Do any IRL teams want Alex Tagliani

[GP Racer]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

I'm not trying to shoot you down or be a hassle, but with the 500, the Irl is hardly a raging success, nor is Champcar without it.

True enough, but it still is the cornerstone of open wheel racing here, and any future growth that can be had, will only be had with the Indy 500...

No hassles!

[marcus]

lets not let this thread get out of hand please folks

[trow]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

I'm not trying to shoot you down or be a hassle, but with the 500, the Irl is hardly a raging success, nor is Champcar without it.

No problem. I'm a 'rabid' IRL (IndyCar Series) fan, but not blinded by the obvious. Yes, the IRL is not YET a raging success with it, but without it ....

Also, look at where CART went after '96 without it .... dead ...

Champcar is trying to do something but are they knowledgable at running a sanctioned racing series, or opportunistic businessmen?

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by trow

No problem. I'm a 'rabid' IRL (IndyCar Series) fan, but not blinded by the obvious. Yes, the IRL is not YET a raging success with it, but without it ....

Also, look at where CART went after '96 without it .... dead ...

Yes agreed, so at the moment nothing is working. So jumping series wouldn't be such an obvious step.

Originally Posted by trow

Champcar is trying to do something but are they knowledgable at running a sanctioned racing series, or opportunistic businessmen?

Experienced businessman with an interest/passion for motorsports. They aren't experienced with running a sanctioned series no,not at all. I would guess they are trying to change this by surround themselves with people who do have knowledge and experience in these areas.

[indycool]

On the two subjects being discussed:

1. Tagliani seemingly has been promised another ride by the Amigos in CCWS and it's pretty late to be adding a car in IRL, so I think he'll stay in CCWS. Besides, I think he'd be behind people like Sarah Fisher, Jimmy Kite and Robby McGehee, etc., for IRL rides at Indy with Vision Racing or anyone else.

2. I keep hearing this "experienced businessmen" theory about the Amigos. Forsythe lost $30 million in MPH stock and has no sponsors currently for '05. Gentilozzi had to off a guy he had an agreement with to take $4 million of Glock's money and even some of the more ardent OWRS fans think he's full of it much of the time. Kalkhoven seems to fit the bill more than the others but he's from the dot.com business who got out at the right time and has made One Good Decision to make him rich. They've taken a bankrupt company and lost a ton more and will hafta pull out their wallets to fill a grid for '05. Yet Kalkhoven has said they hope to make money in '05 even with additional TV expenses, probably additional grid expenses for their own teams and others and no recognizable increase in revenues. As I posted on the CCWS forum, it'd be mid-to-late March before negotiations to squeeze money out of pay drivers would be complete to form a grid and that has proven to be true. As we get closer to Long Beach, CCWS gets closer to having their 18 cars. It's like a labor negotiation that goes right down to the strike factor. I don't see this as stable or healthy. I see it as very late.

[N I Tram]

Yea, the way ChampCar is filling its grid may be out of neccessity, but it's not healthy in the long term, especially as this is the third straight year that it's taken insider dealing and grants to simply get into double figures.

As it stands Tag is looking at the Forsythe deal, which would be a good outcome for everyone. If that fails he will probably get a midfield ChampCar ride - I doubt OWRS would be dumb enough to put him in an uncompetitive and underfunded team. Given that no decent IRL drive is available, and he's missed the first race as well as all the testing time, his best bet is probably to stay in ChampCars for now. As for next year, precedent suggests that the guys who suffer from the insider dealing don't want to continue, and if the IRL gets a Montreal race and keeps Pat, I can see him wanting to switch, and I wouldn't blame him.

[Snrub]

I'm not sure how deep we should be discussing CC in this forum, but I think the truth is somewhere inbetween regarding the CC owners' goals. There's no way Forsythe thinks he's going to turn a profit on his racing activities. As for KK's suggestions about being profitable, he's trying to make it look better. What's he going to say, "this series sucks?" I think often assertions/suggestions are made that CC is toast, etc., so the businessman line comes up. I don't think it's untrue, but it definately gets overplayed - although perhaps the reasoning for it's overplaying makes it justified.

Originally Posted by GP Racer

Hey Snrub, if OWRS is not the name of that series, than what do we call it these days?

I don't want to get into a big thing about this. Type in www.cart.com. What page URL does it take you to? www.champcarworldseries.com. The logo at the top of the page says "Champ Car World Series."

[GP Racer]

Originally Posted by Snrub

What's he going to say, "this series sucks?"

Well, it would be a start!



Whoa, whoa, take it easy boys, I'm just kidding for Petes sake!

[Kicking-back]

Tagliani has signed for Walker's Champ Car team.

[BootsOntheSide]

Hopefully he will do well, the team could prove competitive. Might be interesting to see whether PG's apparent betreyal has changed his attitude and approach in the long-term though.