I'm Still Alive...

Sorry about the lack of a posting the last week or so. Between school, hockey, lacrosse, and my rigorous gym schedule, I've been feeling the pinch. I'll be throwing something up in the next few hours.

In the meantime, take a few minutes to check around the other bloggers articles. There is some good reading to be had at many of the other IRL bloggers listed on the sidebar.

You Call That A TV Schedule?

If you hop on the IRL website, you will see one of the featured articles is the Canadian TV schedule. If I was the IRL, I would be embarrassed to tell Canadians that they have to stay up until 3:30am Monday April 6th to watch the opening race, let alone advertise it on their website like it's a victory for the series.

Now, obviously I'm biased since I live in Canada. I'm sure this story will appeal to Canadians more then any other nationality, but hopefully some of you will still feel our pain.

Us Canadians have been plagued by mediocre coverage of AOWR on TV for a few years now. I understand that CCWS had a bad TV schedule for a few years in the US, and the IRL had a good deal with ESPN going for the last little bit, but we have consistently been given the boot when it comes to television. Either TSN would show the races pieced together to save time or we would have to watch on SPEED, if you got it, and then in CCWS' last year, we watched on The Score, which was maybe the most consistent. However, in Canada, CCWS coverage was never good, and even IRL had tough times on TSN.

Now, with the new TV deal in the States, you would think they would put some more work into Canadian TV as well. Nope, plain and simple. Give it to TSN (thanks ESPN International) and let them air it on tape delay and most likely start the races late due to other events. Or even throw it on TSN2 which Rogers Cable customers (ie: me) don't even get because TSN is too cheap to sell it to them.

So in 2009, instead of being able to watch the races in real time, I'll be stuck watching St. Petes, Long Beach, Kentucky, Motegi, and Homestead at 3:30am and four other races after 11:30pm. These times are all EST by the way.

If I was the IRL, I would be doing my best to hide the fact that Canadians are getting screwed, not advertising it on my homepage. Hell, this TV schedule does as much for Canadians as Mariah Carey does for comedy.

I'm not sure what the TV deals are like in various other countries, but outside of the US and Canada, let me know what time you get the races and how good the quality is.

Kudos to Robin Miller

You know, Robin Miller catches a lot of crap from American Open Wheel Racing fans. I know just about every CCWS fan didn't think he was any good for AOWR, and most IRL don't fancy him either. People come to think that anything posted by Robin Miller is trash and just ignore it, or tear it apart. Hell, go to any motorsports forum after a new RM article is posted on the Speedtv.com page. People are tearing it apart and there are few believers of what he says whether it is positive or negative.

Personally I like Robin Millers work. He has been around the sport much longer then I have been and knows more then most of us do. I read his mailbag every week and enjoy doing so, and usually get angered when he is late with his weekly posting. I wish there was some way to add his work to my sidebar under IRL blogs, but either way, it's safe to say I enjoy his writing and reporting.

But this little posting isn't all about giving Robin Miller a pat on the head for a good day of work. It's more then that.

Some of you just look at the articles, which is all good. But when you stop to think about it, every single time there is a new story on the SpeedTV.com website written by Robin Miller, people talk. Whether they talk positively or negatively about the article, they talk. Even us bloggers usually follow his lead and give our opinions on his recent subject.

Lets stop for a second, and imagine a world where there was no Robin Miller. Asides from Curt Cavin (who also does a wonderful daily Q&A), there aren't a whole lot of people reporting on the IRL or AOWR in general. What would us fans have to talk about in the off-season? Or what about the month of May during Qualifying? How about those AGR team meetings? Would Speed ever even mention AOWR if RM wasn't a guest on Speed Report or Wind Tunnel?

What I'm trying to say is, Robin Miller helps keep the IRL on the map over the off-season. And whether his stories are factual reports, false reports, or simply rumors, people talk about his work over the off-season no matter the situation, and that can only be a good thing. With the lack of IRL promotion in the off-season, we need someone who cares about AOWR to help keep it on the map for us die-hards in the off-season (and for that matter, throughout the season). And we all know that the IRL usually only puts out fluff pieces, whereas atleast RM takes some shots and gives us something to get passionate about.

Let's face it, the off-season minus RM would be much less barable then it already is. I'm happy we have him reporting on the IRL for us, and I hope whether you enjoy his work or not, you all do too.

New Equipment Thoughts

After hearing that there are still 5 (or 3) major car companies still considering joining, or atleast attending the meetings, some things that were said really got me going.

First of all, with or without an economic downturn, we need to get a new equipment package out in 2011. That was the target set up by the ICS and it needs to be attained. Personally, I'm tired of watching speed boats circle IMS, and one of the main things when I decided to follow CCWS drivers and teams over to the ICS was that they had announced they would be introducing a new equipment package in 2010. Well, when bi-mergification occured, they pushed it back to 2011, which was understandable, otherwise you get CCWS teams using cars for two years, then buying a new chassis. So, I could handle that one, but now pushing it back to 2012 would be hurtful to the league. I think we need the new car and new engine package to turn a corner with fans and sponsorship.

And this whole economic mess we are in should not deter the ICS. First of all, all signs point to the economy rebounding late 2009 which gives us plenty of time to get back on track. Second of all, the new engine package and chassis package (along with a new rules package hopefully put together by Tony Cotman) will lower the costs in their series to a point where buying the chassis and running a full season in 2011 (or 2012 as it appears will happen) should actually cost less then running a full season now-a-days.

Ganassi says that it is about $10 Million per car to be up front consistently. So lets say a mid-pack is $6-$7 Million and a third tier operation is about $4-$6 Million. I think NHL Racing was winning the 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 Champ Car World Series Drivers Titles with an approximate $6-$7 Million budget (no source on that, just something I remember reading). The goal of the ICS, especially with the new chassis package unfortunately being spec (this is a story for another day) should be to dramatically lower costs. One thing all the team owners will agree upon from CCWS and the IRL is that the CCWS budgets were lower, and that is one of the things that should be brought into the ICS.

People keep saying that the IRL is such good "bang-for-your-marketing-buck" with these inflated budgets, imagine if the budget were slashed by 30-40%? Add to that better racing and multiple engine suppliers, and you've got yourself people chomping at the bit to enter the series as team owners. Forget about ever having to worry about filling 33 at Indy.

The IRL is simply procrastinating on this one in my opinion. Sure the engine summits are a good idea, but they are taking so long to finalize which is pushing the date of new engine/chassis packages being unveiled. The car package is one area the ICS needs improvement in, so they need to get on it, and they need to dramatically lower operating costs for the teams involved, and that is why this new car is so important.

Bwak Bwak Bwhat?

Well, if all goes according to plan, seems its basically official for Newman/Haas/Lanigan. After racking up two wins in 2008, they will return with cars for Graham Rahal and Robert Doornbos. Seems like a formidable duo for 2009 and it will add to the IRL rookie race too as I am sure they will classify Doornbos as a rookie due to his lack of oval experience.

For those of you IRL fans that don't really know who Robert Doornbos is, he was a multiple race winner in '07 with Minardi USA in Champ Car (basically now HVM). Earlier rumors had him going to HVM to run a second car, but obviously if this holds true (which I feel confident in saying now) he will not be running beside the ICS resident bad boy Ernesto Viso. He had some memorable runs in 2007 and was definately one of the top 5 drivers. He infused the field with some much needed charisma which made the few viewers of the races love him. He even managed to upset Seabass at Mont-Tremblant, look for video below.

Anyways, as a CCWS crossover fan, I'm quite happy to get another one of our drivers into the series even though it could mean losing Justin Wilson. But I'd rather see NHL run 2 cars. Either way it seemed like J-Dub was on the outside looking in, atleast for the NHL seat.

But, listen to this, I was in class today, and some joker in the crowd looked over and saw me surfing on the IRL site and said to me...

"Did you hear Milka Duno was going to be running with NHL in 2009? They are
going to run three cars, Boobies kid, Robert Doorknobs, and Ms. Grand-Am
winner."

I just laughed at him and told him to smoke the hippy hay after class and I continued on with my studies...............

what?

really?

your not serious are you? are you shitting me?

Duno really is running with NHL? She has another sponsor willing to pay out big bucks?

Wow... well, I feel stupid...

Well, I guess we can take it as a positive that NHL will be running 3 cars this year. I wonder if she will be running 08 (02 + 06)? But I mean, it's Newman-Haas-Lanigan, that team is quite possibly one of the more storied teams in AOWR. Driving a NH(L) car is an honour and the list of drivers who drove their cars is splendid.

• Alan Jones
• Mario Andretti
• Teo Fabi
• Paul Tracy
• Nigel Mansell
• Roberto Moreno
• Micheal Andretti
• Christian Fittipaldi
• Christiano da Matta
• Oriol Servia
• Bruno Junqueira
• Sebastien Bourdais
• Graham Rahal
• Justin Wilson

• Robert Doornbos
• uh... Milka Duno?

Well, I guess she can be the first women to lay claim to driving for NHL. And hell, she led more laps last year then Quattro, Power, Carpenter, Bernoldi, Moraes, and Ms. GoDaddy.com. And any feuds between Danica and Milka will have a little more emphasis if Milka is in a competitive ride I guess. Uhm, and maybe D&R can fill her seat with someone more talented? I heard Marty Roth is available.

But in all seriousness, I guess there must be some positives. Maybe Milka was in the same situation Katherine Legge was in with Dale Coyne in CCWS. Legge was always plagued with the sub-par equipment while Bruno would get the top car leaving Legge to run laps down and encounter many mechanical failures. Maybe getting out of a sub-par team like D&R and into a top tier team like NHL will get force her to put up results, as she doesn't have that crutch to lean on when she does poorly.

And you can only assume that if she is still a backmarker with NHL that she will atleast be a little bit more competitive on ovals atleast. Instead of being 7 laps down in a D&R car, she might simply be on the tail end of the lead lap or simply one lap down in an NHL car.

We are also guarenteed 2 more cars with Duno and Doornbos all but confirmed at NHL. And depending on how much moolah Duno is bringing, it might had made the Doornbos deal possible using some carry over cash from Duno to fund part of RD's ride. Let's face it, it seems that either with this new sponsor she is supposed to have lined up to pump money into her system, or with CITGO, Milka Duno was going to be on the 2009 IRL grid whether you like it or not. If Duno at NHL means adding 2 cars instead of Duno at D&R adding 1 car, I'm all for it.

Now, Robert Doornbos and Graham Rahal will still both be very competitive with NHL, but with Milka Duno as the team leader (due to age of course, and perhaps IRL experience), will they be able to hold everything together. There will be towels flying all over the shop in Lincolnshire, and the engineers will know the wrath of a womens scorn. Perhaps it will be a benefit as GR and RD are probably too easy on those engineers anyways.

Now the question shifts to D&R, and whether they manage to wrangle together another car as it seems they were counting on Duno for one of their cars.

"I don't know what we'll end up as, one or two cars, and we're also working on
some single-race deals like Indy and a couple other tracks." Dennis
Reinbold.

Hopefully they can pull together something for Townsend Bell, as I'd love to see him as a full time guy, and it would bump the car count up. Atleast this ride buyer has talent.

Ugh... How Much Longer?

Well, it has been a terribly long time since the season ended, and it feels like an eternity before the season starts up again at St. Pete in April. Over the offseason, we've gotten good news and bad news and no news. Unfortunately this is going to last for a few more weeks before we hit the streets again.

But as much as I want to get going again, I feel that it is imperative that fans don't get lured into wanting to run a schedule comparable to the N-word. On some of the forums I visit, specifically the Talkback forum at Indycar.com, it seems like some people want Indycar to run longer seasons and more races. And while that is good and all, and people are simply stating their opinions, I feel that I should throw my opinion into the mix.

I've felt for a long time that the Indycar season is a couple of races too short. think there are too many great tracks left off the schedule in the series. There are tracks like Cleveland, Road America, New Hampshire, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal), and Portland on the sidelines.

But running a schedule that compares to Nazicars 92 races in 40 weekends is pure insanity. It would drive up operating costs for the teams, fans would lose interest over the course of the season (the same problem that is beginning to occur down south), and it would just be too damn long.

Fans also seem to think that we need our schedule to compete with theirs simply because they start earlier and end later thus they steal a bunch of our spotlight. Well, right now if we want to compete with them, we have some serious problems, and I doubt we would win this one. They are still much stronger then us unfortunately and would squash us if we went out of our way to compete head to head with them.

I believe in the long run, we should be running 22 races from the second week of March until the end of October. This gives us a slightly longer season but still gives us some breaks in between races, thus giving us that compact feel without tiring the teams and the fans out. It also keeps us from competing too long with the NFL.

Here is my ideal 22 track schedule including a couple of courses that just won't leave the schedule. No dates as I'm nowhere smart enough to piece this together, and obviously don't know the tendencies of each specific track.

Current Tracks
St. Pete - S
Long Beach - S
Milwaukee Mile - O
Texas Motor Speedway - O
Watkins Glen - R
Toronto - S
Inidianapolis - O
Edmonton - A
Kentucky - O
Mid-Ohio - R
Chicagoland - O
Motegi - O

Proposed Additions
New Hampshire - O
Cleveland - A
Michigan - O
Pheonix - O
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - R
Portland - R
Laguna Seca - R
Road America - R
Las Vegas - O
Mexico City - R

Well there you have it, my 22 race schedule for the Indycar Series. However, I don't want this implemented asap. Let's give it four or five years until we get growing a bit and then we can piece this together.

Hell, without trying, I even pleased all you folks who think it should be 50/50 (Oval/Twisties), which I disagree with, but that is for another discussion.

If anyone has some issues with my proposed 22 tracks, let me know how you feel in the comments section.