IRL and Champcar merger to be announced Weds/Thurs
Discussion
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=...
espn said:
Officials from the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series struck a preliminary agreement Tuesday to fold elements of the Champ Car World Series into the IRL IndyCar Series.
An official announcement is expected Thursday. SPEEDtv.com first reported the agreement Tuesday afternoon.
The merger comes on the heels of almost two weeks of painstaking negotiations between the racing entities. Last week, after the sides were believed to be close to announcing a merger, Champ Car issued a statement claiming the talks had stalled.
At that time, sources at Champ Car and the IRL familiar with the negotiations revealed that the chief hang-up centered around the IndyCar Series race scheduled for April 19 at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. The preference of the merged series is to honor Champ Car's contract to run the 34th annual Long Beach Grand Prix that same weekend.
The IRL was founded in 1995 and began racing in 1996. Champ Car, then known as CART, continued as a separate series. Both sides have struggled to find sponsorship and an audience and have drawn small fields and low television ratings.
Most recently, each series lost its top stars -- four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais to Formula One, and 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti and three-time IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr. to NASCAR.
Numerous attempts to unite the groups over the years have failed, mostly over who would have control.
An official announcement is expected Thursday. SPEEDtv.com first reported the agreement Tuesday afternoon.
The merger comes on the heels of almost two weeks of painstaking negotiations between the racing entities. Last week, after the sides were believed to be close to announcing a merger, Champ Car issued a statement claiming the talks had stalled.
At that time, sources at Champ Car and the IRL familiar with the negotiations revealed that the chief hang-up centered around the IndyCar Series race scheduled for April 19 at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. The preference of the merged series is to honor Champ Car's contract to run the 34th annual Long Beach Grand Prix that same weekend.
The IRL was founded in 1995 and began racing in 1996. Champ Car, then known as CART, continued as a separate series. Both sides have struggled to find sponsorship and an audience and have drawn small fields and low television ratings.
Most recently, each series lost its top stars -- four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais to Formula One, and 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti and three-time IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr. to NASCAR.
Numerous attempts to unite the groups over the years have failed, mostly over who would have control.
Hard to work out who has "won" here really. Given the problems CCWS has had over the last few years, it's been pretty obvious the series was effectively dead anyway, so from that point of view Tony George has won. However, the new/merged series seems closer to CART of old than the initial IRL vision, so you have to ask yourself if it was all worth it? 12 years of animosity only to end up with the very thing the IRL was ideologically opposed to in the first place.
Anyone know what's happening to the Atlantic series, as the IRL has its own IPS feeder?
Anyone know what's happening to the Atlantic series, as the IRL has its own IPS feeder?
hornet said:
Hard to work out who has "won" here really. Given the problems CCWS has had over the last few years, it's been pretty obvious the series was effectively dead anyway, so from that point of view Tony George has won. However, the new/merged series seems closer to CART of old than the initial IRL vision, so you have to ask yourself if it was all worth it? 12 years of animosity only to end up with the very thing the IRL was ideologically opposed to in the first place.
Anyone know what's happening to the Atlantic series, as the IRL has its own IPS feeder?
Its going to take a couple of years to sort the calendar out, and three or four years before we see any new cars.Anyone know what's happening to the Atlantic series, as the IRL has its own IPS feeder?
IPS will take its nornal place afaik, Atlantics have said that they'll probably run as ALMS support.
Edited by johnph on Wednesday 20th February 13:19
After 12 years we've ended up with CART-Lite. A series with international drivers racing open-wheeled cars in America and a couple of other countries on a mixture of ovals, street circuits and road courses, including the Indy 500.
Only the cars are awful and no-one's watching. Too little, too late, I'm afraid.
Still, Tony gets to win his pointless war and I'm sure with all the money from the Brickyard 400 he can quietly drop his hobby race series in a year or two.
Only the cars are awful and no-one's watching. Too little, too late, I'm afraid.
Still, Tony gets to win his pointless war and I'm sure with all the money from the Brickyard 400 he can quietly drop his hobby race series in a year or two.
kevin ritson said:
After 12 years we've ended up with CART-Lite. A series with international drivers racing open-wheeled cars in America and a couple of other countries on a mixture of ovals, street circuits and road courses, including the Indy 500.
Only the cars are awful and no-one's watching. Too little, too late, I'm afraid.
Still, Tony gets to win his pointless war and I'm sure with all the money from the Brickyard 400 he can quietly drop his hobby race series in a year or two.
To be fair, the CCWS owners haven't exactly showered themselves in glory in recent seasons.Only the cars are awful and no-one's watching. Too little, too late, I'm afraid.
Still, Tony gets to win his pointless war and I'm sure with all the money from the Brickyard 400 he can quietly drop his hobby race series in a year or two.
kevin ritson said:
After 12 years we've ended up with CART-Lite. A series with international drivers racing open-wheeled cars in America and a couple of other countries on a mixture of ovals, street circuits and road courses, including the Indy 500.
Only the cars are awful and no-one's watching. Too little, too late, I'm afraid.
Still, Tony gets to win his pointless war and I'm sure with all the money from the Brickyard 400 he can quietly drop his hobby race series in a year or two.
Read my post above. Only the cars are awful and no-one's watching. Too little, too late, I'm afraid.
Still, Tony gets to win his pointless war and I'm sure with all the money from the Brickyard 400 he can quietly drop his hobby race series in a year or two.
Taken from elsewhere
Tony George said:
Dateline: Indianapolis
“In 1995 I created the Indy Racing League. With the benefit of hindsight, I now realize it was a mistake and it was flawed from the beginning. It was exclusionary. It was ugly. And it was a stupid name. The IRL will cease to exist immediately.
So, I am happy to be here today to introduce my “America’s New Unified Series.”
I am very proud that my A.N.U.S. will finally be recognized as the center of our sport. Building on the lessons of the past decade, my A.N.U.S. will now be inclusive. No longer will only American members be welcome in my A.N.U.S. Let me be clear: Anyone who wants to be in my A.N.U.S. is now welcome. If the past few years have taught me anything, it is that any member of any race should be welcome in my A.N.U.S.
The structure of my A.N.U.S will have myself as the only large head residing permanently inside. However, to insure fairness, team owners, drivers, track owners, manufacturers, TV networks and even dedicated fans will be invited to insert a small head in to my A.N.U.S. on a steady rotating basis.
As my A.N.U.S begins to grow, I can now envision the need to go global. Indeed, my vision is my A.N.U.S. will soon be bigger than NASCAR and Formula One combined. My only desire is to one day be the biggest A.N.U.S. in the known universe.
As with the IRL, all rules and officiating will continue to come directly from my A.N.U.S. “
“In 1995 I created the Indy Racing League. With the benefit of hindsight, I now realize it was a mistake and it was flawed from the beginning. It was exclusionary. It was ugly. And it was a stupid name. The IRL will cease to exist immediately.
So, I am happy to be here today to introduce my “America’s New Unified Series.”
I am very proud that my A.N.U.S. will finally be recognized as the center of our sport. Building on the lessons of the past decade, my A.N.U.S. will now be inclusive. No longer will only American members be welcome in my A.N.U.S. Let me be clear: Anyone who wants to be in my A.N.U.S. is now welcome. If the past few years have taught me anything, it is that any member of any race should be welcome in my A.N.U.S.
The structure of my A.N.U.S will have myself as the only large head residing permanently inside. However, to insure fairness, team owners, drivers, track owners, manufacturers, TV networks and even dedicated fans will be invited to insert a small head in to my A.N.U.S. on a steady rotating basis.
As my A.N.U.S begins to grow, I can now envision the need to go global. Indeed, my vision is my A.N.U.S. will soon be bigger than NASCAR and Formula One combined. My only desire is to one day be the biggest A.N.U.S. in the known universe.
As with the IRL, all rules and officiating will continue to come directly from my A.N.U.S. “
k that noise, the merger's done! Perhaps open wheel racing in America has a chance now. I'm looking forward to seeing them at Mid Ohio this summer, and maybe on the local oval too.Forums | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff