What's Next?

Yesterday we saw the marvelous unveiling of Izod as the "first legitimate title sponsor" the league has seen. The now branded Izod Indycar Series (has a nice ring to it I think) got a big boost yesterday and is now in a much better position in the minds of fans and anyone related to the IRL and ICS, as well as financially. Obviously this isn't the thing that means the IRL will suddenly rise to the top of the motorsports scene, but it's a start. It's a partner who believes in the Indycar Series and is willing to put major dough behind it to increase it's profile in North America.

Izod sees the IICS as "an amazing sport with so many different stories and we see it as an under-developed asset and brand." I have not heard sponsors speak so highly (while at the same time, demeaning) of the series, and referring to it as an asset. Of course, company's that throw money around to sponsor the IRL or their teams obviously regard it as an asset, or they wouldn't do it, but I think this is the first time I've actually seen a company refer to the IRL as an asset in public.

That's one announcement down, but what is next in the "Hey, look! The sun is out everyone!" Izod Indycar Series? I mean, we've been strung along for a while now in regards to the Title Sponsorship, while there are obviously more announcements that need to be made.

So, first of all, Brazil needs to be announced. Whether that means that we are announcing the cancellation of the race, or the location of the confirmed race, fans and sponsors need to hear something, positive or negative, soon. This race is spinning out of control, and it is making the IRL look bad right now, and they are hurting other peoples plans for the race and 2010 season. Right now, anyone in North America is most likely holding off to book their flights down to Rio, or wherever this race might occur, simply so they don't get stuck with a plane ticket for the trip down for a nice 3 day vacation with no racing. Aside from that, De Ferran Motorsports is waiting word regarding the Brazil race to determine their 2010 plans. When Curt Cavin said that Gil de Ferran was bringing his team to Indycars in 2010, it would be with APEX-Brazil money for one car and possibly Formula Dream for the other. I would think that APEX-Brazil wants to make sure they have a race in Brazil before they dish out the money to support a full year effort with de Ferran.

Next on the list of announcements is the future of the Dallara and Honda engines. It's been a while since this has seen the mainstream on Indycar news, simply because of the Brazil and Title Sponsor/Izod rumors and news, but this is still obviously a big concern for Indycar fans. People are getting antsy, and simply want to know the deadline for a new car to hit ovals and road courses in North America. It's such a long and drawn out process that seemed like it was going well when the IRL held those engine discussion groups a while back, but since then, not much has happened. Just rumors of people not being interested, except the Audi/VW/Porsche group. Hey, IRL, atleast give us the feeling you're still working on this. Leak some rumors out to Curt Cavin or something, just get this back in the news, please. We want more manufacturers of both engines and chassis', and I'd think Izod does too.

Another announcement that needs to be looked at is the US-F2000 series and the FIL series. A schedule has been announced for the US-F2000 series which is good, however, not much else. But I'm more concerned with how this fits into the future ladder of North America's open wheel scene. There were rumors that Mazda would be involved with the US-F2000 series, and that they would also badge the Firestone Indy Lights series engines as a way to re-structure their ladder system to the AOWR big leagues (ie: IRL). Getting Mazda into the FIL series would be a big plus money wise and promotion wise. They were big in Champ Car during it's final season, even though they weren't the engine manufacturers. They provided money to advertising, and ran commercials at most, if not all races. They are currently the Atlantic Series engine badger, but they must be realizing, as we all are now (unfortunately) that the Atlantic Series is on it's last legs. If they want to continue providing a path to the Indy 500, they need to be in the US-F2000 series and the Firestone Indy Lights series. And simply put, the Firestone Indy Lights need an automotive giant to provide the engines. They've been nameless too long.

And the last announcement I am hoping for, and is almost nessicary based on the TV Ratings this year, is the NBC/Comcast deal. It's rumored the takeover of NBC by Comcast is imminent, and TV experts see a new Comcast NBC with Versus by it's side as a potential terror for ESPN and ESPN2. If we can get involved with NBC somehow, instead of ABC who could care less about us, we would be in much better shape then we are right now, and people would be a lot more willing to invest in the IRL knowing about a connection to network television.

Hopefully we hear about all this stuff soon, as we are on a wave of momentum right now. The IRL needs to ride this as best they can and approach all opportunities positively, and with an open mind. If they do that, we'll be good for a while, and will have the opportunity to grow back to what AOWR used to be.

FIL & ICS Together?

With the weekend off in the Indycar series, I know alot of Indycar fans were searching hard for something fast to watch. I know alot of the bloggers and fans on Twitter were watching the ALMS race at Lime Rock on Sunday, we even had a blogger attend the event who produced some nice news on the ALMS teams to ICS for 2010 in guest writer for MyNameIsIRL, Declan Brennan.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to talk about IRL news and notes, rumors, and to discuss major topics Indycar fans were talking about. And this past weekend, one of the things I saw alot of people discuss on Twitter and some forums was running the Firestone Indy Lights and Indycar Series together during races, a la ALMS. So now, I shall provide my opinion on this subject for you lucky readers.

First of all, this would provide a high level of excitement, just as it does in the ALMS. It would provide plenty of passing between classes, and would add some slower traffic to create dramatic passing opportunities. Watching two prototypes in the ALMS battling for the lead coming up on a couple of GT2 cars adds a little suspense to the race. That could of course translate to excitement and drama in the IRL as well.

On top of all of that, with the decent ICS car count, but a diminishing FIL car count, it would definately fill the track up and put about 40 cars on track. It would give the appearance that the fields are much larger and would give the fans at the track action all the time. That can't be a negative, even if the track gets a little crowded.

Running the FIL cars with the IRL cars would add the sponsorship value for the Lights as they would get a hell of a lot more exposure for the races. Running with the big boys can only help the exposure and bring in more money through sponsorship and butts in the seats.

Of course, this could only work on the road and street courses as the speeds on the ovals would just be too different. I wouldn't want Mario Moraes trying to get three wide with 2 Indy Lights cars at Kentucky Speedway. I love Mario, but I don't trust him to run 2 wide with another IRL car (ask Marco about that) and the rate of closing speed on an oval would be way too high.

Even in the ALMS, some of the prototype drivers complain about the skill level of the GT guys and their ability to get out of the way. They also think the rate of closing is too great even on road courses. Think about it in the IRL. The FIL is a development series for the ICS, where as the GT categories in ALMS are not a development series. The talent gap between FIL and ICS must be much greater then the gap between the prototypes and GT cars. Add to that, the fact that the ALMS runs fenders and closed wheels, if an inexperienced GT driver happens to get into the side of a prototype, it may cost the P1/P2 car a bit of time a bit of damage, but that is it. If you get an inexperienced FIL driver locking wheels with Scott Dixon, you have the potential for an airborn Dallara and a high risk of injury. Sure, racing is dangerous, but, we do the best we can to lower the danger, and FIL with ICS isn't a good idea for safety.

On top of all that, the FIL cars would have to be redesigned to either accept a much larger fuel cell or to accept in-race refueling, which would mean adding a bunch of members to the team, adding salaries which would boost up the budget for a FIL team. That would defeat the purpose of a low cost training grounds for a bunch of young guns trying to move up the ICS. And if you want to do pitstops for the FIL cars, you have to find a hell of a lot more pit boxes.

Take away the FIL race, and you're searching for another support race. We are hurting for support races in the first place at most tracks, and losing the FIL race would hurt the race weekends even more.

Basically, I can't see how this would work. I think it would be very exciting to watch, but, the safety would overrule any positives we could pull out of it. I doubt there is any talk at all from the IRL's perspective of doing this anyway. Just the pure danger of touching wheels and getting airborn is what will shoot this idea down if anyone ever brings it up.

For those who brought it up, on paper it looks good, but once we get to the details, it just doesn't work out. Atleast people are thinking of ways to improve the product though, which we can't stop doing. It's our job to push the IRL to think and try new things which will increase the excitement and fun on race weekends.

It's Race Time, Sorta

Well the race weekend is upon us, with practice for the Indy Lights starting at 11am EST. I woke up after a nice sleep in, and hopped over to indycar.com to watch some of what I figured should be the ICS practice. I got there, opened up the Timing & Scoring with the video feed in the background, and wait for it, wait for it, any second now cars should be screaming down Shoreline Drive. What do I get? Lauren Bohlander and another Up To Speed episode (mind you, the Up To Speed graphics are largely improved from last year and a nice touch).

So I'm sitting here thinking to myself why the practice sessions aren't online. I decided to restart both T&S and the live feed, and still nothing. Great, something must have happened. It's almost 11am and the cars aren't on track. Is there a riot? Maybe cows on track? Perhaps the Celebrity Pro Race practice caused Alex Trebek to forget about Final Jeopardy?

Then I realized I was being stupid and it was only 8am at Long Beach so the cars shouldn't be anywhere near the track.

Great, so I'm still sitting here bored. I read through IRL-O-Rama's warning to MyNameIsIRL to kill sometime. I read through my daily forums to see what people were chattering about. Lots of crazy stuff going on there, someone saying Milka is only doing ovals with NHL (which could explain why Arctic Ice is still on Graham's car, a sponsor Milka supposedly brought with her). Not a lot of chatter regarding the Helio case though which people thought would be the biggest storyline this year. I'm somewhat surprised there isn't much on the case and the situation that surrounds it with Will Power at Penske, I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Seems like Justin Wilson got the results he needed at St. Petes to get Z-Lines to sign back on with DCR for the rest of the season. JDub is now driving the number 18 Z-Lines car instead of the number 19 Sonny's BBQ car as he did last weekend. This opens up the Rockstar Energy Drink/Tomas Scheckter to Dale Coyne Racing possibility, and gives Dale the ability to run two cars whether Rockstar shows up or not. Hopefully we see Dale Coyne Racing run two cars from the I500 on.

Speaking of Dale Coyne, I sort of wish he would start up a FIL team. I would think they'd have great success running an Indy Lights team with their resourcefulness, and it would give his extra men a place to work if needed to. Sorry to bring this up, but I just like Dale Coyne Racing and the character that team produces.

Well, I've just reopened the Live Feed from Indycar.com to see the FIL cars are on track. Series leader Junior Strous just caused a full course caution by running into the run off area without any contact. Strous has to be considered a favorite here with 2 wins in St. Petes and he is one of the most experienced guys at Long Beach.

Boy, looking at that track as the cars go by reminds me of why it's such a wonderful race. The scenery from on board shots is awesome, and just remembering seeing some of those old CART races where guys are battling down to the wire like this 1998 Long Beach race.



I love seeing the cars slide around like that, the control the drivers had to have back then. I hope when we move to a new chassis/engine combo we can get back to some of those 'driving on the edge' moments.

Anyways, back to the FIL practice, Junior Strous just caused another full course caution. Maybe I should change my favorite to James Hinchcliffe who does have more experience at LB then Strous, and hasn't caused 2 full course cautions in the same spot today. Hinch is also ontop of the timesheets at the moment by .2 seconds. It seems that Long Beach experience is going to help the FIL drivers as the top 4 at the moment and 6 of the top 10 all have prior experience at the track. I wonder if that will cross over to the big boys or not, or whether the extra 30 minutes of practice for rookies/drivers not in the top 10 will rectify that.

I must say, there is no audio asides from a terribly annoying continuous beep. It caused me to turn off the audio, it's been doing it for a while now.

Anyways, I will wrap this entry up as it has gotten pretty long. ICS practice later today!

Atlantic Invitation?

One of the IRL problems on ovals is the lack of support races for their races. I'm not really sure who usually runs with them at oval asides from ICS and FIL cars but obviously 2 races isn't enough to keep the schedule filled up. Back in the day, CART used to run Atlantics, Indy Lights, Star Mazda then run the feature race. That usually managed to fill up the race weekend schedule pretty well and gave the fans a bang for their buck.

But the last few years in the IRL, fans would either be forced to sit around between the FIL and ICS race because there were no other series on track. Gaps for 2 to 4 hours would and still do haunt the series because they just don't have any other oval series to help them fill up the schedule.

The Atlantic series has just been sold to Ben Johnston, and he is plunging some dough into the series. He just put up $3 Million in cash purses for the entire season while the Champion will receive $1 Million to do whatever he chooses with (unlike the past Atlantics/CC driver "sponsorship" of $2 Million). While the announcements have been slow in regards to drivers and teams entering the series this year, it is starting to come around, and once the tests today and tomorrow at Palm Beach International Raceway are completed, I expect the announcements to pick up substantially.

However, as what is still primarily a feeder series, Atlantics doesn't have a clear series to feed to. Many of the drivers want to progress in AOWR, however, their old link to Champ Car is now gone. Meanwhile, the series is now sanctioned by IMSA, who also runs the ALMS, so that connection is now available. However, the drivers still want to run open-wheel when they are done Atlantics.

Tony George, if he can swallow a little pride, would be considered genius if he would welcome Atlantics (and Star Mazda) to run a couple of their oval races, maybe Milwaukee, Richmond, and one of the 1.5 mile tracks. In one invitation, if the Atlantics accept of course, he would help fill the race weekends, he would create another semi-feeder series in the Atlantics series, since drivers and teams would see a direct link to the IRL once they start running the same tracks. He would create a larger talent pool for teams to draw from. On top of that, he doesn't have to fund anything in the Atlantics series since Ben Johnston seems to be doing that just find.

The Atlantic series is part of the history of AOWR and deserves to still be involved for developing drivers for the I500 and the IRL needs to recognize that. And while TG and the IRL can allow the Atlantics that rightful place in AOWR, he can also use them at the same time, to encourage series winners and standouts to look towards the IRL with their prize money and at the same time, teach some young North Americans to run ovals which will populate the ICS with more talented drivers.

The only question is, can Mr. George swallow some of that pride from the split and ask the Atlantics to join them now and then? If he can, I think it would be considered a major win for the development of Americans, and all drivers in open-wheel. If he can't, it just shows that TG refuses to put the past in the past and lose a valuable opportunity.

A Little Canadian Content

After countless emails and complaints, I must have finally gotten through to someone in the IRL. I've been hounding them constantly telling them "less Americans, more Canadians". Finally they have answered my pleas.

Turns out James Hinchcliffe of Hinchtown, Canada will be running the lucky number 7 (better then Viso's idea of luck) for Sam Schmidt Motorsports in the Firestone Indy Lights series.

Some of you might have heard of James, he has quite the Open-Wheel resumé.

• Rookie of the Year, Formula BMW USA - 2004


• Star Mazda, Series 3rd, 3 Wins - 2005


• Atlantics, Best Series Finish of 4th, multiple wins and pole positions - 2006 to 2008


• A1GP, Multiple Podiums - 2007-2008

James is one of the most personable characters you'll meet and quite possibly one of the funniest as well. In 2006 and 2007 he did work on the International CCWS race feeds doing commentary and I'd say he was better then the American CCWS commentary on most weeks.

Hopefully James will be kicking ass in the FIL series as he definately has the experience on road courses, and he seemed to enjoy his first experience on ovals.

"Ovals are obviously a new thing for me, but I have enjoyed them more than I
thought I would. It is a completely different skill set, and I know I have
a ton to learn, but with the experience of guys like (team owner) Sam Schmidt,
(engineer) Tim Neff, and (team manager) Chris Griffis behind me, I know that my
oval education is in great hands." - Firestone Indy
Lights Site

I'm sure Hinch will have some good times this season and will be a joy for the media to follow around now and then. Also, make sure you check out Hinchtown.com throughout the year as I'm sure he'll have some video blogs on there and some funny stuff as well. I know I will do my best to bump into him at the Honda Indy Toronto.