport. This idea was the beginning of Championship Auto Racing Teams or CART. CART was a publicly traded company, and the racing team owners had controlling interest.
It is hard to tell where CART went wrong, but something did. Despite having legendary racers like AJ Foyt, Al Unser, Mario Andretti, and Emerson Fittipaldi, CART never really expanded. I suspect it's because the owners who provided the product tried to maximize their earnings. In other words, they got greedy, but that should not have been a surprise. After all, Gurney's main inspiration for writing his white paper was the low profitbalitity of owning a race team. With CART, the foxen guarded the proverbial henhouse.
In the mid-1990's, Tony George, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway decided he had enough of these primadonna owners, and formed the Indy Racing League. Without question, the Indy 500 is the 5,000-lb gorilla of open wheel racing. The IRL emphasized a lower-cost spec and exclusive oval racing to keep cost down. To drive the point home, he stripped sanctioning of the Indy 500 from CART and turned it over to the IRL. All qualifiers for the Indy 500 would now have to have competed in a minimum number of IRL-sanctioned events before they could enter the Indy 500. The fury over this announcement was indescribable. George's move essentially castrated CART. CART's answer to the Memorial Day classic was the U.S. 500 held at Michigan.
The damage was done, however. CART had the product, but the IRL had leadership. Over time, CART's attendance and ratings dwindled, they stopped racing on ovals, and their key drivers and teams migrated to the IRL. SNAFU's like the TMS cancellation emphasized the lack of leadership. Even Gurney himself had to pull out in 1999.
As much as I dislike the smug prick, Tony George is to open-wheel racing what Bill France was to stock car racing, a not-always benevolent dictator with a keen sense for expanding a business. Sure he will profit from it, but guys like Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush, and Richard Childress have found ways to make a living from NASCAR too. Bill France and Tony George, while they may be profiteers, have made it possible for all the dogs to get a bigger bite of a bigger steak instead of a bunch of hungry dogs fighting over a bare bone. Moreover, maybe American open-wheel racing can finally be good enough to supply a driver or two to Formula 1.
Now, if we could just figure out how to get more road courses on the NASCAR circuit and how to replace Bud Selig with someone like Bill France...
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