My Rant

[Waiting for May]

Been quiet on this way too long.

It it painfully obvious to everyone here that there is a very large contingent of people here that want to see short track drivers in the IRL.

My rant is that if these drivers really want to be at Indy in an Indycar, and the reality of the situation is that Indy Car racing has been dominated by drivers with a road racing background for the past twenty years give or take, why don't the guys and gals running on the short tracks sell their equipment and go road racing in the development series? If they have the talent that we (myself included) believe they have, they will kick all of the foreign road racers a***es and get the good Indycar rides.


Don't get me wrong, I am not trying justify the current formula that leads to the IRL, I am simply stating that if road racers have been dominating and if your intention is to win the Indy 500, you NEED to go beat them on their own turf. That is the reality. I may long for the days of seeing a driver run Winchester or IRP on Saturday nights, however, recent history tells us that is simply not going to get it done. Wishing it was different is not going to change anything!!

I completely agree that the IRL desperately needs Americans to sell to the public. However, if the young americans really want to be at Indy, why in the world would they go short track racing if history tells us that they would have a better chance if they go road racing. One could make a very strong argument that road racing provides excellent training for Indycars (Mansell, Fittipaldi, Cheever, Rahal, even Hornish).

Get more Americans in road racing if that is what the car owners want!!!

[BSJracing]

couldn't agree more.

[MicroRacer]

Re: My Rant

Originally posted by Waiting for May
why don't the guys and gals running on the short tracks sell their equipment and go road racing in the development series? !

It's pretty simple really. Most of these guys and gals are getting paid to race sprints, midgets, and silver crown cars. They don't own them to sell them. I'm talking the top drivers.

How well does the developemnt road racing series pay and can you continue to raise a family on it.

[slinger]

Re: Re: My Rant

Originally posted by MicroRacer
It's pretty simple really. Most of these guys and gals are getting paid to race sprints, midgets, and silver crown cars. They don't own them to sell them. I'm talking the top drivers.

How well does the developemnt road racing series pay and can you continue to raise a family on it.

You'll never get a satisfactory answer to that one.

[Waiting for May]

How well does the developemnt road racing series pay and can you continue to raise a family on it.


Now we are into a question of sacrifice and how bad do you want it. I am sure every one of us at some time or another wanted to be a race car driver. Some of us pursed it and quit, some never pursued it, and some got only so far. Maybe some of us got married, had kids and so forth. I respect anyone who choses the right thing to do for their family, no question. But again, if your lot in life dictates that you shouldn't get married and have kids because it may cause you to give up your dream of being on the Borg-Warner, they you have a choice to make whether you want to be married, or put it off.

I do not know the personal history of every driver in the IRL, however, I have heard it spoken about the sacrifices made by some of the drivers (Tony Kanaan locked in a garage).

Valid point, however I have to ask, "How bad do you want it?"

[slinger]

Brazil is one thing and the US is another. Like it or not, most racing in this country is on oval oval tracks. Most road racing at the grass roots level is in non spectator events. If an American road racer comes to the IRL, he brings no fans with him. He doesn't increase the TV ratings. Foreign road racers don't either. In contrast, the short tracker might well do both. Who is better for the series?

[Professor Joe]

Originally posted by Waiting for May
Now we are into a question of sacrifice and how bad do you want it.

Which leads to the question of whether Indy car racing circa 2003 is WORTH any sacrifice from these drivers given the superior earning ability of these drivers in NASCAR series.

Outside the Indy 500, the earning potential per race in Indy car racing is about equal to that of the BGN series with only half the spots and only half the races available. Thus, there is more opportunity for more professional race drivers to make a better living in BGN. And, that is just from race winnings. By any measure, BGN is more lucrative in the merchandising of the drivers as well.

Given that, if you were JJ Yeley - a professional race driver - and you had Ford willing to finance your route into the most lucrative racing organization in the world (don't try to stick F1 in here - MS is the only driver in F1 making more money overall than NASCAR's best), or you could give it all up and take a chance that owners that ignored you while you set a national record for victories in one of the most competitive US racing sanctions would give you a chance after a season in droning formula cars, which would you do?

Professor Joe - the King of the run-on sentence!

[PHJIndy]

Deja vu!!!!

[Waiting for May]

No argument here about the earnings potential.

However, earning potential versus passion for what you are doing are two entirely different things. If everyones desire was to make as much money as possible there would be no teachers, police officers, or many other key careers. Eventually everyone reaches a point of where we chose to work for money only or work for satisfaction and personal fulfillment. If you choose money only, don't bellyache about why you can't realize your dreams, you CHOSE the money route.

Again, it comes down to willingness to sacrifice. Do you really think AJ Foyt, Scott Brayton, Eddie Sachs, Johnny Rutherford, Al Unser Jr., the Bettenhausens, and countless others were thinking about how much money they could make by chasing after their dreams of winning the Indy 500. I don't think they were really thinking about having a private jet when they were coming up, they were thinking about the taste of milk on Sunday afternoon.

Again I ask, how bad do they want it. If you aren't willing to make the sacrifices, they quit whining when someone else choses to make those sacrifices.

[Shadow101]

Many valid points from everyone here. I would guess that a development series does not pay well at all, because it is a development series. The big payoff, hopefully, is at the next level.

Yes, many may be making a decent living in their current USAC/WoO/DIRT career. So the question, as pointed out, is how bad do you want it? Are you willing to sacrifice some short term income for a bigger potential pile of money down the road? Not an easy decision, but it's not exclusive to the race driver community. We all have to make such decisions at some point(s) in our lives.

If a true development path was available, then certainly I believe more dirt/pavement OW guys would take the shot. Perhaps TG will get this - he needs to develop a true OW "farm" system to develop the talent needed to sustain the future growth of his series. Which should include both dirt, oval, and road course talent.

NASCAR does it already quite well with all of their affiliated lower level series, and they also poach other series quite strategically - Stewart, Newman, etc.

Or perhaps USAC/WoO/DIRT will wake up and offer their own development series as a way to get their drivers the right amount of rear engine experience for the big leauges. The front engine Indy car, sad to say, is probably not coming back so someone needs to bite the bullet and give these guys the appropriate platform to gain experience. I know this is a stretch because the aforementioned sanctioning bodies seem to be their own worst enemies but maybe someone will see the light.

[MicroRacer]

What most of you don't realize is that most the top USAC drivers are not rich people. They have to race to make enough money to live. How in the world are they supposed to make enough money to fight the rich kids in the road racing feeder series?

[BSJracing]

Originally posted by MicroRacer
What most of you don't realize is that most the top USAC drivers are not rich people. They have to race to make enough money to live. How in the world are they supposed to make enough money to fight the rich kids in the road racing feeder series?

See Tony Kanaan's story...

[Professor Joe]

Originally posted by Waiting for May

Again, it comes down to willingness to sacrifice. Do you really think AJ Foyt, Scott Brayton, Eddie Sachs, Johnny Rutherford, Al Unser [EDIT], the Bettenhausens, and countless others were thinking about how much money they could make by chasing after their dreams of winning the Indy 500. I don't think they were really thinking about having a private jet when they were coming up, they were thinking about the taste of milk on Sunday afternoon.

They didn't have to sacrifice as it came to their racing profession. They all came through the most lucrative series at the time and progressed straight up the ladder to USAC Championship cars. They came up at the time when mostly you moved up to higher levels by winning at the lower levels.

[Waiting for May]

Originally posted by BSJracing
See Tony Kanaan's story...

I am confident that he is not the only one

[BSJracing]

Originally posted by Waiting for May
I am confident that he is not the only one

he's not, it was just an example