Now that CART has changed thier specs to match the IRL's, with the hope of making it easier for their teams to run Indy, what should the IRL's response be?
I think TG has an excellent opportunity to take advantage of this by extracting a heavy price from CART teams that want to cherry pick the race. The Leader's Circle concept is a good start, but I think for 2003 one thing he should do is make non-Leaders circle entry fee a much higher number, say something like 50K or 70K per tub. It would also open up the opportunity to have two tier pricing for other things like suites and catering. Overall, I would use the CART teams stated need to be at Indy, to extract the maximum amount of money possible from them and turn around and invest it into the IRL.
As for the effect on the IRL, I think to protect the smaller teams, I'd give any of the top 20 IRL driver/car owner combinations that do not qualify in the top 33 a provisional starting spot at the rear of the field. There would still be bumping of non-IRL regulars and additional cars entered by IRL teams, but the core of the IRL grid will be secure and the extra entries from CART have little effect on the IRL (other than add more revenues from fees and such.)
I think TG has an excellent opportunity to take advantage of this by extracting a heavy price from CART teams that want to cherry pick the race. The Leader's Circle concept is a good start, but I think for 2003 one thing he should do is make non-Leaders circle entry fee a much higher number, say something like 50K or 70K per tub. It would also open up the opportunity to have two tier pricing for other things like suites and catering. Overall, I would use the CART teams stated need to be at Indy, to extract the maximum amount of money possible from them and turn around and invest it into the IRL.
As for the effect on the IRL, I think to protect the smaller teams, I'd give any of the top 20 IRL driver/car owner combinations that do not qualify in the top 33 a provisional starting spot at the rear of the field. There would still be bumping of non-IRL regulars and additional cars entered by IRL teams, but the core of the IRL grid will be secure and the extra entries from CART have little effect on the IRL (other than add more revenues from fees and such.)
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