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HW's Auto Racing Thread


Pierre the Great

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So did anybody watch one of my favourite days in racing Le Mans?

First time we actually had some sort of challenger for Audi supremacy. Peugeot went diesel but alas just like the morning sunrise Audi still won even with only 1 car left by 10 laps. (other 2 crashed out).

Rumour has is Porsche is getting back into protype racing so we could see an Audi-Peugeot-Porsche battle next year for the 76th running of the most iconic race in racing.

And here's a shocker the Corvette C6.R team lost! lol as if it couldn't get any worse for GM. The Aston Martin DBR9 beat the iconic yellow vets by a lap.

In F1 the rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton won again! I'm beginning to think Alonso is getting pissed. Here's the defending champion for the past 2 years signing this huge contract to race for Macleran Mercedes and then he gets upstaged by a rookie 22 year old black kid from Britain. Call the Queen because Britain has its next Jackie Stewart.

IRL was off today

Nascar was a snore Dale Jr's move to Hendricks and joining the evil empire with Jeff Gordon is the only thing that is keeping Nascar in the news. Then again I'm a purest.

Edited by Pierre the Great
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while I understand your distaste for auto racing I think your basing your opinion on Nascar which is truly pointless.

indy cars, f1 cars, le man prototypes are more engineering based then actual racing. Your a math guy you'd like the technical racing that's the le mans endurance races. Plus those cars are funded by manufactures which then use the technology and put it in the production cars.

But Nascar is archaic and stupid.

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I only like the WRC (Rally), my favorite is Marcus Gronholm!!

( and i watch Motorsports when its on, Rossi is the best)

Allez Seb!

Sébastien Loeb is the best ;)

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François Duval is my (second - actually I rate him higher than Loeb ;) ) favourite driver. He is so talented.

The main reason why they weren't driving..

$$$

In his first race of the season (Akropolis, Greece) he didn't finish. He forfeited in the fifth race due to mechanical problems.

Freddy Loix is making wine. No kidding.

Loix is riding in our national championship. At the end of the season he will drive IRC.

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Quite hoenstly, I haven't watched a ChampCar race in over a year myself, and I've never watched an IRL race. Tony George is a prick. He uses what was once the greatest open wheel race in the world as a basis to start an oval-only race, goes out and says it will focus more on American drivers and American tracks, and yet he's basically got the best drivers and teams that were in pre-split Indy Car racing. Not to mention that initial restriction (read ban) on drivers from outside IRL running at Indy. Then a few years ago, he tried to steal the Long Beach Grand Prix from ChampCar when they ran into some financial difficulties. After they sorted themsleves out, he tries to buy the whole series, just to get the Long Beach race.

Now he's ruined two racing series, all in an attempt to create an open-wheel version of NASCAR. The thing I liked about Indy Car racing was that the variety of tracks made for the best races. Short ovals, super speedways, road courses and temporary street circuits all tested the drivers' ability to not only drive the car fast, but their decision making abilities and their patience. NASCAR has three non-oval races in a series of almost 40 races (and way too many cars, but that's a different story).

There does need to be a merger/reunion of IRL and ChampCar. They both need each other if they want to be anything more than a very distant second and third to stock car.

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Quite hoenstly, I haven't watched a ChampCar race in over a year myself, and I've never watched an IRL race. Tony George is a prick. He uses what was once the greatest open wheel race in the world as a basis to start an oval-only race, goes out and says it will focus more on American drivers and American tracks, and yet he's basically got the best drivers and teams that were in pre-split Indy Car racing. Not to mention that initial restriction (read ban) on drivers from outside IRL running at Indy. Then a few years ago, he tried to steal the Long Beach Grand Prix from ChampCar when they ran into some financial difficulties. After they sorted themsleves out, he tries to buy the whole series, just to get the Long Beach race.

Now he's ruined two racing series, all in an attempt to create an open-wheel version of NASCAR. The thing I liked about Indy Car racing was that the variety of tracks made for the best races. Short ovals, super speedways, road courses and temporary street circuits all tested the drivers' ability to not only drive the car fast, but their decision making abilities and their patience. NASCAR has three non-oval races in a series of almost 40 races (and way too many cars, but that's a different story).

There does need to be a merger/reunion of IRL and ChampCar. They both need each other if they want to be anything more than a very distant second and third to stock car.

Yup that's pretty much the general consensus.

I just don't think they'll merge. Champ Car was having huge problems a few years ago but now they've got to this 'festival' street course racing and its working. I watched the Edmonton race and it was awesome.

IRL blows giant chunks when they race on Nascar tracks (which is most of the schedule). Its utterly pointless.

If they merged here's what I think the schedule should look like.

Champ Car this season:

Las Vegas (street)

Long Beach (street)

Houston (street)

Portland (road)

Cleveland (airport)

Mont-Tremblant (street)

Toronto (street)

Edmonton (street)

San Jose (street)

Elkhart Lake (road)

Belgium (road)

Holland (road)

Australia (street)

China (road)

Mexico City (road)

Phoenix (street)

Keep:

Vegas, Long Beach, Portland, Cleveland, Mont-Tremblant, Toronto, Edmonton, Elkhart Lake, Mexico

(unless you want to go after F1 go to all the tracks that F1 is moving from in Europe so they can race in developing countries.)

IRL season:

Homestead

St. Petersburg

Twin Ring

Kansas

Indy

Milwaukee

Texas

Iowa

Richmond

Watkins Glen

Nashville

Mid Ohio

Michigan

Kentucky

Infineon

Belle Isle

Chicagoland

what a joke of a season

Keep the smaller ovals

Homestead, St. Petersburg, Indy, Milwaukee, Iowa, Watkins Glen, Mid Ohio, Infineon, Belle Isle

Add: California

So if me PTG was running the future merger of open wheel in America my season track wise would look like this

Vegas

Long Beach

Portland

Cleveland

Mont-Tremblant

Toronto

Edmonton

Elkhart Lake (Road America)

Mexico

Homestead

St. Petersburg

Indy

Milwaukee

Iowa

Watkins Glen

Mid Ohio

Infineon

Belle Isle

California

That would be a killer schedule. The season would start at Long Beach and end in Toronto.

If Champ and George would realize the american flirtation with Nascar is over they'd seriously get together and stop this madness.

Edited by Pierre the Great
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When you say California, I'm assuming you mean the race at Laguna Seca. I always liked that race course.

What I always found interesting about the IRL circuit is that no team ever approached Paul Tracy about making a switch. He's pissed off just about every driver he's ever raced against, but the guy knows how to get a car around the track, and he's a much more recognizeable name in racing than some of the drivers they have now. Danica Patrick is probably a good marketing tool, she's young, sexy (not in a firesuit though) and talented. But she hasn't won jack and yet she's getting more press than the people who actually win races. Tracy could outrace half that field in a two-year-old car, but he's either being shunned by the owners, blacklisted by the IRL itself, of he's got enough cohones to tell Tony George where to go and how to get there, I'm gonna drive bumper cars in NASCAR's Busch Series.

Tony George's only hope of pushing IRL over the top of everyone else, both ChampCar and NASCAR, is if he could poach a NASCAR driver from that series, while they were in their prime. Ganassi owns a NASCAR team, and I think Roger Penske still has one, but Ganassi is the type of guy who would best be able to do it. But I don't see that happening in the near future.

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He got blacklisted by the IRL they haven't allowed him or Champ Car back to Indy after that one Indy race a few years ago.

When I meant California I meant the speedway. CART was the only draw that could sell out the place something Nascar can't do.

ony George's only hope of pushing IRL over the top of everyone else, both ChampCar and NASCAR, is if he could poach a NASCAR driver from that series, while they were in their prime.

If Tony Stewart gets pissed off enough at France and Nascar fans and Nascar in general I would be shocked if he went back to IRL.

I think its too late for Gordon to go back to open wheel. Same with Kahne, Mears, Johnson who all were on the 'CART' path until the series split. All of those drivers would be in open wheel cars now if George hadn't been an idiot.

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If you were getting used to the 'Nextel' Cup well its now officially going to be called Sprint Cup. :wacko:

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?s...&id=2910433

Seriously. If Nascar wants to be taken seriously its official title can not be a sponsor.

Imagine F1 being called F1 Hobby Lobby Championship.

lol silly indeed

Nascar go back to Grand National and National Series

Anyway their 'Busch' Series is going to be replaced by either Wal-Mart, Samsung or Subway. goofy

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Paul Tracey takes the Grand Prix of Cleveland in Champ Car.

Trying to watch IRL at Iowa but its really silly. 7/8 of a mile short track in the middle of nowhere in Iowa. (most boring place on the planet)

IRL is stupid, if Danica isn't competitive there is no point to it. Its boring and dumb.

Nascar will be watchable today. They're in Sonoma for a road course race. Want to see how well Montoya does and Jeff Gordon starts from 42 place due to cheating.

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Trying to watch IRL at Iowa but its really silly. 7/8 of a mile short track in the middle of nowhere in Iowa. (most boring place on the planet)

The sellout crowd didn't seem very bored. :rolleyes: But, yeah, that race is stupid. IRL is at least semi-watchable most of the time, but here they are racing on a track built for NASCAR. IRL is pointless when they're running a round track at low NASCAR speeds.

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The sellout crowd didn't seem very bored. :rolleyes: But, yeah, that race is stupid. IRL is at least semi-watchable most of the time, but here they are racing on a track built for NASCAR. IRL is pointless when they're running a round track at low NASCAR speeds.

That's what Tony George wants. :wacko:

Partly because Champ Car took all the tracks. From the beginning George said IRL would race on Ovals. boring. Ovals are boring.

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That's what Tony George wants. :wacko:

Partly because Champ Car took all the tracks. From the beginning George said IRL would race on Ovals. boring. Ovals are boring.

So why the sudden interest in the Long Beach race when CART/ChampCar had their troubles a few years ago? When he made that bid for the hostile takeover, Long Beach was the key race he wanted for IRL, along with three or four others. When the split happened, it was my understanding that George picked a time when most of the races he wanted, namely the ovals, were no longer contracted to the CART circuit. And because he had Roger Penske in hand coming with him, Chip Ganassi commited to race two cars in the series, and a few other teams, he had the drivers and teams owners to get those tracks on the IRL circuit.

The sooner both sides realize that they can't go it alone, the owners see that two circuits can't be supported, the sooner the racing will improve. I happened to catch the end of the Cleveland race on Sunday, and as they ran through the running order, there was only two or three drivers' names that I recognized. And now there's a third generation of Andrettis racing that I won't see.

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Well most of the Champ Car guys are in Nascar now.

George only wants 'iconic' races.

That's another reason why I could split open wheel. He thought to himself. I've got Indy. That's all that matters.

And he was right to an extent but it caused Nascar to overtake open wheel. Yeah he would get the tv contract because he had Indy. But he killed the sport in the process.

He only wanted Long Beach because it was Long Beach. He's greedy. It buying up an entire team just to get one player then not caring about anything else. (could have used an Iraq analogy with Saddam but not going there)

He wants Long Beach because its the only 'big' event Champ Car has left.

The best scenario for open wheel would have the Champ Car people win the fight and not Tony George because he would just continue to run on all ovals and have a super small schedule.

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