SPEED, Vasser, Varsha and....

[irloyal]

other items of lessening importance. IMHO
I thought it was a hoot yeaterday when SPEED fawned all over themselves during the speed report, reporting on their relevance as part of the history of Champ Car

I also thought it interesting when SPEED interviewed a 10th place finishing, retired, journeyman driver who had been once made it to the championship of CC. A guy who had bad mouthed the IRL, once said "WHO NEEDS MILK?" and asked for his thoughts on reunification (SPEED's choice for the death of CC, not mine) and the guy says he hopes the IRL will take on all the things that made CART/OWRS/CC so great.

In the spirit of KUMBAYAA, Vasser then expounds the virtue of street circuits, Turbocharged engines, the DP-01, push to pass, and option tires. Of course Varsha and the other SPEED new goon agree with him

I couldn't care less whether the IRL uses turbo/non-turbo engines. That is irrelevant to the series. What the series needs (Again IMHO) is a good engine formula that allows for more than one engine.

Street circuits are a joke, and we have too many already with Tampa, Detroit, and now LB and Edmonton.

Push to pass is a gimmick for crappy street circuits where you can't pass.

The DP-01 is just a chassis. If it works and is safe who cares?

And finally the option tire. I think the option tire is fine. I agree that it is one more tool from the tool kit for going fast. Just supply enough option tires so if all the teams decide that they want to use it instead of the primary, then everybody has enough of them for the entire race. Force-feeding the use of one set of each is STUPID!

[midtown]

And I thought I was the only one, irloyal.

[SteveK51]

Boy,those option tires and P2P sure made for some entertaining racing yesterday, didn't they? Zzzz...

[jdessar]

You know what the series really needs?

Fans, lots and lots of fans.

And drivers that people care about.

I have seen a lot more news about Graham Rahal and Danica Patrick then I ever have about DP-01 chassis, red wall tires, etc.

Doesn't that show what matters most?

[brickyard1911]

You know what the series really needs?

Fans, lots and lots of fans.

And drivers that people care about.

I have seen a lot more news about Graham Rahal and Danica Patrick then I ever have about DP-01 chassis, red wall tires, etc.

Doesn't that show what matters most?

Only to the fans. The talking heads needs gimmicks to talk about.

[MarkDonohueFan]

Sure Speed TV loved Champ Car. Why? It and CART existing after about 1999 gave NASCAR the perfect quarrel in open wheel they needed to make sure stock cars became synonomous with racing in North America. Then Speed cowered and submitted to all things stock car as NASCAR wanted them to starting in about 2005.

One series. All of the Stars. Now it is our duty going forward to not endorse Speed TV by not watching Speed TV. Time to grow together and without Speed TV.

[Brickman]

People will be lobbying for what they like and don't like. I don't like either chassis, don't like red tires, don't like push to pass. Don't mind turbos.

There... said what I thought, wait two years and see if anythings comes from it.

[irnlsfan]

If all these things were so great, why was yesterday your last race Jimmy? :kk

[NoviVespa]

I watched the LB race. What struck me is that the red wall tires are supposed to have more grip. Late in the race one car had those tires, while the rest of the field were on the black wall tires. The guy on the reds was falling further and further behind with cars passing him. Where did that more grip advantage go?

I posted this at SpeedForum. I said that using the reds was like adding 100 lbs. to a car as a handicapping device. What I got as a response was that this added to the strategies of the race.

[XR1000]

If all these things were so great, why was yesterday your last race Jimmy? :kk

!!!!

[Vasserfan]

Gee, some folks here need to get over themselves.

Jimmy ran a good race, expressed his opinions.

Jimmy has long been a proponent of the merged series. Is there things about CCWS/CART that he liked and would like to see in the merged series? Yes, so would many of us.

As for "Who needs milk", he apologized a ong time ago, admitted he needed milk and returned to Indy several times.


So, get over your self rightiousness. Jimmy is an asset to the IRL.

And it was great to see him racing yesterday and will be great to see him at Indy in 2009.

[irloyal]

Gee, some folks here need to get over themselves.

Jimmy ran a good race, expressed his opinions.

Jimmy has long been a proponent of the merged series. Is there things about CCWS/CART that he liked and would like to see in the merged series? Yes, so would many of us.

As for "Who needs milk", he apologized a ong time ago, admitted he needed milk and returned to Indy several times.


So, get over your self rightiousness. Jimmy is an asset to the IRL.

And it was great to see him racing yesterday and will be great to see him at Indy in 2009.

Somehow I knew you would think you needed to run to Vasser's defense.

Please, Vassfan, The intent here is not to 'Dis Vasser. You and I have been over this road before. I don't hold him in as high of esteem as you do, but we are each entitled our opinion.

What the intent is here is to point out that SPEED has an over-inflated perception of THIER impact on racing and the had to provide a driver that would re-inforce that. Vasser has made no effort to hide his opinions on the IRL in the past, and SPEED and Varsha knew they could count on him to put out some stuff that would be very pro CC and try to put the IRL "in it's place".

IMHO SPEED will be less relevant to Motorsports with the IRL being a strong partner with ABC/ESPN, and they are bitter guys who just can't get over it.

As to Vasser being an "Asset to the IRL", well I don't think that is necesarily the case, but he's probably not a detriment. As 10% of PKV he's at least got something with some tangible value now, and I doubt he's gonna complain about that.

And as to Indy on '09, well I guess dreams are always worth persuing....

[Jim Wilke]

In my opinion, IMS and ISC will be doing less business with Speed in the future and Varsha and company know that.

[IlliniRacer]

In my opinion, IMS and ISC will be doing less business with Speed in the future and Varsha and company know that.

I agree and I also don't think that is a bad thing.

[Z28]

You know what the series really needs?

Fans, lots and lots of fans.

And drivers that people care about.

I have seen a lot more news about Graham Rahal and Danica Patrick then I ever have about DP-01 chassis, red wall tires, etc.

Doesn't that show what matters most?

Those things are the hardest to add though.

What struck me on SpeedNews wasn't Robin Miller saying that the turbos, P2P, red stripe tires, standing starts etc should be looked at but that street and some RC racing needed something to make them more exciting since for the most part they weren't very good shows. He may not have been kidding last year when he advocated watering those tracks because wet racing made for a better show.

I'm for finding tracks to suit the cars and make for a good show rather than going to questionable gimmicks to alter the cars to make something out of a bad course. The problem I have with street cicuits is the lack of passing, not for position but more so getting through slower and lapped traffic. A car that is obviously faster has one maybe two places on the entire circuit to make a clean pass of even the slowest car. It's not that the lead car is trying to hold up the faster car there just aren't enough places for him to leave room or for the faster car to get next to the slower car and allow him to let off and be passed. There are only a couple of places to just move over and get out of the way and everyone has to wait to get to them.


It's a different story in sportscar racing with the different classes having speed differences. But in the ICS especially now with one engine for all, everyone is very close on speed and acceleration and the distances between the turns short and narrow, moves aren't easy to make.