EVENING UPDATE: Clarke, TG talk about the Motegi meeting
Curt Cavin catches up with Robert Clarke & Tony George, and notes that Clarke is optimistic unification talks will continue
Says Clarke: “Am I optimistic? I don’t see any reason why not."
TG, of course, plays it cool: "Nothing is going to happen quickly, if at all." (now, is he being realistic, is he simply requesting KK's wishes to not negotiate in the media)
The Motegi meeting was significant because the date must be moved to accommodate the Long Beach Grand Prix, which is the same weekend as the IRL's Motegi race. LB is one of the three CC races that would be absorbed into the IRL schedule. The race could be moved to August (where there is a 2-week break in the schedule left by the Michigan vacancy), September/October/November (post-season, possibly timed to go along with Surfer's) or could be skipped for one year to allow the unification to happen.
Stay tuned for more reaction.
Unification update
USA Today has a piece today that says the unification attempts are a race against time.
Walker Racing coming?
Derrick Walker was on WRTV-6 in Indianapolis last night, and stated he was considering a move to the IRL this year, unification or no. He says it's based on sponsorship. Earlier TV reports showed the Dallara chassis that P.J. Jones attempted to qualify for Indy last year (still in its Day-Glo Orange paint job) in Walker's shop.
That is corroborated by this story from Crash.net. He's negotiating separately with Will Power and Simon Pagenaud to bring them to the IRL.
In the aforementioned USA Today story, Walker says "We're just a small company who is trying to sell our wares, which for us is getting sponsors and going racing. That's our business. So we had to look at the IRL and look at the Indy 500, which we thought had a comeback year in 2007."
With a new grill, Dan looks ahead
Jeff Olson has a piece on Dan Wheldon where he looks back at last season as a failure, and looks ahead.
Says Dan: "Indianapolis is it for me. That’s all I care about. It frustrates me every year. I drive around that track very well, but I’ve only won there once."
Edmonton expects to stay on the schedule
We've had various stories on this before, but this is from the Edmonton Sun.
Says GP Edmonton president Jim Haskins: “Champ Car has always said that if ever any kind of alignment happened with Indy, Edmonton would stay. We’ve had major success over three years here and our attendance is among the top two or three races on the world circuit.”
(then again, Champ Car bosses have done a very good job of selling people a big-time bill of goods).
Commentaries
Leave it to ex-CART apologist Gordon Kirby to rain on the parade.
Among the nuggets: "The past few weeks' desperate attempts to bring to the two series together underlines the complete lack of any business plan and the utter incompetence of both groups." ... To achieve their goal they must not only resolve the many, many issues resulting from their thirteen-year civil war, but they must invent a technically interesting, 'green' formula which will attract multiple manufacturers and car builders and will also remake the Indy car as a spectacularly impressive racing machine, distinctly different from NASCAR, that will appeal to both race fans around the world as well as a broader audience." Then, he goes on to talk about NASCAR for the rest of the column.
What the defectors think
Sam Hornish, Patrick Carpentier & others consider unification a positive thing. (and, unlike the AP a few days ago, this story has no quotes from open-wheel expert Kyle Petty).
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1 comment:
If Gordon Kirby LOVES NASCAR SO much (The same NASCAR with declining television ratings, empty seats at MANY race tracks, and generic, homogenized cars that are evidently acceptable if you're running the WWF on wheels, but EVIL if you want to run a serious racing series), why doesn't he just quit whining and get a NASCAR press pass and report on them full time?
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