End of Season Thoughts, Part 1.

Following the conclusion of the IZOD Indycar Championship celebration, as viewed on Versus last night, I was left with several lingering thoughts, some positive, some negative, but all with the future of Indycar in mind:

1. Dario Franchitti has left no question on his status as Indycar legend. His two Indy 500 wins and three Indycar Championships are just the starting point.  He has proven over the course of the last 7 years that he excels with astounding consistency on ovals and road/street courses.  As cursory review of his career accomplishments will quite easily support this and his  latest Championship title shows him the best current example of all-around driver.  Certainly being on one a top-level (if not the best) team in the Indycar series throughout his career hasn't hurt, but his delivering the goods in the best equipment is what keeps him in the best seats in the business.  He is deserving of every comparison to existing Indycar legends with names such as Meyer, Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Rahal, Mears.


2.The sparse crowds as seen (if seen) on the second-tier television broadcasts are horribly damaging to the image of the Indycar Series, and cannot continue beyond this season. The perception to a worldwide televison audience that 'nobody cares' instantly discounts and cements Indycar as a 'strange and curious' little niche sport at best. The great difficulty I see is that the action as seen in person is vastly better than the on TV product.  Having seen both, the only thing on TV that has given me those eye-popping moments experienced in person is the action captured by the panning in-car cameras. On TV, one often misses the scale and speed of full action, sound, and smells of these wonderful machines and drivers, traded for intrusive graphics, lacking coverage of on-track stories, and questionable vignettes.  Hopefully the venues and Indycar can begin work immediately on vastly improving attendance next year and TV will provide a more immersive and less distracted experience for it's viewers.

More thoughts to come...

Bringing Back the Mystique (rambling alert)

I sense the mystique and allure of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (and progeny racing form) is all but gone - victim of the erosion of time.

I associate the Speedway's allure and mystique with its relative greatness; a greatness which, at its best provided generations with a powerful symbol of optimism and confidence, at its worst reminded us of our own mortality, but always seemed to give an accurate sense of place and time. I think it valuable to maintain this asset and believe it is possible to retrieve and reintroduce it to the many people who've yet to fully experience it which brings me to the genesis of this post - answering the question of 'how to best communicate the experience of the Speedway'. In my thinking, the answer to the question could serve to be a catalyst for gaining followers and fans for the Speedway and thereby, the Indycar Series.

This whole thought process began while watching a video interview on YouTube of one of my favorite skiers, Glen Plake, talking about the original ski documentaries communicating the experience of skiing to those who've never been, revealing to me a similarity in how the visceral experience of the Speedway and Indycars can be. I've always had a difficult time putting in words what the experience is like other that to always end by saying, "you just have to be there in person".  My thought became focused on how an extremely well-done documentary film on the Speedway and the early racing forms which inhabited it would serve well the current Speedway and also to a lesser degree, Indycar racing (anyone have Ken Burns' phone number and how has he not already done one on the Speedway?).

The feeling I have can maybe (perhaps too dramatically) be best described as reminiscent of the Terrence Mann speech from Field of Dreams. A summary history of my experiences related to the Speedway (which exist in the origins of this blog), and of the vast Speedway lineage serve to support this feeling, but not explain it. I've enjoyed every single trip I've ever made to the Speedway and arriving at its open gates reminds me of those previous trips. Open gates... racing's Valhalla is open to the public from 8-5 most every day of the year, so it seems nearly inexplicable that the place isn't teeming with all sorts of racing pilgrims.

Giving the public who have never been, a genuine and visceral experience of being there could make them want to experience in person and possibly again and again.

Or perhaps, one can argue the relatively decreased mystique and allure of Indycars and the Speedway is just another accurate reflection of the times - one with little regard for the appreciation of history and experience versus one with more regard for the 'I, me, my, now' world of finger-snap solutions and immediate gratification.

I'm afraid the latter is more true and that trend seems to often continue at the expense of many great things which already exist.

D(ecision)-Day: July 14, 2010

Taken from a comment posted by yours truly on another blog owned by the one and only Jack Arute, in response to the impending ICONIC decision regarding the 2012 IndyCar chassis regulations:

"It would seem, on what could be the very precipice of the most critical decision in OW history, that what the fan wants has not changed one iota over the last 30 years – a symbol of progress and glimpses of the technology of tomorrow.

LONG gone are the days when ever-increasing speeds (at Indy) at all costs meant progress, and I’d have to say despite the yearnings of a vocal minority who long for that past, to try and return to that previous time would be a monumental step backward.

Tomorrow will by many accounts be a time of new energies and technologies. Many on either coast may envision a time without autos, but the 44-46 other states in between them would have a different story. The automobile will never disappear, but again become the symbol of innovation and IndyCar can once again lead the way by embracing multiple propulsion systems. I’m talking about cellulosic ethanol and diesel, hydrogen, electric, whatever…

True innovation for the future through racing would seem to comprise the ability to develop the most powerful engine that uses the least amount of fuel over a given distance. To me the chassis is secondary in this formula albeit one that could also use innovative design to increase the ability of the engine.

This is where the Delta Wing seems to have been right on the money. As much as I prefer a time when an IndyCar “looked like an Indycar”, that time may be over and to eliminate the DeltaWing from being part of the competition, would seem to be delaying the inevitable future. I’m not a big fan of the looks of the DW, but it’s innovative concepts are certainly intriguing. 

I say give it a chance. No one will be laughing if Roger Penske ends up plunking his money down on it and wins with it now will they?"

My assessment of the engine package was that the "opening" of the specifications was a timid toe-dip into the pools of the unknown. A far more open and broad-ranging propulsion equation would've been what I'm looking for, something akin to the existing ALMS regulations, specifically the Green-X Challenge.  At any rate, to me the answer from the fans couldn't be more clear, "Men and women of chassis engineering - welcome to the IZOD IndyCar Series, have at it!"