2003 Indy 500 Technology

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IRL is the devil. Tony George needs to die and go to hell.

 

That's very strange because if I recall correctly, the reason why Honda decided to pull out of CART was because of the decision from the officials to switch from Turbocharged engines to NA engines. With that in mind, Honda no longer wanted to invest time and money to develop an entirely new NA engine to comply with the change and so instead decided to pull out of CART (that's what I read in magazines and heard on TV). Now that Honda has decided to invest money into IRL, a series which uses NA engines to power their cars, contradicts the very reason why Honda decided to pull out of CART. If that is in fact the reason, I say that Honda should have stayed in CART and invest more money into that series instead of jumping over to IRL, which to me isn't that challenging nor exciting given the fact that it's all on oval tracks.

 

The IRL is starting to grow while CART is about to cease to exist. I think Honda sees that they can make some money by producing engines for the IRL.

 

You see? This is where American Motorsports is messing up big time. CART series is challenging (or at least it was a few years back), requiring much better driving skills for passing on tight road courses. That's why I originally liked CART over IRL because it was more similar to F1 racing, although not as demanding but still exciting to watch and follow. IRL to me is boring...it's like NASCAR except in an open wheeled race car. The concept of racing around and around in an oval track is just not exciting...that's the LAST thing we need is another oval racing series to hit it big.

 

My thoughts exactly. The reason I don't like the IRL is because they are stealing everything away from the better open wheeled racing series (CART) to make their boring oval series prosper. Now CART has filed bankruptcy and it might have another chance under new ownership, but I doubt it will last. Makes me mad.

 

I find that oval racing is very exiting. I watched A.J. Foyt win his 4th Indy 500 in 1977. I was 12 years old and I watched the entire race(every minute). It is really hard to predict what will happen throughout the course of a race. When the yellow flag flys, strategy goes out the window. This makes it interesting. Cars running wheel to wheel, nose to tail at speeds in excess of 225 mph. They run on the ragged edge, not knowing what is on the other side of the envelope. Pushing the limits of machine and man. This is exciting.

The Indy 500 is the biggest spectacle in motorsports, along with the GP of monaco and the Daytona 500. Don't get me wrong, I love road racing. I have studied car control since I was about 14 or 15 years old. Cart also races on ovals as well as IRL. At Fontana, I have heard of speeds reaching nearly 250 mph. How can this not be exciting?

Before Scott Brayten was killed when a tire suddenly went down at Indy, there were unofficial speeds of 238 mph. About 245 mph on the straight, about 230 in the corners.

This was before IRL changed the formula. Over the years, the cars just get faster and faster, then when people start dying, the sanctioning bodies slow them down. Within the next 5 to 10 years, expect speeds of 240 to 250 mph at Indy. Records and statistics will prove this. There is definitely a pattern. If you think about it, 50 years ago, nobody ever dreamed Tom Sneva would have qualified at 200 mph in 1980 at Indy. Just 12 years later, Roberto Guerero qualified at 232 mph which is a increase of 32 mph in just 12 years, one of the biggest increases of speed in automotive history that I know of.

It kinda sucks that CART is doing bad but I have lost a little interest since Michael Andretti, Al unser Jr, Danny Sullivan, Rick Mears and some of the old school drivers retired from racing.

I think that IRL has some exciting close wheel to wheel racing action. I like sports car racing, like the 24 hours of Daytona.

A true racing enthusiast will like all forms of the sport. Trucks, sports cars, boats, motocross, off road racing, Pikes peak or whatever.

 

I've become very disinterested in American open wheel racing. I wish Honda or that is to say American Honda had chose a different path when they pulled out of CART. I rather they spent their advertising dollars and energies in sports car racing such as American Lemans Series or SCCA World challenge and showcased the NSX and S2000.

I'd rather they went the direction Porsche,Audi,and Ferrari chose; sports car racing like the Rolex series and run at the 24 Hours in Daytona.

We all would have better off because the parts used in an endurance racing platform would have meant better street pieces for us.

King Tony's IRL is only good at one venue(INDY) and CART is dying a slow painful death.

 

That was the beauty of CART: Ovals, Road Courses, Street Venues, it was the most diverse series out there.

The Indy 500 is no longer the greatest spectacle however, the Brickyard 500 now draws bigger crowds and ratings - I personally stopped watching the I500 the day IRL split, and only started looking again when some of the CART guys came back (gee, guess who won). Now, IRL has most of the best CART guys so ..... I have more free time on Sundays, because I'm opposed to Tony Georges bid to make North America a Oval Only country (NASCAR and IRL) for our major Motorsports.

Don't get me wrong, places like Bristol in The Nextell Cup can be awesome, but some of those tracks (the cookie-cuter ones like California) can be sleep inducing if not for the "debris on the track" flags late in the race to bunch the field.

 

The promoters of NASCAR have done their homework.