IBJ on CART and IRL

[Tara]

“This is going to be great for the IRL and open-wheel racing. It’s not great anytime anyone in the family dies, but [CART’s situation] was like having someone on life support,” said Zak Brown, president of locally based motorsports marketing consultancy Just Marketing.


“It’s premature at this point to discuss what we would possibly do,” IRL spokesman John Griffin said, adding that the league does have the infrastructure in place for road racing in 2004.

“We’re still working to understand the news coming out of the CART camp,” he said.

http://216.37.14.233/newdaily/html/daily_story120303a.html

[THIRD TURN]

And I remember when the so called business/sports experts at IBJ used to trash the IRL. My how the worm has turned.

[ovals rule]

Originally posted by THIRD TURN
And I remember when the so called business/sports experts at IBJ used to trash the IRL. My how the worm has turned.

I have been a fan from day one but I must admit the IRL was an easy target in the early years.

What is interesting to me is how the whole thing has turned a 180 in the last several years.

[Tara]

Actually the IBJ writing negatively about the IRL in 1996 (from a business perspective) shows that they are fairly acurate and fair in their reporting.

I as well as many other fans did not think the IRL was some great racing series. Heck the first season was only 3 races (later changed to 5). The best know driver was Scott Brayton. They had few big name sponsors.

Fact is me and my friends joked about the no name drivers in 1996, (Buzz Lightyear) with hopes that the IRL (on Indy's coat tails) would grow, and it did.

So now they write about C^RT's death and how that will be good for the IRL. I agree with their assesment.

[Doc Austin]

Validation is Tooooooooooo SweeeeeeeeeeT!!!