Saturday, November 12, 2011

Going Forward, Part II

Since my last post we have had some developments.


First, we have Ed Carpenter's announcement of his own race team, Ed Carpenter Racing, with a primary sponsor of Fuzzy's Premium Vodka. Co-owner of Ed's team is his stepdad, Tony George. That in and of itself is likely to cause some among George's "Legion of the Miserable," some level of apoplexy. More on those folks later.


Ed is no dummy. With a three year committment from Fuzzy and the help of whatever dollars TG brings to the table as co-owner, (and let's face it, like him or not, TG still has a pretty substantial fortune,) this is his opportunity of lifetime to really go racing. Full time. He's popular which makes him good for the series in a time when the series NEEDS good things to happen. Adding Derrick Walker to the equation adds another plus. The big question remains road and street courses, where Ed has never been strong.


Of course, with the good comes the bad. Having just won a race, Sarah Fisher Racing loses not only a sponsor, but a driver as well. As Trackside's Curt and Kevin have said, this probably puts Sarah in the position of needing a driver to bring dollars in terms of sponsorship to the team. There have been some rumblings that such a program might fit with Ana Beatriz, but this one stays in the "to be continued" category.


In the category of "OK that's settled," Penske Racing re-signed all three drivers. The more I've thought about it, the more unsurprising this is. In the final analysis, the only mystery was whether Roger was going to scale back to two cars, but with all new equipment, obviously, the more input the better. Consequently, a whole series of dominoes that were tottering, just got stable.


It has been decreed that we're going racing in China. I hope that INDYCAR is getting a pretty substantial fee for this endeavor, since the series ditched Motegi because it was a logistical nightmare. (And China isn't?) Look, I am all for developing new places to race and new INDYCAR fans, the more the merrier. I have no idea how they're going to do this so that you don't have the same dilemma of a race that is "none of your business" unless you want to watch it in the middle of the night. And, it's supposedly going to be a 3.6 mile (or so) street course. I know I am going to piss a few people off by saying this, but someone is kidding themselves if they think ANYONE on this side of the Pacific is going to stay up after midnight to watch another street parade.


It all gets down to money, in the final analysis.


Speaking of the green that makes the wheels go 'round, let's talk for a minute about Robin Miller's latest missive on the mystery of why the 2012 car isn't fast on the Speedway. Apparently, the new ride was lapping Indy at between 208 and 216 mph, hardly the rocketsled everyone thought we were getting. It also mentioned handling issues, unspoken up to this time. We all knew this was going to take some time to get dialed in to high speed ovals. According to Miller's piece, Dan Wheldon reported the car to be "wicked loose going into turn 1 and pushing badly exiting." Apparently he conveyed this information to Dario and TK prior to the Vegas race.


The fact that the new car is having some handling issues doesn't bother me too much: I figured it was going to take more time and development on real tracks rather than sim time. What floored me however, was the sheer number of posters who commented on Miller's piece about how typical this is of INDYCAR that they've produced another "crap" product, and we're in for more "spec racing," the usual CART-centric garbage that everyone is used to hearing.


What none of the computer critics and RAM rocket scientists seem to remember is that all this development costs money. Back in their "golden age," there was more money than sense tossed all around racing. Well, I hate to tell ya' fellas, but this is 2012 we're coming into, not 1995. There are not sponsors willing to throw around gazillions of dollars so we can all have the latest thing. Hell, the way some of the owners wanted it, we might have been driving '03 Dallaras for another couple of years. If you're not Penske, Ganassi, KV, or Andretti, just buying enough cars to start is a major expenditure. Even with Dallara helping, teams are going to have development costs.


Frankly, the old business model just won't work in the current economy. There are not the dollars coming in for teams to develop their own chassis or engines, nor are there the unlimited fountains of money that were available back in the heyday. Everyone can see exposed tin at places where we used to see fans and the tv ratings are laughable. Both of these situations need to be turned around before the coffers of others will open.


As a result, if you're going to move forward, you're going to have to do it differently, in small steps, careful not to turn these machines into F-1-esque "money gobblers."


Give Randy Bernard credit: He's trying anything and everything he can think of to regain the fanbase, but it isn't going to happen overnight. We're hearing murmurs about Phoenix, we're "offically" going back to Fontana, but it's going to take time. The series spent too many years on the Hulman-George teat, and now, with the new cars, we have what will, given development, be a more up-to-date and safer car. But, if you think we're going to see Reynards and Panozes, and Marches, and Lolas, well, you'd better go find yourself a few billion (with a "b") dollars to make that happen on a faster schedule.


In the meantime, the "Legions of the Miserable" need to relax. We have young drivers, lots of them trying to make "new" history. J. R. Hildebrand, Justin Wilson, Simona DiSilvestro, Graham Rahal, Josef Newgarden, and who knows, in another year or so, perhaps Katherine Legge or Conor Daly, ALL have the potential to be leaders of this series going forward.


We have a new car. Next year (2013) we'll have more variations of the new car.


We have two engines, maybe three if you count the "Lotudd." We have turbochargers back again, along with the possibility of (gasp) engine failure.


At least to me, that's not a bad start.