Well, I watched the interview with TG last night and I must say, I found it quite interesting. The host Dave DeSpane, asked some very good, and hard hitting questions in the 45 minute interview.
TG started off by saying why he created the IRL in the first place and gave most of the reasons we already know, but he did say something that sort of surprised me. He said he created the series to give more opportunity to teams, drivers, and sponsors. He felt at that time there were enough to go around to support 2 series, and that new opportunities were needed that CART wasn't supplying. He said that he appreciates all that CART had done in its 25 year existence, and was aware of there history. He talked about the IRL mgmt., with one man rule, being better than CART's rule by majority. It's the way all of the successful series are run.
About the buyout, he insisted he was trying to unify the series, not put CART out of business. He admitted that he had no use for the CART engines, but said it had to be part of the deal, for Ford's sake. In other words it was a deal breaker. He seemed to be caught rather flat footed in court though, and his team seemed not to understand what it was going to take to win. Reconcilliation now looks next to impossible.(personally, I think thats a good thing at this point)He's looking to a future for the IRL, and thats it.
On his vision, he said that road racing was always part of the long term plan, and he says that now the time is right to do it, with 2 to 4 road races in N America only. He also claims he never said that the series would be all-American, that all drivers were always welcome. When asked how come all the USAC drivers are going to NASCAR and becoming stars there, instead of the IRL, he seemed to make it sound as if there is some friction between his series and USAC, and that he doesn't seem to care if they go to NASCAR. I thought his attitude on this issue was rather strange, when you consider how many USAC guys are the top guys in NASCAR.
On costs of the IRL, he claims some of the bigger teams are spending more than they really have to, on R&D, enineers, etc., etc. which makes it look like costs have risen. He said you can still compete in the IRL pretty cheaply.
On F1, he hopes to keep the USGP at Indy beyond 2005. He said the new date will help, and Bernie likes it too.
All-in-all, a good interview. I have to say though, that he appears to be tired of being the "evil one" in all of this. I think the name calling and evil spiritness of the Tali-CART "fans" is getting to him, and he is ready to go his own way, and for that I'm glad. The 2 series are now going in opposite directions, and there could be room for 2 seperate and distinct series. He said he's in this for the long term, and he won't give up on the IRL. It will be around for along time.
Thats good news for the IRL fans!
