Watched IRL for the first time today

[BobbyB]

Since CART had the weekend off, I though I'd tune in to see the last half of today's IRL race in Chicago. First off, don't get me wrong- the thought of watching ovals on a steady basis doesn't appeal to me any more than it probably appeals to you. Whether it was today's race or NASCAR, I didn't see much difference in the procession except for the speeds and the bodystyles.

A couple of points, however....

1. I've been reading all along in this forum about the low attendance at IRL events. Just judging by the quick pan of the grandstands, I'd say they were sizeable and nearly filled with spectators. Makes me wonder if this was an exceptional weekend or what? I don't have the numbers, and I don't really care what they are, but the attendance was tremendous.

2. The announcing today was not much different from an NFL broadcast- sounded like a thick-necked John Madden calling the plays. I've been spoiled with the excellent, intelligent commentators on SPEED with CART races! Also, the articulateness level of the drivers I saw interviewed appeared to be quite different from that of CART- I'll let you guess in which direction I'm leaning (hint- there might be a parallel with the comparison of the aforementioned commentators) .

3. Maybe this weekend was a fluke, but as oval racing goes, if I were a paying fan at that venue, I would say that I got my money's worth. The photo finish (Hornish appeared to win by 6 inches at about 220 mph) was about as neck-and-neck as it could get. I must admit that I found it worth the time to watch! Am I wrong here? Was this an exception? I hope Rockingham can match this one!

Bear in mind that my observations were fresh- I'd never seen an IRL race before with the exception of various Indy 500's over the past 4 decades. I'm counting the days til qualifying at Corby this Friday!

[Ben 93 325is]

IRL has been having a ridiculous amount of photo finishes this year...hate to admit it

[camcartfan]

Photo finishes are exciting, but that does not mean anything when it comes to driver talent. Zanardi driving Long Beach from last to first was a real show of talent.

Bobby, I too saw the attendance at Chicago. That is the most people I have seen at an IRL event. However, I don't believe it is because of some type of IRL rising popularity. I believe it is because the city of Chicago is a racing city, and those people will come out to see racing in any form.

[tanalised]

This was the first IRL race that Ive really bothered looking at too. I found it pretty interesting, but would still say overall i prefer to see racing on road courses. However kudos to the drivers today for the holding it together in those last 30 odd laps without touching or putting each other into the wall. I thought I heard a commentator say there was 70 000 fans in attendance.
ps the only reason(s) I watched was
nothing else was on
If Dixon's going there next year I thought I'd better look at his potential competition

[macdaddy]

Thank God we still have Gil deFerran.

[ghinzani]

I beleive they sold the tickets with the Nascar race which may have boosted attendance. Boy what a race though - absolutely brilliant !

[tanalised]

i missed the gil crash, what happened to him?

[Liz]

Although I plan never to watch an IRL race, I am concerned that something happened to Gil. I see the people on the Invisibles forum don't seem to think it was worth talking about. What happened? Was it a bad accident? Will it make him remember that he is afraid he will be killed on an oval? (He has said that before.) Will it make him think seriously about coming back into the light?

What happened?

[enemy-ace]

Gil took avoiding action to miss a slowing car, and went in to the wall and was temporarily knocked unconscious. Not sure of any other injuries.
Being a slow week I also watched the IRL race, between commercials of the TransAm race from Denver on Speed. And though I can see how some people may find the race exciting, I thought it was rather pointless. The race just seemed to be an overblown slotcar race. Side by side racing is exciting when driver skill is involved, but when the car is drivable almost anywhere on the track and the driver just needs to keep his foot down, well that to me is just a snoozer. I can see why the majority of Oval fans prefer NASCAR. If I want to watch a good Oval race, where driver talent is an integral part then NASCAR is the way to go, with CART coming second. To bad it looks as though CART is going to follow the IRL formula however. C'est le vie!

[mac]

I reckon the race at Rockingham is going to have a hard act to follow. Not from the IRL, but last year's race where de Ferran passed Brack on the outside, on the last corner of the race, for the win. Now that took skill.

[Arneal]

I haven't watched 5 seconds of IRL racing this year, but that is mainly due to my distaste for Tony George and Dr. Austin, not the races themselves. I have watched races the previous few years and found them to be a much better product than CARTs ovals. If CARTs new rules for 2003 can make the CART races more like the IRL races (multiple lines/more passing) than I for one will be quite happy.

[Ben 93 325is]

Zanardi at Laguna Seca, they call that "the pass"...but de Ferran at Rockingham...THAT was the pass!!

[macdaddy]

About deFerran's crash...
Running P6, Gil had to take action to avoid Tony Renna's car as it suddenly slowed. (Lost oil pressure). His car went up and into the wall, pretty hard, and continued along the wall into the backstretch. I felt sick to my stomach watching it, I was sure that he had been seriously injured. Any safety features built into the engine failed terribly, as the engine continued at full song, pushing the car against the wall and down the track for what seemed like an eternity. When the car finally came to rest, the left rear wheel was still under power and spinning unabated until the safety crew shut the engine down. Gil was unconscious and unable to kill the engine himself. But he shouldn't have had to, as the engines are supposed to shut down automatically upon impact.

Gil seems to be okay, having suffered "only" a concussion. But it remains to be seen if he will be cleared to race in the finale.

[pferrf1]

Isn't Chicago a track where the Nasscar tickets are linked to IRl..i.e. you have to buy the IRL tickets in order to get the Nascar tickets?

[Jordi]

I watched it.

Gil's crash was hard.

BTW, there was a photo-finish, but besides Hornish Jr. and Unser Jr. no one else seemed to have a chance of winning. Not even the Infiniti-powered cars were able to challenge the top two, and they have always been very fast.

[Jordi]

I think so pferrf1

[Liz]

Thank G*d that Gil is okay. I hope he will see that slot car racing is not a place for him and come back to us soon.

I am on record against oval racing in open wheel cars and I stand by that belief.

[Jordi]

I'm not against oval racing, but I feel that better safety measures could be in place in some races. Why the SAFER walls are only at Indy?

[mac]

Originally posted by Ben 93 325is
Zanardi at Laguna Seca, they call that "the pass"...but de Ferran at Rockingham...THAT was the pass!!

Zanardi's pass was better, but not by much.

[f1manoz]

I'll admit I've watched one or two IRL races this year, but only while I was flicking between two stations. Frankly, it's still not impressive, the racing is false (in the sense that I still don't think it takes too much skill to turn left 4 times in a lap with a car THAT slow) and the cars and tracks are dangerous.

[Mackmot]

I like both, they are both brilliant formulas and should take over from F1, however to stop the arguments that happen between them both I think that IRL should be oval only an CART should be road coarses only, they should both be on alternate weekends and they should both be international. They should also be reanamed to Formula 1 oval and Formula 1 road.

[Liz]

The vast majority of the Invisible Racing League can't afford a full set of wrenches, far less to transport themselves to foreign venues. And TG has only so much disposable income and sooner or later he will come to the end of it.

=============

I'm glad Gil won't race in the final race of their season. He should come back home where he belongs.

[kdr]

zanardis pass was better...by a lot!

[gaines]

I can see the American love for Oval racing and America's love for Indy cars being put together, and basically that's what the IRL is, but the problem isn't that the racing can't be exciting or close but that it's dangerous. I don't like the fact that you've got race car drivers in indy cars, which are not built to take the kind of impact that stock cars can, going 200+ miles per hour on tracks not built for open wheel cars. I just feel like oval racing is okay if the track is like Indy where it's built for Indy cars and big enough to stretch out the field. Racing on tracks where the walls and track are built to accomodate stock cars will eventually kill somebody. I love NASCAR but if you watch it at all you'll notice that nearly every week there is at least one accident that collects multiple cars. If you hit a wall, you come back onto the track in front of traffic where as at most road courses if you make a mistake you fly into the grass off the track or down a safety straight area on street courses where the sharpest corners are and you don't impact other cars. Ovals however, can have huge pile ups, and I don't want to see my favorite drivers getting mamed and killed because the IRL refuses to race at traditional open wheel courses.

I still believe that if the IRL and CART would join forces and create one Racing League with two Divisions - American Division(IRL) and International Division(CART) - using the Indy 500 as it's All - Star Race and then running a special Indy Grand Prix at the end of the season on Indy's road course for the Driver's Championship with the top ten teams from each Division running for big cash that you'd have a series that would rival NASCAR and F1 within a decade but with guys like Tony George around it will never happen.

[Liz]

You'd have better luck persuading Hamas that they ought to join with Israel to form one country with two divisions.

Never happen.