First, thanks to everyone who responded to my question about picking
sides....I was quite surprised by the number of responses. I doubt
there were many on-track incidents last year that generated as much
traffic on these groups than did this thread which occurred in the
off-season.

Having become an open-wheel fan after 1995, I just couldn't understand
why this sport seems so unique in that the fan base seems to root more
for the destruction of the other series than it does anything that
happens on the track in the series it wants to have survive.

I have been a hardcore sports fan all my life and I have never seen a
situation quite like this - especially one lasting more than 10 years
that shows no signs of changing anytime soon.

Though fans of both series made some valid points, I really don't care
who draws more fans or has better TV ratings. I don't care about
ratings or attendance in any other sport, either - I just look for
good, exciting competition. I'm sure you all feel that way about open
wheel, too, because there would be no reason to follow these groups if
you didn't.

Now wouldn't it be great if one of the CCWS experts could provide us
relative newcomers with a list of things to watch for ON THE TRACK in
2007 and maybe an IRL expert could do the same? Those who hate that
series might just be generous enough to skip that thread instead of
simply throwing out loads of negatives lobbed for the past decade.

<u8241 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote


Well if you have become a fan since 95, quite frankly that's fairly rare.
Growth more or less stopped in 95. The roots do not go back just to 95. In
fact many of the roots of the real problems go back to the 60s and maybe
longer than that. The lets all play nice and run together again ship sailed
a very long time ago. A merger is effectively a no win situation now, and
in fact it could easily shrink an already split fan base. You just might
find it fun to google the history and learn about how it got to where it is.
Hint it never was about anything other than control. Some things to google
might be the USAC gold crown series, Dan Gurney's white papers, the attempt
by the speedway to bar some CART teams that the speedway lost, an FIA ban on
CART road racing overseas, and many of a host of things. It is just as
important to know how you got to where you are in a sport as seeing an
entire movie is to knowing the whole story and being able to follow it is to
watching a movie. You will be rewarded for the effort, and it likely will
make your enjoyment of racing greater. That's how fans get to be passionate
about the sport. They put a little time an effort into it to learn about
it.

As for what to watch in the coming year. Start with the new DP1. How will
it react in race traffic? Will it be easier to overtake? How will the
newer technology hold up and will it make the racing closer? Who will
challenge Sea Bass?

Other things that are changing. When and where will they do the standing
starts? How quickly will the drivers adapt? How will being timed events
effect the race? (this is the biggest turn off for me of all the changes
and hopefully it will be just a one year experiment that goes away like
manadatory pit stops) Lots of new things happening this year.

"Dan" <PigsFly (AT) aol (DOT) com> wrote

I think he meant what the fans should watch for, not what the drivers should
watch for.

"armpit" <armarmpitpit (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote


Carey in Manvel

u8241 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com wrote:
<snip>
I don't claim to be an expert in any regard, but I'll share some things
I'm going to be looking for.

CCWS:

It has been said that Graham Rahal will be coming to the series, and
that it is only a matter of time before an announcement is made. I will
be looking to see how he gets along. I watched that precocious young gun
develop very nicely in Atlantics, and it was only bad luck that cost him
the championship. He was the class of the field, without any doubt. I'm
looking forward to seeing how well he adapts to much faster cars. He's
already shown that he can be blisteringly fast doing hot laps in testing
with faster cars, so I'm interested in seeing how well he gets up to
speed in competition.

Neel Jani was recently confirmed at PKV. Alex Premat made an excellent
showing testing in Houston, and IIRC Adam Carroll made a good showing
when he tested as well. I'll be looking for what will transpire with the
good young talent coming from Europe.

Speaking of which, Minardi USA will be a team to watch. Stoddart knows a
lot about doing more with less, and that may develop into a very strong
team. The rumors of Jos the Boss continue to circulate, but we shall see.

Also, look out for Simon Pagenaud. He may not have been as fast as
Graham on many occasions, but he's steady and level-headed. He's a good
racer who'll only get better.

I'm looking forward to some of the new venues. Zhuhai has an excellent
layout. It is quite wide at many of the important places (like turn 1)
and has a good mix of fast, medium, and slow speed turns. The Asian F3
coverage I've seen indicates that the track can facilitate some
excellent racing action. Las Vegas looks like it could be interesting.
It is a looooooooooooooooong layout and might have quite a few places to
overtake on. We'll have to wait and see how wide those turns are, how
much run-off they have, etc. Phoenix may as well. IIRC they are running
the race on some very wide streets. Assen looks like a good track, but
I'm not sure as I haven't seen any races on it. I don't know how much
they're going to alter Zolder. It could end up being another wonderful
track turned into a chicaned-up abomination. We shall see.

Also, I'll ditto the things Mark brought up.

IRL:

Looking forward to seeing what the racing is like at Iowa. Forty likes
the shorter tracks.

I like Mid-Ohio, but its fittingly called the Mid-Ohio SPORTS CAR
Course. The sports car races are nice, but I don't think the circuit
lends itself well to open wheel cars. You never know, though. They could
put on a good race despite the difficulty in passing there. Detroit I'm
not so hopeful about, though. The CART races I watched were fairly
boring. It's a tight circuit which will most likely be a parade, like
quite a few of my least favorite CCWS street races.

The return to 3.5L engines will be coupled with a new fuel, so the
power-band is going to be a bit different. That will mix things up a
little and may take away some of the Penske-Ganassi dominance.

Speaking of which, will those two spank everyone else again?

Watkins Glen will be a must-see race. It is proof that given a great
layout, even a race course run by complete idiots can host an
entertaining race.

Marco will enter his second season. It will be interesting to see how
well he does. The kid has talent, but he hasn't given us a big enough
picture of his driving to be able to make very meaningful estimations of
his potential.

It will be interesting to see what Danica does when she has more
competitive equipment to work with.

Dan Wheldon drove admirably last year despite it being his first year
with the team. With more familiarity and experience with the team
heading into 2007, will he become a much more potent force to be
reckoned with this season?

Is Sarah Fisher really going to be back this season?

--
forty

“To embrace an extreme, one must first let go of reason.”

forty <cforteNO (AT) spamgmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Graham is the real thing - possibly an even better driver than his
father. What I like about him is that at the moment he seems keen to
drive *anything* - and does a damn good job of it.

Neel Jani was very highly respected at Sauber for his testing skills,
can't say I see him as a balls-out racer but I think he'll work himself
onto the pace. Carroll has intermittently been very quick too. Premat
can be a bit wild but is bloody quick.

Stoddart lost a lot of credibility with his persistent whingeing in F1;
he knew what he was getting involved with and his attempt to play the
innocent victim was a bit unconvincing. Also, I'm not really keen on the
Minardi name being there with no connection to the espresso enthusiasts
in Faenza (I remember at Monaco in '96 they were paying more attention
to the coffee machine in the pits than to the cars...)

Assen's a fantastic bike circuit, but I think it's had relatively
limited use for cars - certainly not ones as quick as Champcars.

Zolder - hm. It was never up to much. Can't forgive it for taking Gilles
from us either.

Probably - unless Penske get distracted by some real ALMS competition
from Dyson and the Acuras.

Being entirely cynical: She just dilutes the Danicamania, and last
I recall was not as easy on the eye - so I doubt there'll be any
great push to get her back in the IRL.

pete
--
pete (AT) fenelon (DOT) com "it made about as much sense as a polythene sandwich"

Pete Fenelon wrote:

I saw him racing in Star Mazda. He was green yet, but very impressive
nonetheless.

realized that such a pairing could unleash the most destructive force
ever known to motorsport...


a threat early on. Dyson will light a fire under their asses, though.

That she does, even though she is a more solid driver IMHO. But I
imagine there must be some marketability of "Danica vs. Sarah Fisher at
the Indy 500."

--
forty

“To embrace an extreme, one must first let go of reason.”

On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 08:16:11 -0500, "armpit" <armarmpitpit (AT) yahoo (DOT) com>
wrote:

Paul Tracy is still the answer. Follow him during a race to find the
excitement. Excitement seems to follow him around.

Well Sarah never ran well in anything other than a sprint car and that we
know is totally irrevalant to a modern IRL car. Big difference between a 30
lap feature and a 500 mile event. She got a chance to skip some of the
traditional steps in the development ladder (no atlantics) and I think it
hurt her development. Danica at least ran a year of Atlantics and did
pretty well there. She would have been long term better served with another
year there. She had a good stint while she had at least a 50 lb weight
advantage, but I think that went away when too many people started
complaining and to the back she went.

On Jan 23, 2:19 pm, "Mark B" <n... (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote:
While many people complained, Danica's 'weight' advantage still exists.
That is, the mass of the car (and not in combination with the diver) is
the only regulated component. As a result of this policy, she enjoys a
decided advantage that is most prevalent in longer races, like the Tony
George's Ego 500 on Memorial Day Weekend, and of course in
qualifications. Again, it's never really been "all about the
racing." More accurately it's all about the hype, and Gene Simmons.