A week later, and there are still lots of rumors floating around but absolutely nothing concrete. Hopefully, they can put things together for '09, but doing it this year on such short notice would be a disaster.

 

Perplexing about the rumors, or par for the course depending on how one looks at the situation. I don't see how Champ Car can survive a full season in '08 should they file bankruptcy and even if they manage to pull through the car count will be abysmal.

 

All I can do is hope that something will come of this. I see that some european drivers want to race open wheel in the US because they don't have an F1 drive and that it is a viable choice for them, but if they don't come up with a singular open wheel series then that market will dry up. I've been following F1 for so long and now I see a trend for some drivers to look to the US and if there is nothing there it doesn't mean anything. I truly hope they come to some agreement to have a stable series to bring in some of the talent I've seen stifled by the politics of F1.

BTW, since my all time favorite driver, JV, is out of the Daytona 500, I now have to root for Franchitti because of his affiliation to his wife, Ashley Judd, being that she is one of the Kentucky Wildcats basketball's biggest fans.

 

I've liked Franchitti since before Ashley.

 

I liked Ashley, way before Franchitti! Her legs aren't as hairy! and she looks far better in a tee shirt!.......

 

And her rain dance was the best part of the 2007 Indy 500!

 

If you do a google image search on Ashley Judd, there are a lot of really interesting pics out there.

 

Time to take a break from googling Ashley Judd photos.

According to Robin Miller, Champ car teams have been told to quit working on their Panoz cars and wait for delivery of their new Dalaras. Merger announcement may come Wednesday:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...car-deal-done/

 

Fingers are crossed!!

 

Now Miller is saying the announcement is tomorrow and both Long Beach and Motegi will run on the same weekend with both races counting to the championship.

Sounds bizarre, but probably the only thing they could do on such short notice because both races are so critial to open wheel's future.

 

Announcement postponed until perhaps Monday . . . .

 

They got it done!!

Open-Wheel Unification Announced
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...ion-announced/

 

Now the hard part begins, getting the fans back.

The IRL really needs to get 2 or 3 engine manufacturers in the series. No matter how they try to spin it, having one engine supplier comes off as a 3rd tier spec. series, not top level racing.

 

This is just the first step in a very long road to rebuilding open wheel racing.

The schedule this year is what it is, but they'll need to do better next year. I'd like to see Cleveland, Road America, Mont Tremblant, and Toronto come back. Especially Road America. Lose a few of the 1.5 cookie cutter tracks.

The IRL chassis is long overdue for an update, and the DP01 seems like a good choice, and coincidentally was designed to accept either IRL or Champ Car spec engines. Speaking of which, Cosworth has built an IRL motor (The Chevord), and Honda knows their way around a 2.65 liter turbo motor. Choose an engine spec, and set both engine suppliers to work.

And stop letting all the stars wander off to be backmarkers in taxicabs.

 

I read or heard somewhere (maybe Robin on WindTunnel) that Ford wants to get back to Indy by 2010 (or maybe later date).

Definitely need Road America on the schedule!!

In a way I think we should thank F1 . . . . if they were still at Indy this might not have happened this year (or maybe it would have). A unified series (hopefully) will make the Indy 500 a premier race (as it once was) in the next 2-3 years. I think in a small way a middle finger has been raised to Bernie and F1 from Tony.

 

They definately need to expand their track types now, and engine manufactures, body styles, etc. I hope they keep the CC's Power to Pass thing, that's pretty cool, adds some extra strategy into the race.
I'm glad to see this happen, it definately needed to.

 

I agree with most of the comments.

+1 on the power to pass.

I'd like them to go to either larger displacement engines with inlet restrictors like ALMS so the cars have some more low end power. It takes way to long to get those little IRL engines wound up and they have way to narrow a power band.

Or, they should go with turbos. Given what's happening with production cars, turbos may be more relevant to future high performance street cars and can be set up for much broader power bands.

I'd like so see them racing at Michigan, Cleveland, Road America and Laguna Seca.
No more than 3 street races. Since Long Beach is a given, that leaves only 2 more street slots.
I think about 21 races would be the maximum they could hope to support.
+1 on forgetting those cookie cutter 1.5 ovals.

+3 on not letting the stars go off to become back marker taxi drivers. But the only way to do that is to have a big jump in prize $$ and get the fans back so the stars can sign big endorsement deals like the taxi drivers can.

Next thing on the agenda is for the France family to get out of the ugly psudo sports car business and fold up the Grand-Am so we can have 1 real sports car series.

 

I think Grand Am and ALMS are so philosophically different that there's room for both of them. The ALMS cars are a lot better looking and more technically relevant, but they're also pretty freakin' expensive, which will always keep the entry numbers low. I watch ALMS for the cool machinery, and Grand Am for a good race.

 

I would like to see them revert to the days when ingenuity and the ability to experiment were the key words in open wheel racing!....

 

Agreed blkstang06, but for right now I am happy just to have a unified series.

Also FYI . . .George, Kalkhoven on Wind Tunnel Tonight.