The dawn of open-wheel's new era gets strong start
March 30, 2008
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -The most memorable thing about the first event in American open-wheel racing's new era might have been what didn't happen.
Saturday night's Gainsco Indy 300, the opening race of the newly unified IRL IndyCar Series, went off with little fuss and solid runs by most of the eight entrants from the recently absorbed Champ Car World Series.
``I think every one of those guys should be very proud,'' said winner Scott Dixon, a former IRL series champion who was duly impressed by a race that featured 25 starters - the biggest field outside the Indianapolis 500 in six years - and yet only three caution flags in 200 laps.
That was surprising, considering that most of the newcomers had little or no experience in oval racing.
The deal that finally ended the 12-year rivalry between the two American open-wheel series came a month ago, meaning the new IRL teams had little time to take delivery, build and test their new Dallara Hondas.
Almost everyone, including several IRL officials, expected - and dreaded - a crash-filled event on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval, where the speed differential between the top IRL drivers and the slowest of the newcomers was nearly 10 mph.
While Dixon and fellow IRL veterans Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon were lapping the track at speeds up to 210 mph, the former CART entries were turning laps as slow as 201.
``Yeah, I learned a lot,'' said Oriol Servia, who led the newcomers with a 12th-place finish.
The Spaniard is the most experienced of the former Champ Car drivers, having raced on a number of ovals. But the IRL's Dallara Hondas are a very different animal from the Panoz Cosworths that were raced in Champ Car last year.
``I learned a lot about the car - what happens when you have five cars in front of you in a superspeedway and you have no downforce,'' Servia said. ``These are scary feelings. I think there's going to be plenty of those this season.''
Still, he added, ``It was good fun and I can only imagine when we're up to speed how fun it's going to be.''
The race appeared to belong to Kanaan, another former IRL champ, who was ahead of Dixon by more than 2 seconds with eight laps to go.
But HVM Racing rookie Ernesto Viso, one of the transitional drivers and 10 laps off the leader's pace, apparently punctured a tire and spun in front of Kanaan, who almost made it past. Instead, Kanaan clipped the rear of Viso's skidding car and knocked his right front tire askew.
During the ensuing caution period, Kanaan stayed on the track, leading the race for several more laps with a car basically running on three wheels. But he headed for the pits when the green flag waved on lap 197, giving the lead and the win to Dixon.
``I've been around a long time and the race is not finished until the checkered flag,'' Kanaan said. ``With 10 laps to go, I was looking around and I was thinking, `This looks too easy.' ``
Dixon, who lost the 2007 IndyCar title to Dario Franchitti when he ran out of fuel on the last turn of the last lap at the season finale at Chicagoland Speedway, was feeling a whole lot better after starting the new year with his 11th IRL win, this one coming from the pole.
And he did it with a car that didn't handle very well.
``For a bad day, we still came away with maximum points,'' the New Zealander said. ``That's what we've got to do. We've got to hit the start hard and gain as many points as possible because I think, last year, that's how we lost it (with a slow start).''
Andretti, who had failed to finish in his first two tries at Homestead, led a race-high 87 laps and wound up second, followed by Wheldon, whose string of Homestead victories ended at three, and Castroneves, the last driver on the lead lap.
Now it's on to the temporary street circuit in St. Petersburg next weekend, where the former Champ Car teams could be more competitive.
``Yeah, I'm excited about going to St. Pete,'' Servia said. ``I think there's a little bit too high expectations for the transition guys just because it's our kind of track. We're still fighting these big teams that know this car for five years.''
Big changes possible in future IRL schedules
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- The IRL IndyCar Series schedule of the future could look a lot different than the 2008 slate that includes 10 oval races and up to nine events on road or street circuits.
Series founder Tony George, who initiated the recent unification of the two American open-wheel series under the IRL banner, says he envisions a more balanced schedule down the road -- similar to the schedule run by rival CART in the 1990s.
"I think it's likely we'll see more of a balance than we have today," George said. "I don't know what it might be. Recently as this week, it's suggested it might be six (ovals), six (road courses) and six (temporary street circuits).
"But I don't know what that might be. We could have 18 races. We could have 20, 22 races. We could see some more ovals developed. We could see some ovals fall off the schedule. We could see new opportunities."
George and other IRL officials are hoping to finalize the 2008 schedule within the next two weeks, adding two additional events from the former Champ Car schedule.
Champ Car's recent bankruptcy filing tentatively was approved by a judge in Indianapolis and is expected to be official in a week or 10 days. After that, the IRL must go to the FIA, the international ruling body of motorsports, for approval of the race dates.
Edmonton is expected to be held on July 26, while the race at Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia, likely would be run on Oct. 26.
The Champ Car race in Long Beach, Calif., will go on as scheduled, with the teams from the soon-to-be-defunct series to run their old equipment the day after the IRL event in Motegi, Japan.
All three of those events are expected to become permanent fixtures on the IndyCar schedule, with George saying that other former Champ Car events also will be considered for a return to the schedule in 2009 or beyond.
"I think what this gives us is the opportunity to really look at the very best prospects for building a unified open-wheel series going forward," George said."
AMERICAN DRIVERS: One of the big complaints about open-wheel racing in recent years has been the dearth of American stars.
With the retirement of big-name American drivers of the late 20th century such as Al Unser Sr., Al Unser Jr., Michael and Mario Andretti, Johnny Rutherford, Rick Mears, Tom Sneva and several others, both the IRL and CART/Champ Car have had problems finding new drivers who capture the public's imagination.
As the 2008 IndyCar season began with Saturday night's Gainsco Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the biggest American names in the newly unified series are Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal -- all with star quality but only one victory -- Andretti's -- among them.
Rahal, the son of former open-wheel star Bobby Rahal, had to sit out the opener after crashing his new Dallara in testing here Tuesday. His team, one of the former Champ Car outfits, was unable to make repairs in time for Friday's opening practice and qualifying for the race.
That left seven Americans on the 25-car grid for the opener.
One problem is that NASCAR has become a destination for many young U.S. drivers, rather than the IRL's Indianapolis 500, which was THE big event for many decades. Even recent IRL and Indy 500 champions Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr. have jumped to NASCAR.
George said the IRL fields have always been about half American drivers and that he is optimistic about building new U.S. stars for the future.
"You know, not everyone aspires to grow up and race stock cars," George said. "I just think we have to encourage them and continue to provide opportunity for them. But certainly nothing could be more appropriate than to have international drivers in what is an international series. (The) Indianapolis 500 has always been an international event and has always had international drivers compete in it.
"I don't think we want to do anything more than provide opportunity for those that want to participate in this form of sport," George added.
TOGETHER AGAIN: In the wake of unification, the IRL has modified its marketing slogan.
Last year, signs promoting the IndyCar Series read: "I am Indy."
The amended logo reads: "I am Indy. One Series. All the Stars."
Both open-wheel series struggled to find meaningful sponsorship, but Terry Angstadt, president of the IRL's commercial division, said the reaction of the national business community has been positive since last month's unification announcement that ended the 12-year split.
"I've been absolutely overwhelmed with the reaction," Angstadt said. "Far better than we thought it would be. And you never really know what to expect.
"We knew some people would use a convenient excuse in terms of, "Gosh, yeah, I'll invest when all of this might be one (series).' We're kind of calling those in."