Bourdais states the obvious; Andretti calls Tracy old

American open-wheel ex-pat Sebastien Bourdais points out that the transition for former Champ Car teams to the newly merged IRL Indy Car series will be difficult.


“We had all been waiting for it for a long time, but obviously didn’t expect it 30 days before the start of a season,” he declared. “It’s not a merger, it’s the death of Champ Car and the IRL taking over—the schedules, cars, everything. It’s the cars (the IRL teams) have been running around with for five years, so what are the Champ Car teams going to be able to do? Nothing.
“They had no time to prepare over the winter, because the winter is over. It’s a disaster for Champ Car teams, obviously.”

Stop the presses, Sebastien. You mean this was not the most equitable of deals for Champ Car teams? That is like saying Scuderia Toro Rosso will not be the class of F1 this year.

-Also-

Michael Andretti manages to toss a few barbs at former-rival (and now ride less, Paul Tracy). Upon hearing the news that Tracy's Champ Car ride has hit the bricks, Andretti says he knew it all along:

"I wasn't surprised," Andretti said. "I assumed that (Forsythe not
fielding an IRL team) was going to happen. It was just a gut feel. He's a proud man. There has to be a reason he was doing the things he was doing (in Champ Car), and I just didn't see him caving in to come over here."

Andretti also quickly discarded the thought that Tracy may windup in a race seat with Andretti-Green.

"Paul is great and all, but he doesn't have any experience in these cars and he's getting a little old," Andretti said."We're looking at 19- and 20-year olds, and he's almost 40..."

Andretti twists the knife one last time by saying Tracy would be a great fit with Tony George's habitually mediocre Vision Racing. Wherever Tracy winds up, he will be in the IRL this season, and will be waiting for Andretti in the parking lot after the Homestead race. Ding...round one.

Looking beyond the merge... from stupid to awesome

The 2008 IRL season will be weird. From a competition standpoint, it may very well suck. Think of it as a means to an end. Champ Car ex-patriots will struggle mightily to get up to speed with the IRL’s engine and chassis package. Only two former Champ Car teams (still just rumored to be making the switch) have the funding, resources and personnel to be competitive against the likes of Penske, Ganassi and Andretti-Green this season. Newman/Hass/Lanigan and Forsythe are capable of top-five finishes on both road courses and ovals, and will prove such as the season kicks-off next month. I doubt either team will win a race on sheer speed alone, instead may be backdooring a victory with fuel strategy or the like. But, still a huge longshot. Aside from those two outfits, don’t expect the Champ Car refugees to set the world on fire. PKV will show flashes of speed with Oriol Servia , but that will about do it. The rest of the Champ Car ex-pats will have to claw with Marty Roth Racing for also ran status.

It will not be an easy thing to watch for those that thought the Champ Car of the last three or so years was home to the greatest teams and drivers in American open-wheel racing. Some truly poor souls will be so distraught with this new development they will refuse to watch the newly restored series. These folks will focus on F1 or sports car racing and never look back. One should feel no pity for these exclusionists; they are the same people who voted for Ross Perot because he “made the most sense.” Blind faith and tunnel vision are two alarming qualities that should be coveted by none.

Only the ignorant will argue that this reunion was not completely necessary for single-seat racing in this country to have any hope of becoming relevant or even sustainable in the years to come. With that said, (and true of any project retarded by procrastination) the devouring of Champ Car by the IRL will have short term outcomes that span from “good,” to “damn,” to “what the hell is this?”

If the published reports are true, Motegi and Long Beach will happen as scheduled. Two races, two different specs of car competing, both races awarding IRL points. This will fall under the “what the hell is this?” category. This will surely not be the only time this season the strange becomes commonplace in the new-IRL.

Next week's press conference will shed light on further such scenarios. But, all can be forgiven in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If nothing else this merge should be seen as a last-ditch effort to save the 500. The highs and lows will be forgotten and a great event will make up for any flubs between now and then.

Make no mistake, this year will be one for Ripley's, making many scratch their heads. The sooner this season comes to an end, the quicker the next will start and the improvements made to the schedule, spec and overall future of the sport will be in place. Give it time, the best is yet to come.

First step to relevancy… Imminent? Really?

Speedtv’s Robin Miller says the long awaited, much needed, only chance at becoming a real sport again, about fucking time, IRL/Champ Car reconciliation deal is done.

After 12 years of warring that cost open-wheel racing much of its sponsorship,audience and momentum, common sense has finally prevailed. SPEEDtv.com has learned that the Indy Racing League and Champ Car have officially, and mercifully, agreed to become one entity. A press conference could come as early as Wednesday…

So, the bloody coup -turned bloodier schism- appears to ending. Praise the lord. While this union represents the equivalent of an 11th-hour, shotgun wedding between the two series, it is also the only chance American open-wheel racing has at becoming anything more than an obscure, 2nd to 3rd tier, also ran, bastard cousin to the 800-pound gorilla of NASCAR. Castro resigns, and an open wheel merger on the same day... Coincidence? I think so too.

Mergers, bankruptcy, unemployment, and motor racing

I have waited to pass judgment on the latest open-wheel merger rumors, not wanting to waste time conjecturing; speculating or even acknowledging the possibility of a reunion taking place (this is largely because Kevin Kalkhoven cites the people who speak about merger, as being the sole reason for a merger not happening. The first rule of possible merger is, there is no possible merger). The supposed near misses and close calls have been too frequent and ultimately too futile for the events of the week to seem buoyant. We’ve heard all this before; buzzwords like assets, liquidity and union tossed about like a wooden-legged figure skater in a canoe. This would surely under develop and fizzle out like every other attempt at fusion.

Any plan to fix a dozen-year bloody schism could not be solved two months before the respective seasons are to start… Right?

Exactly when this story shifted from pipedream to plausible is hard to pinpoint. Obviously the now infamous Robin Miller articles played a role. The news that the IndyCar Series brass (along with Honda lovechild Robert Clark) hit Japan to iron out a scheduling trip-up added fuel to the fire. Christ, who knows when this turned into the only hope for open-wheel racing in America to gain any degree of relevancy? But it did.

Some killjoys (mainly a small, yet vocal group of Champ Car zealots whose knowledge of the sport is only rivaled by their ignorance to the fact that this is not the Champ Car of 1999) believe that Kalkhoven, et al. would be getting a hose-job should the published merge terms be in the ballpark of what is actually being discussed. They would be right, but Champ Car is in no place to barter.

The ball has been forcibly removed from Champ Car’s court. Through mismanagement, scheduling disasters, dismal media coverage and a litany of other blunders Champ Car imploded. These cock-ups have been outlined to the point of cliché, and are regarded as common knowledge by those outside the inner sanctum of Champ Car.

Regardless of how they obtained it, the IndyCar Series has the upper hand (though through default more so than any tangible advance they have made to either the sport of motor racing or its marketing).

David Phillips wrote an excellent op-ed outlining the damage that a hasty union will cause. And if this merger happens, hasty it will be. This potential deal has all the makings of a four-day Vegas binge that culminates with the exchange of vows between a down of his luck slob and a syphilis-riddled hooker. Heads will roll, companies will close and people will lose jobs. There is no two ways about that.

To Phillips I respond: wars have collateral damage and this is no different.
Aside from the massive amounts of technical resources that will be immediately obsolete (Champ Car’s new Panoz chassis most notability), the pending litigation that faces a voided Champ Car season will be staggering. This will just be the start of the fallout.

And I don’t really care. Neither should you.

A merger transcends the individual company, race team or employee. At stake is the future of open wheel racing in America. An entire sport trumps the needs of companies that exist merely to support that sport. If a union of the forces doesn’t take place, those very companies will be in dire straights soon enough. A delay only postpones the inevitable.

A firehouse liquidation at Champ Car and shotgun wedding with the IndyCar Series is the only bet to salvage this sport and make it viable and relevant by sometime in the next decade.

Returning to the Vegas hooker analogy: Champ Car is coming off of his bender just as he prepares to kiss the hooker and affirm their vows. Champ Car pauses and recoils in disgust as the booze travels off. “Has it really come to this?” he thinks aloud. Champ Car’s mind races as he recalls the last decade of his existence. A hopeless drunk, no friends, drug issues, and no sex since the turn of the millennium. He quickly lays the mother of all kisses on the whore known as the IndyCar Series. A match made in hell, yet necessity.