Good bye Michigan

[luke]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...RTS01/70716039

[D.R.T.]

Fontana, now Michigan is not a good trend.

Slowly leaving the ovals just as CART has done previously

[BootsOntheSide]

I only hope it's not replaced with another road/street race. The balance is already a little too far away from the ovals which the series was created around - and that was at a time when ChampCars still had a balance.

[Fish_Flake]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

I only hope it's not replaced with another road/street race. The balance is already a little too far away from the ovals which the series was created around - and that was at a time when ChampCars still had a balance.

Essentially, it's being replaced with Penske's street race in Detroit.

[Knowlesy]

Sad to lose these tracks. Oh dear me.

No open wheelers at Michigan is just tragic.

[luke]

I don't know if you guys know but I read some where that Phoenix is going to return and Michigan speedway was rumored to be dropped. I don't know if it is confirmed Phoenix is back.

Michigan is a legendary speedway (just like Phoenix etc) and shouldn't be dropped. The ovals etc were dropped by CART because there just wasn't thee attendance there used to be well the IRL is much more strictly ovals and I think as its a big funded shaped oval series it should try and make the legendary ovals work. I'd rather see that then street races. It's nothing new. Champ Car has 'em.

[Davhut]

It wasn't called THE BIG BALLS 500 for nothing!

[drdisque]

I blame ISC more than anyone else. They are becoming increasingly more difficult to deal with. SMI is a much better run company who shows that they actually care about events other than NASCAR.

[Dutton]

I personally would be perfectly happy to see more road courses.

I don't mind oval racing, but I'd rather see road courses.

[BootsOntheSide]

Aren't there enough other open-wheel road championships already? F1 and CART have that market sewn up. Having a mix of challenges is one thing, but flooding the series with street races for purely commercial reasons is a move with short-term gain, but questionable in the long term.

[Jacko44]

You'd think the IRL would do whatever it could to keep dates with good tracks?

[JohnSSC]

See drdisque's post above...it is dealing with the promoter and the promoter's agenda in this case. The press release stated that it came down to a scheduling conflict - it may be that the race dates offered were incompatible with the schedule/previous commitments on the IRL's part.

[luke]

Originally Posted by Jacko44

You'd think the IRL would do whatever it could to keep dates with good tracks?

The IRL, according to Curtis, failed to honor a verbal agreement made last year that would have made the speedway's August IRL race for 2007 a one-year deal. The speedway wanted to move its open-wheel race back to July in 2008, but the IRL offered just an Aug. 3, 2008 race date, which would have put the IRL race and a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at MIS just two weeks apart on the schedule for the second consecutive year.

The resulting impasse means no IRL race at MIS in 2008. The likelihood of the IRL ever returning to MIS seems remote.

Curtis said the IRL broke an agreement last year, as well. He said he had a verbal agreement for a July 22 race date this year, but that the IRL reneged on that deal.

Curtis said he eventually agreed to move the 2007 Michigan race to Aug. 5 with the understanding that it would be a one-year deal to help out the IRL. To make that move to Aug. 5 this year, the speedway had to tear up contracts it had with the ARCA stock-car series, which had agreed to run a support race on July 21, Curtis said.

There was also a concert in the works for what would have been an IRL race this month.

This year's IRL race in August is a standalone event with no support race.

Full link http://www.mlive.com/autoracing/citp...l=3&thispage=2

and

"Just the last two or three weeks, we went back to them with at least three options for other dates," Curtis said. "Then, believe it or not -- we're still that loyal -- we went back and said, 'We'll try and make August work, but these are things we need from you, because you're setting us up for failure on that weekend.'

"We listed some things we wanted, and as late as Saturday afternoon, I got a phone call from them that said, 'Nope, nope, nope, nope,' right down the entire list."

The Michigan open-wheel racing market will be served in 2008 by a race on Belle Isle in Detroit in an event being promoted by Roger Penske, who orchestrated the city's Super Bowl XL effort in February 2006. The IRL will run its debut race on the road course at Belle Isle on Sept. 2.

"It's just very frustrating because we didn't want to see the IRL go away," Curtis said. "But we were put in a situation where there was no chance for us to be remotely successful two weeks out from our (Nextel) Cup race and 30 days away from the IRL's new race on Belle Isle."

Curtis said the IRL's actions are par for the course.

"That's their standard operating procedure: Put the promoter in a position where they can't be successful and then make the track and the promoter be the bad guys," Curtis said.

"I'm done with it."

Full link http://www.mlive.com/autoracing/citp...l=3&thispage=2

[luke]

Derek Daly commented, “The reason there is no Indy race at MIS next year is that no one cares. No one cares about the IRL anymore. I'm worried about the next generation – forget about this generation, they've been passed over. Not having a race at Michigan is just confirmation. It's very obvious what needs to be done – I just wish that someone would get it done.” Daly commented that it would take 5 to 8 years to rebuild Indy racing, if it can be rebuilt at all.

And from a blog at indystar from fans

The IRL's shortsightedness and idiocy knows no bounds.

Tony George, you've lost me and it's obvious you don't care.

I've never been closer to giving up on US open wheel.

My 1st Indy was '67, made me a fan for life. Until now.

It's a sad, sad day in IndyCar history.

Getting rid your last 2-mile oval is pretty dumb no matter what you get to replace it.

http://blogs.indystar.com/racingexpert/

Seems that even the biggest IRL fans are annoyed at TG.

I have to agree with them and Derek.

[Leighton Irwin]

Not just following CC to road and street courses but competing with dumb moves.

[luke]

As for the possible return of Phoenix

IRL officials confirmed that returning to Phoenix International Raceway in 2008 is being discussed, although a deal seems unlikely.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...=2007707150398

This is a big shame the route the IRL is currently going down. I watch the IRL to see the ovals etc. I'm not a fan of most of the IRL ones but I do like watching the legendary ovals.

They never got more than 35,000 at Michigan so you can see how they want to have a street race instead. For a primary oval based opportunity series, this isn't the correct route for them to go down. Also not a quick fix as you don't make money on a street race in the first few years.

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by Dutton

I personally would be perfectly happy to see more road courses.

I don't mind oval racing, but I'd rather see road courses.

God, you can see road races anywhere!

Long live the ovals.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by drdisque

I blame ISC more than anyone else. They are becoming increasingly more difficult to deal with.

The IRL, according to Curtis, failed to honor a verbal agreement made last year that would have made the speedway's August IRL race for 2007 a one-year deal. The speedway wanted to move its open-wheel race back to July in 2008, but the IRL offered just an Aug. 3, 2008 race date, which would have put the IRL race and a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at MIS just two weeks apart on the schedule for the second consecutive year.

Curtis said the IRL broke an agreement last year, as well. He said he had a verbal agreement for a July 22 race date this year, but that the IRL reneged on that deal.

Are we still blaming ISC, drdisque ?

[drdisque]

Yes, if ISC and MIS had the promotional efforts in place to build the equity of the speedway to a point where they were consistently selling out their fall NASCAR race, having the IRL race a few weeks away would be a non issue.

However, ISC has squandered some of the best tracks in the country to a point where they are barely profitable. They are full of finance cronies with no racing or promotion knowledge who think they know how to run a racing enterprise.

ISC can't find a sponsor for their race so they can't afford to pay the sanctioning fee for the date they want. Mid-Ohio can find a sponsor so they can afford it. It's that simple.

ISC is collapsing under its own weight and is bringing all of American racing down with it.

This never would have happened if MIS was owned by SMI or if it was still owned by Roger Penske.

[NAC]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

God, you can see road races anywhere!

Long live the ovals.

Ovals are boring, left left,left left and if we are lucky another left. Boring

I like to see the steering wheel turning in both directions.

[Dutton]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

God, you can see road races anywhere!

Long live the ovals.

Well, I have to say I see plenty of oval racing on my TV screen.

PLENTY.

I never said I wanted to replace all the IRL ovals with street courses (or road courses for that matter); I also never said I was happy to lose Michigan: both of these are far from the truth.

I simply said I wouldn't mind another road course. Which I wouldn't. It is not something I have a passionate feeling over, though. I certainly think the IRL should have at least some road/street course influence (that is, I would not want entirely oval). I would very much like to see oval presence in ChampCar (although more road/street than oval).

I guess I would prefer to see both IRL and Champcar covering both (perhaps a 50/50 split for each would be for the best, come to think of it). Given one of them, at least, has to go under sometime. When it does, I would prefer what was left to have both aspects.

[Knowlesy]

The balance was right in CART. That covered everything really. At least to my eyes.

[luke]

I personally think the IRL should have just stayed all ovals. If I want to see non ovals I can watch another series. I don't know what the non ovals have brought to the IRL, short term anyway. jmo

[Dutton]

The problem is that if the IRL goes all oval, and ChampCar collapses, then we could be left with no "premier" road/street OW series in NAm. The same is true RE ovals were the IRL to collapse under the current set-up. This would not be a good state of affairs at all, IMO.

I feel we will inevitably end up with only one of them (one way or another - planned or otherwise). It would be sad if the art of OW ovals disappeared. Having said that, if my choice was all road/street or all ovals then the former would win every time.

[mountainstar]

Well I'll be, the irl abandoning ovals for street parades. What's next?