2010 IZOD Indycar Series discussion

nickyf1 wrote:In the early nineties it was America's answer to Formula One, around 4 chassis to choose from with 5 different engine manufacturers. It had it all, street courses, road courses, short ovals and superspeedways (most notably, Indianapolis for the Indy 500). The cars had more power than the F1 cars of the time with 850hp turbo engines, producing some of the most glorious engine sounds ever! The cars were heavier, gear changes slower but the racing was much much better. In 1995, Tony George (president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy Racing League..) Decided that CART was run wrong, he wanted American drivers, an all Oval calendar and for the Indy 500 to be treated as a great event with double points and a whole month devoted to it. For 1996, the inaugural IRL was held. It had only three events, and had a field of unknown drivers such as Robby Bhul, Tony Stewart and Scott Sharp.

For the first season they used CART chassis (Lola and Reynard chassis to be precise) that had been thrown out by teams because they were uncompetitive, old or had some fault. The season had 3 races, and nobody seemed to notice, or care. But the loss of the Indy 500 to CART was cataclysmic. In retaliation, CART ran the 'US 500' at Michigan, ran on the same day as the Indy 500. It was a failure, most of the main runners out before the green flag in a crash. But, otherwise, CART was a strong as ever, Jimmy Vasser winning the championship and the famous 'pass' by Alex Zinardi on the last lap of the season at the Corckscrew.

Till 2001, CART seemed invincible. The IRL had switched to its very own chassis with normally aspirated production engines as a low cost alternative to CART, and CART was busy making track speed records in their 1000hp turbos! However this lead to the death of Gonzalo Rodriguez at the Corckscrew and Greg Moore in one of the most horrible and horrific crashes in motorsport history which lead to a major acceleration in Superspeedway saftey. The next major blow was to come 2 years later. In 2001, CART was to run their first race at the 1.5 mile Texas Motorspeedway. This weekend would be the pivotal point of the CART vs IRL saga. The cars were reaching 240mph on this track. Now at Indy, a 2.5 mile superspeedway, or Fontana, a 2 mile superspeedway, this kind of speed would be fine, but, the length of Texas meant the corners were tighter and extremely high banked, and the blood in the drivers heads would be compressed down to the torso, causing many drivers to pass out or become dizzy and disorientated. TMS sued CART for millions, CART lost a huge chunk of their money, and the teams started to try out the Indy 500. Alex Zinardi was decapitated at the German 500, losing both his legs. This, once again put the safety of CART into question, as did the disastrous start to the 2002 Surfers Paradise race.

For 2002, Chip Gannassi joined the IRL, and in 2003, Rahal, Penske, Team Green and other joined, leaving CART. CART was left with Forsythe Racing and Newman/Hass Racing, who were not tempted by the IRL. In 2002, fedex terminated their sponsorship with CART, and CART became the Champ Car World Series (CCWS). In the next few years, the series was dominated by road courses and street tracks. And also dominated by one man in particular, Sebastien Bourdais. TV Ratings dropped, while the IRL gained popularity, however, as the ratings of CART dropped, the ratings of NASCAR rocketed, leaving both CART and IRL unknown..

In February of 2008, CCWS filed bankruptcy, and in a so called 'merger', CCWS teams were forced to buy Dalara IRL chassis with just 1 month of testing, this was a high blow for the CCWS teams, as they had just purchased their brand-new Panoz DP-01 CCWS chassis for 2007. They may be merged, but it is nowhere near as good as CART in the early nineties. And it never will be. If CART had never split, would we be tuning in to watch Lewis Hamilton or Kimi in a Penske or Newman/Hass at Road America? We shall never know..

Seems a bit random for me to post this, but ive been watching some old CART races, and decided to have a little rant

anyway, heres some great footage of CART from the nineties, ive included some great races and moments from the proper CART of the early nineties, and other important events from the late nineties and then some stuff from not that long ago in the CCWS days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vJSNTSmJWQ - 1993 Australian Indycar GP, Nigel Mansels first race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi2gGi66btQ&feature=related - 1993, onboard with Sulivan around Road America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO05KVS53uo&feature=related - Road America 1994, Villeneuves first win
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZxGvH6Asw - Indy 500 1995, last 11 laps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB3AgjyPnss - Michigan 500 1995, last lap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfWKNV0szfk - 1996 US 500 start crash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywsB65YfLOQ - 'the Pass' - Alex Zinardi on the last lap of Laguna in 1996
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMV8hsHXxHc - US 500 1999, Montoya and Kannan at the finnish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK4smk5_N_E - 1999, Montoya wins in Brazil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF8GTL0_rMA&feature=related - Gil de Ferran sets closed course speed record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3r6-ELiSy0 - CART's first attempt to break into europe at Rockingham
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR28fH1J_do - a look into the forces of the Texas race in 2001, in which CART were sued
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH7jKedsXsw - Horrible accident in 2002, Dominguez with broken bones in his spine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK8rQdMxWzg - 2003 Brands Hatch race, Bourdais first win
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QX4DKt0H9g - 2007, onboard with Justin Wilson at Road America