Ford to IRL??

[stretch51]

How about this one.

rpm.espn.com quoted a story from Reuters stating that Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi is re-upping with Arrows for 2002. The last line states that Arrows is going from Asiatech to the Cosworth engine. Cosworth is run by Jaguar in F1. Jaguar is .... Ford. Can Walkinsaw and all his cronies be ready to invite the blue oval to the IRL?

[Truth Detector]

Until they do I've bought my last Ford.

[slinger]

I doubt that we'll see Ford anytime soon.I wouldn't try to make much out of the Arrows arrangement with Cosworth to supply engines.Walkinshaw has a long history of having his fingers in a bunch of unrelated pies.Remember that he is doing the Infiniti Indy engine and that is owned by Nissan which is owned by Renault who is also in F1 and is a competitor of Arrows and Jaguar.Trying to make sense out of Walkinshaw's various customer arrangements and alliances is like trying to figure out an incestuous family tree.Everybody is cousin to everybody else and one may find himself to be his own uncle.

[Ted]

In terms of dollars I wonder who is bigger Tom W. or Ron Dennis (McLaren)?

[Mackie]

Originally posted by Truth Detector:
<STRONG>Until they do I've bought my last Ford.</STRONG>

Me too, and I wrote and told them so, and detailed the number of Fords bought by me and members of my family in the last twenty years, fifteen of them, all top of the line cars. I love my new Isuzu Rodeo, it is easy to forget the two Explorers.

The deal Arrows gets isn't for the latest version of the Cosworth, the one run in the Jag. Ford will eventually give in and come to the IRL, but they are spotting the others way too much time. When they do come, I expect incentives from the manufactures to lure the top teams. I don't think it will ever get to the point it did in CART, but it will add funding to the teams.

[indyracer56]

With the financial trouble Ford is in, I wouldn't be suprised to see them pull out of all racing, except NASCAR.

When you are letting over 30,000 workers go, closing at least 4 plants, dropping car lines, etc. I would think millions and millions spent on racing would be the next to go.

[mbilek]

BTW,

I talked with the head of Dodge racing PR. They are NOT working on an IRL engine at this time and have no plans to do so. Maserati on the other hand was very tight-lipped about their racing plans. They will race again the the US to back their return to selling cars (at Ferrari dealerships). However, they will not race in a series that Ferrari competes in.

Let's see. Ferrari races in LeMans style races. That leaves either Cup, Cart, or the IRL. I can guess that it won't be Cup as they require cars and engines. So I guess that it is between Cart and the IRL.

markbilek

[Dr. Austin]

It looks good for Chevy to win the 500 this year. I just can't see Ford sitting on the sidelines and letting them have a clear path forever. If CART (or when) goes belly up, Ford will have to have a presense in US openwheeled racing. It will just be a sweet bonus that they will be in the big show.

We can only hope Ford has got something on the dyno right now. There is a lead time for eligibility, but i am unsure how long that is. They need to get on the stick. If they are waiting to see which series survives before making a committment, they are going to get way behind.

Who doesn't want to see a Ford/Chevy battle to the wire at the 500? God for the two companies and good for the sport. Like Miles always says, "battle of the brands, baby!"

[al1234]

indy56,

Ford will not pull out of Formula 1. An F1 presence is absolutely 100% essential if you're going to have a marketing presence in the EU and Asia.

Ford will likely pull out of CART at season's end. But I don't see them coming to the IRL anytime soon.

[JoeBob]

Let's see. Ferrari races in LeMans style races. That leaves either Cup, Cart, or the IRL. I can guess that it won't be Cup as they require cars and engines. So I guess that it is between Cart and the IRL.

IIRC, there are few, if any Ferraris still racing in Grand Am, and even fewer in ALMS. They can't compete in Winston Cup, because NASCAR only allows American manufacturers.

As for Ford, they have a long memory, and won't soon forget what TG did in 1997. (Ford supported the IRL in 1996, supplying engines to anyyone who wanted one when Honda, Toyota and Mercedes(Illmor) wouldn't. (Mercedes supplied Galles in CART in 1996, so Galles used one at Indy, and was the only team to have one). TG and the IRL thanked Ford for their efforts by going with the production-based 4.0L N/A engine spec that GM came up with. The IRL did a lot of stupid things in its early years and ticking off Ford was one of them.

[GlennH]

Originally posted by indyracer56:
<STRONG>With the financial trouble Ford is in, I wouldn't be suprised to see them pull out of all racing, except NASCAR.

When you are letting over 30,000 workers go, closing at least 4 plants, dropping car lines, etc. I would think millions and millions spent on racing would be the next to go.</STRONG>

I'm not sure that logic applies. Compaq continues to dump millions in to F1. I'm not 100% sure of the numbers, but I seem to recall it was $50 million over 5 years. I've lost count of the number of layoffs that we've had and just before Christmas they told us there would be no raises in 2002. But we have $4 billion in the bank, and we're actually going to post a Q4 profit. :mad:

[Dr. Austin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JoeBob:


"The IRL did a lot of stupid things in its early years and ticking off Ford was one of them."

Well, alot of things the IRL did just looked stupid at the time. It all seems to be panning out now, though.

Ford will just have to get over it. If they want to be in the big show, they are going to have to swallow hard and build a motor. Otherwise they are in for years of "Mom, apple pie and chevrolet rout the 500" advertisements. Now THAT would just be too much for them to swallow.

The IRL had no choice than to come up with it's own formula. The CART teams banded together in 1996 and agreed not to sell off their old cars or part to IRL teams. they wanted to snuff out the league by hoarding all the equipment. And Reynard wouldn't build anymore 95 spec cars or parts, so they were stuck. They had to go their own way because it was the only chance they had of getting equipment.

And the speedway could no longer leave themselves subject to the whims of CART's rules makers. Look where CART is now. They have pissed off everybody. Including former CART die-hards like me.

And Ford understands that. I expect them to be back. Sooner is better.

[Mr. Indy]

As a Ford retiree, I am having a difficult time handling what is going on right now at Ford with the layoffs and plant closings and vehicle eliminations. I can attest to Ford doing a lot of stupid things and doing a lot of smart things. I am having difficulty in having my retirement benefits reduced because (1) they promoted an egotistical idiot (based on politics) that wouldn't listen to anyone and really screwed the company up, and (2) because they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in F1 racing while asking me to give up benefits. With all of their costs cutting, they are sure they will return to a $6 BILLION a year profit by 2005. Does that mean they will return my benefits? Yeah right.

I pushed hard on the guy that made the racing decisions at Ford for many years to come to the IRL. They wouldn't budge. Not wanting to cut my nose off to spite my face, I really don't care now if Ford comes to the IRL or not. In fact, knowing on the inside how they do some things, I am not sure I want them to contaminate "MY" racing series. They have bad mouthed (privately) the IRL since its inception, so we don't need them and what do they have to offer anyway? Just another engine. Then maybe some dollars and then they have a foothold we don't need.

[Racewriter]

Originally posted by mbilek:
<STRONG>I talked with the head of Dodge racing PR. They are NOT working on an IRL engine at this time and have no plans to do so. </STRONG>

Not to say that they are, in fact, coming to the IRL, but Lou Patane (head of all Chrysler motorsport at the time, and the guy who ramrodded their NASCAR return) granted me an interview about eight months before Dodge announced its return to Winston Cup. In it, he stated that Dodge had no plans and no development to return to Winston Cup at all. The piece appeared in a magazine called "Racing Milestones." I have a copy of it framed, right next to my copy of the "Dodge returning to Cup" press release. :mad:

In other words, I wouldn't trust what they say...

As far as Ferrari goes, a 360 and a 550 made their US debuts at the Petit Le Mans. Prodrive plans a full racing program and customer versions of the 550, and I believe that customer versions of the 360 are in the works by the other team.

[Mackie]

Racewriter, my son-in-law works for Lou at Evernham Motorsports, where he is now, and I met him the weekend before Christmas at the shop, he has confirmed twice now that Dodge isn't coming to the IRL.