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Originally posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Championship_Car_Racing
I think this isn't completely correct because the CRL did run a few races, with Johnny Rutherford winning both the CRL and CART championships. Even at that, they didn't get off six months worth of racing before we had another "split."
But hey, maybe we can break the record and have a "merger" collapse in even shorter time.
Not that one time makes a historical precedent, both there have been numerous attempts for reconcile the car owners and the speedway, each of which died a horrible death. We don't really need to rehash the history because that's all we otherwise do anyway, so let's see what is working against a "merger," and why I think it's a bad idea doomed to fail......yet again.
Remember that equivalency formulas almost never work, so it's probably impossible for both series to use their existing equipment in a joint series. Either the champcar will have an advantage or the IRL car will, and that will probably be different from track to track. It might produce some wild racing with unpredictable results, but it's even more likely it will have 50% of the field carping about inequitable rules.
So, do we use the existing champcars? Uhh, no. They are old cars, and an antiquated design, ready to be retired. Oh, champcar fans would love it, but the cars are absolutely whipped out. Hey, that's why they are replacing the damm things, right?
Or do we use the current Indycars? Uhhhhh, no. Personally, I like the things, but the package is way too expensive. While any car will fly given the right AOA and velocity, these cars have gotten up in the air a little too often. It's time to replace these things too.
So, do we use a new Indycar design? Uhh, no. Panoz is already scheduled (and contracted) to build the new champcar, so if something else is adopted, he's going to get screwed. Surely he's going to be approved as a manufacturer for any new Indycar, but it's not the same thing as having the exclusive champcar market.
So, do we use the new Panoz DP01 champcar? Uh, no. It's a skanky looking sled and we'de be screwing Dallara unless they were approved too. Then, unless Panoz was allowed a clean sheet of paper, he'de be getting screwed on that too because the DP01 was purpose designed to race strictly against itself and was designed to be a good spec racercar, not a car designed to beat anything else. So now, Panoz has to throw away the work they've done and start over.
OK, then how about a brand new car? Ha, look at the squeeling that the teams have to replace their cars now! Imagine if every team in the paddock of both series has to sh*tcan everything they own and buy all new cars and engines!
And you can apply the same arguments towards IPS and Atlantics.
All this pie in the sky merger sillyness makes for great fodder, but it has so many things working against it that I think it's a horrible idea. Maybe a few years down the road if we start planning now, but sweeping all the existing equipment under the rug isn't going to swell the grids.....and a junkyard formula that tries to equate the existing cars will be a big joke.
No matter what, there are going to be contracts broken to Panoz, Honda, Dallara, Cosworth........and lord knows what else. There will be buy-out clauses excersised all over the place or there's going to be a hell of allot of lawsuits.....................and even more bickering than we've had over the last 10 years.
And then, even if a merger is successful, what would we have? One of the series owners selling engines and owning and promoting races? We'de have a foreigner with a voice in the running of American championship car racing? Any sort of merger would put us right back to where we were with what was so supposedly evil with cart 1995.
If we are going back to that, why the hell did the whole thing have to be blown up to start with? Throw everything into turmoil just to go back to what we had?
All of this was for nothing? I have to think long and hard to detirmine if I give a good damm anymore.
Really, I'm disgusted with the whole mess.
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