Posted on 05/26/2005 1:34:46 PM PDT by ZGuy
Mario Andretti doesn't seem to enthusiastic about his grandson Marco's chances.
Roger that ~ I haven't followed the IRL very much as I prefer road racing, I see they are running a few road courses now.
Say ~ have you ever attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed?
That and the Isle of Man TT are a couple of things I would love to attend before I die. :)
I would love to go to the Isle of Man. It was ironic Joey Dunlop won what must be the most dangerous race in the world so many times, but he died in Estonia.
We've been going to the USGP at Indy since it started. For my money, it's the best I've seen. We used to spend $140 per ticket to sit in the paddock, but last year we got general admission for $35 and sat at the end of the Hulman stretch. Watching the braking speeds at a distance of 50 feet off the track was amazing. Plus, you get all three days events on the same ticket. Schumi up close...gets no better!
I found this. Strange the way the headline writers thought Foyt's victory was more important than the deaths of the other two drivers:
Enjoy! I was born in Indy and love the people there. They put the LA-LA landers to shame in every category.
My dad used to go to the race every year through the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s and then one year he didn't go and they had it anyway. ;o) My tradition out here is to play hooky from church and watch the race on TV.
I was born and raised in Cincinnati and we used to pop over to Indiana for the melons. Indiana grows the best sugar melons (Cantaloupe to most folks).
Ahhh...what a Summertime treat.
Dead on! Tony George has completely ruined the sport. A drugged-up, drunken, spoiled child who has driven the race into oblivion.
I was at the apex of Turn 3 when Emmo got into Little Al with just over a lap to go! What a great race! Thought I would be spending every Memorial Day weekend for the rest of my life at the Speedway. You couldn't drag me there now. NASCAR is so much more exciting and the drivers are so much more likeable and in touch with the fans. Just think, Helio Castrneves could become a 3 time champ this year. That says it all. And Greg Ray broadcasting the qualifying made watching paint dry seem like extreme sports.
Sterling Moss is right up there in my all time favorite GP and sports car drivers.
Yeah and Joey got snuffed on a 125cc bike.
When I was a kid, we had some cousins that always made the trip to Indy for the 500 and every year at Christmas a big thing was for them to show their home movies of the race. It's not as big as it was in past days, but in its time the 500 was THE race in a way nothing in NASCAR has ever approached.
Poor Jimmy. He was the Ayrton Senna/Michael Schumacher of his day - and some.
FYI ~
INDY ANNIVERSARY:@ This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the Wood Brothers helping driver Jimmy Clark win the Indianapolis 500.
At the time, the Wood Brothers' pit crew was regarded as the best in NASCAR. So Clark summoned the crew to Indy to service his car during its stops. Team founders Leonard and Glen Wood went with the team and watched Clark beat runner-up Parnelli Jones by two laps.
``When they got up there, they changed some things on the fueling and I think their total time in the pits that day was equal to one stop of the other guys,'' said Eddie Wood, Glen's son.
Excellent info, as always.
I'm here to serve. ;)
Absolutely on all the points you have made. I found this article last week while messing around:
http://www.automobilemag.com/columns/0306_americandriver/
Very graphic, if you have not read it before--especially the infield hospital part.
No, it's not Tony George. It's a lot of things. I think the major reason that has contributed to the "decline" of The Race is the proliferation of racing on television. Nearly every single week of the year (certainly at least 40), a person can watch a major race, whether it is Indy/Champ car, F1, NASCAR, Le Mans, Sebring, etc. During The Race's heyday, in the 60s and 70s, there simply wasn't that much racing on TV. If you liked racing, well, there weren't too many other choices than watching the 500 in May. That made it huge. Even since the split in 95, look at the amount of television coverage that NASCAR has gotten--since 95, NASCAR has gone from basically a time-filler on ESPN to having most races broadcast on a major network. Certainly you have to give credit to the folks in NASCAR for the growth they have experienced (I tend to like the "old" NASCAR a little better myself), but you can't deny that the growth of NASCAR has had a detrimental effect on Indy.
Second, I think Tony George had the foresight to realize that there was a problem inherent in IndyCar racing that needed addressed. I'm not a fan of all of Tony's moves (changing the qualifying format from three days to two or this year's move from three days to four or moving the start time to noon instead of eleven) but one of the major things that people complain about in open-wheel racing now is a lack of American drivers, and that was what George attempted to address when he started the Indy Racing League--American drivers with affordable, safe, cars. Don't forget, lots of the American drivers currently in NASCAR came up racing Indy-type cars, whether it was IndyLights or whatnot; a bunch of them switched to NASCAR because they weren't able to get rides in the CART-dominated series. Certainly you can quibble with the way Tony George has handled things at Indy, but all in all, he's been a really good force for the 500, and I think he's done a fine job.
Third, I think an increase in all sports on TV has contributed to the decline of The Race. I think there are a variety of other reasons, but to lay the "decline" of the 500 at the feet of Tony George, in my mind, is just plain wrong.
And by the way, the 500 thumped the Charlotte race in tv ratings.
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