2012 Champ Car World series looks the goods.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I would have thought anyone who wants decent racing wants this,







and not this.

[Paradise City]

Great racing, elegant cars, character-driven broadcasting, each event an epic on its own terms and a series fit for driving kings like Mario and Emerson. That was CART in the nineties.

You'd want to be off your head to crave that.

[picchiofan]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

Great racing, elegant cars, character-driven broadcasting, each event an epic on its own terms and a series fit for driving kings like Mario and Emerson. That was CART in the nineties.

That was CART in the 80's. They'd ****ed it all away by 92 and handed the mantle of American racing to Nascar. TG stepped in to save his primary race before the whole thing imploded. The smart team owners such as Ganassi, Penske and Rahal bailed out on the stupidity that was the CART/CC guys. The series limped along for nearly 15 years (paaaainfully), but it was dead long before the split.

I will give champcar fans one thing though, crapwagon is a fun window into what mental illness truly is like. It's like a bunch of brain damaged 13 year olds trying to one up each other on who can hate something more. It's pathetic, but kinda funny at the same time.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by picchiofan

That was CART in the 80's. They'd ****ed it all away by 92 and handed the mantle of American racing to Nascar. TG stepped in to save his primary race before the whole thing imploded. The smart team owners such as Ganassi, Penske and Rahal bailed out on the stupidity that was the CART/CC guys. The series limped along for nearly 15 years (paaaainfully), but it was dead long before the split.

I will give champcar fans one thing though, crapwagon is a fun window into what mental illness truly is like. It's like a bunch of brain damaged 13 year olds trying to one up each other on who can hate something more. It's pathetic, but kinda funny at the same time.

'92? The split happened in '96. As for stepping in and saving his primary race, the Indy 500 was never under threat and by stepping in, Tony George nearly destroyed AOWR and it's still reeling from the repercussions.

[one five five]

I reckon its great, very amusing stuff and he should keep it up. Some are taking it all abit too seriously...

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

'92? The split happened in '96. As for stepping in and saving his primary race, the Indy 500 was never under threat and by stepping in, Tony George nearly destroyed AOWR and it's still reeling from the repercussions.

The die was cast for the 'split' by 1992 though, and the IRL was announced in 1994 to start in 1996.

The Indy 500 as a whole month of May was under threat at the time, CART pushing for it to be reduced to be as little as a one-weekend affair......TG rightly or wrongly was looking out for the IMS event.

[ascarracinguk]

Originally Posted by picchiofan

I will give champcar fans one thing though, crapwagon is a fun window into what mental illness truly is like. It's like a bunch of brain damaged 13 year olds trying to one up each other on who can hate something more. It's pathetic, but kinda funny at the same time.

Haha I think you're the one mentally Ill if your delusional enough to thing TG stepped in to save the day!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by one five five

I reckon its great, very amusing stuff and he should keep it up. Some are taking it all abit too seriously...

It is amusing and long may it continue.

Originally Posted by one five five

The die was cast for the 'split' by 1992 though, and the IRL was announced in 1994 to start in 1996.

The Indy 500 as a whole month of May was under threat at the time, CART pushing for it to be reduced to be as little as a one-weekend affair......TG rightly or wrongly was looking out for the IMS event.

The race itself was never under threat just the Month of May. May's an excellent month for racing and another race could have been accomodated as opposed to being dedicated to just one; take advantage of the good weather and a 31 day month.

[Paradise City]

Originally Posted by picchiofan

That was CART in the 80's. They'd ****ed it all away by 92 and handed the mantle of American racing to Nascar. TG stepped in to save his primary race before the whole thing imploded. The smart team owners such as Ganassi, Penske and Rahal bailed out on the stupidity that was the CART/CC guys. The series limped along for nearly 15 years (paaaainfully), but it was dead long before the split.

I will give champcar fans one thing though, crapwagon is a fun window into what mental illness truly is like. It's like a bunch of brain damaged 13 year olds trying to one up each other on who can hate something more. It's pathetic, but kinda funny at the same time.

Labeling other racing fans as 'creepy' and 'mentally ill' simply for preferring their preferred racing series, is, well, creepy and mentally suspect, pinnochiofan.

No, it was CART from the 80's right up into the turn of the century that delivered on-track. Perhaps longer as I didn't have access to much of the coverage of the brief Panoz era. CART regularly delivered on the track despite silly backroom shenanigans which is part and parcel of rule by committee. I'm not uncritical of CART management, they got very complacent but compared to Tony 'Nero' George though, his fiddle and his burning capital, CART was a model of tranquility and good governance.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by one five five

I reckon its great, very amusing stuff and he should keep it up. Some are taking it all abit too seriously...

The die was cast for the 'split' by 1992 though, and the IRL was announced in 1994 to start in 1996.

The Indy 500 as a whole month of May was under threat at the time, CART pushing for it to be reduced to be as little as a one-weekend affair......TG rightly or wrongly was looking out for the IMS event.

Well 155, pinnochiofan is just trolling to get a nasty response, he's just a drone that will continue to recite his gibberjabber and has no interest in debating any facts or results of tony george's narcissistic obsessions.

The indy 500 was NOT under threat at the time. The only interest was in reducing some of the days at the beginning of the month and compressing it into 2-3 weeks, preferably 2, which the irl and tony george ended up even doing anyways. The reason for that is one, they wanted to put another race in early May up and two, which I find most people have NO knowledge of is what the speedway did to teams in the CART era and probably still does. And that is the speedway nickles and dimes teams for everything from garage rental to utilities to food to access badges to equipment rental and it's all at excessive markup. Teams didn't want to be at the speedway for 4 weeks with tony george bending them over a barrel.

If you actually know the history, it had nothing to do with protecting the 500, what tony wanted and demanded from CART in November 1991 was total control of the sport. When CART owners would not turn over a successful, very profitable motor racing business to someone for nearly free, especially someone like tony george with zero qualifications to run anything, tony took his bat and ball and went home.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

When CART owners would not turn over a successful, very profitable motor racing business to someone for nearly free, especially someone like tony george with zero qualifications to run anything, tony took his bat and ball and went home.

Those zero qualifications certainly didn't pay any dividends when it came to running the IRL.

[codename_47]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

Labeling other racing fans as 'creepy' and 'mentally ill' simply for preferring their preferred racing series, is, well, creepy and mentally suspect, pinnochiofan.

No, it was CART from the 80's right up into the turn of the century that delivered on-track. Perhaps longer as I didn't have access to much of the coverage of the brief Panoz era. CART regularly delivered on the track despite silly backroom shenanigans which is part and parcel of rule by committee. I'm not uncritical of CART management, they got very complacent but compared to Tony 'Nero' George though, his fiddle and his burning capital, CART was a model of tranquility and good governance.

What's usually lost in these things is that no-one was complaining about the on-track product of Champcar, it was just the money and the mis-management ruining what was a great formula.

TG stepped in and not only put a permanent dent in the popularity of the sport for his own selfish interests, but he installed a racing formula that, while became easy to stage side by side finishes, was the complete opposite of what most true racing fans want to see on track.
Cars with far too much downforce and hardly any horsepower? Seriously?
Sadly that's a legacy Indycar is still struggling with to this day.
It is almost like after the split they combined the Champcar tracks and the IRL
on-track formula, which speaking as someone who considered himself on the Champcar side of the fence is the worst possible end result!

Even when they were running only ovals, if you'd have said to me you could end the split, keeping Champcar machinery and philosophy of racing formula but raced on IRL tracks, I'd have been somewhat satisfied.
I'm sure they would've incorporated Long Beach into the series anyway and maybe a couple of other token races, but now you have IRL downforce laden, ugly, hard to overtake cars on mainly street tracks and road courses, which is a complete illogic when you consider the racing spec is all about staging phony photo finishes on ovals...

And speaking as someone who used to be big on Champcar, no, Mark Plourde speaks for no-one but himself, everyone likes to have a bit of a giggle about him, no matter where their loyalties lie

[bjohnsonsmith]

Just in case everyone had forgotten, here are the current standings so far this season.

http://champcar-ws.com/standings

[Peat]

A rare DNF for Plourde. Are the wheels starting to fall off the Plourde wagon? He is all over the tabloids leading to speculation that he is becoming increasingly distracted by his new found celebrity.

Stick in there Mark. We're right behind you!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Peat

A rare DNF for Plourde. Are the wheels starting to fall off the Plourde wagon? He is all over the tabloids leading to speculation that he is becoming increasingly distracted by his new found celebrity.

Stick in there Mark. We're right behind you!

How does Pagenaud go it?

[Jonerz]

Originally Posted by Peat

A rare DNF for Plourde. Are the wheels starting to fall off the Plourde wagon? He is all over the tabloids leading to speculation that he is becoming increasingly distracted by his new found celebrity.

Stick in there Mark. We're right behind you!

A world where the great Mark Plourde doesn't win everything is a hollow, empty place. I hope he rebounds soon. Perhaps some engineering and management changes are needed. I bet Mike Hull, Robin Hill, Mo Nunn, and Roger Penske are all free and willing to help out.

Also who is the Clark Davidson kid? http://champcar-ws.com/clark_davidson He looks quite familiar and has a decent, if somewhat spotty resume. Also, 5'9 217lbs really shows you the kind of athlete you have to be to pilot a Champ Car. Wowee!

Chris

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Originally Posted by Jonerz

Also who is the Clark Davidson kid? http://champcar-ws.com/clark_davidson He looks quite familiar and has a decent, if somewhat spotty resume. Also, 5'9 217lbs really shows you the kind of athlete you have to be to pilot a Champ Car. Wowee!

He won the 2005 F3000 world championship, so he must be good!

[Yannick]

Clark Davidson? Does this mean Mark Plourde wants to opt out of his own website for the benefit of this Jarno Trulli lookalike? If it means a comeback of the Pescara Grand Prix as part of the ChampCar schedule, it should be fine with me ;-)

By the way, what is ChampCar 2012's stance on AJ Allmendinger's failed drug test?

[FordCosworthPanoz]

So I'm guessing the 2012 CCWS Edmonton Indy got higher television ratings than the real one?

Amazing how they could hold a race in the same place on the same day with many of the same drivers, incredible iron man performances by Simon, Justin, James and Oriol

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Jonerz

A world where the great Mark Plourde doesn't win everything is a hollow, empty place. I hope he rebounds soon. Perhaps some engineering and management changes are needed. I bet Mike Hull, Robin Hill, Mo Nunn, and Roger Penske are all free and willing to help out.

Also who is the Clark Davidson kid? http://champcar-ws.com/clark_davidson He looks quite familiar and has a decent, if somewhat spotty resume. Also, 5'9 217lbs really shows you the kind of athlete you have to be to pilot a Champ Car. Wowee!

Chris

Clark Davidson looks suspiciously like F1 driver Jarno Trulli. Is this a case of identity theft?

[Peat]

What's remarkable is that Clark won the F3000 title before he was even eligible for an international racing licence. I have never heard of that before, the guy must be dynamite!

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Originally Posted by Peat

What's remarkable is that Clark won the F3000 title before he was even eligible for an international racing licence. I have never heard of that before, the guy must be dynamite!

A bit like Plourde winning international races at 12 or so. ChampCar is full of extraordinary talents these days!

[mountainstar]

The DP 01 is getting a bit long in the tooth so they are going to have to start thinking about a new chassis formula soon.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

The DP 01 is getting a bit long in the tooth so they are going to have to start thinking about a new chassis formula soon.

I'm sure Mark Plourde will have it all figured out, .

[bjohnsonsmith]

Apparently Simon Pagenaud is champion, with Mark Plourde runner up.

[Burp]

Dam, I missed all the races this year.

Is there a 2013 calendar yet, glad someone else won it for a change