rec.autos.simulators

  I think John Mennard is more responsible for the ruination of Indy
than the guy who owns the track.  Why?
First we go back BEFORE the split.
John Mennard team's can't match the budgets of the other Cart squads.
In fact he can't or won't afford to compete in the whole season, just
one race(Indy) Now his shops are at the track right?(or nearby.)
Somehow he convinced the guy who inherited the track to allow
non-competition motors in the race.  From that we got the Buick Stock
Block that Mennard attempted to race for years.  Trouble was it was
SLOW, a *&$(( pig.  So Mennard got that guy whose Mom slept with the
previous owner of the track to write new rules that allowed the Stock
blocks HUGE advantages in Turbo boost.  But Mennard still couldn't win.
His cars were incredibly fast, but sucked fuel like an Aussie footie
player downs  Fosters.  and they broke.  Best ever finish for the Buick
was 3rd by Al Unser Sr.(I also think that was the first time one made
the whole 500 miles)  But before Mennard can get more new rules from the
guy whose step father used to put on the Greatest Spectacle in Motor
Racing, Roger Penske and Mario Illen of Ilmor came in and showed Mennard
and the rest of the world just how to properly design, build, and race a
pushrod motor.  Result?  Once again Mennard is outspent and can't keep
up.  Within weeks, rules are in place to ban purpose built pushrods...so
what is Mennard to do?
  The other league is started.  Team Mennard gets the first Chassis as
they are the offcial testing team for the league.  They get the first
motors, and they run hundreds of laps before anyone else even see's the
bill for their cars.  With Tony Stewart he has a brilliant driver, and a
far bigger budget than most of the other startups.  He has every
opportunity to win not only indy but every freek'n race in the series.
Yet how many races at indy has Team Mennard won?  Sure they sit on the
pole, even back in the CART days they could sit on pole, but come the
end of the day....it's not Team Mennard drinking the milk.  Stewart wins
the drivers title in the 2nd or 3rd season...and Grey Ray last year,but
thats it.
  Now that Gannassi has spanked the IRLers, what new changes will
Mennard ask for from the guy who brought F1 to an INFIELD COURSE?
What hold does Mennard have over that guy?  What is his power to get
everything crafted to personaly benefit himself at the cost of two
series going down the toliet?
dave henrie

pez

Well A lot of CART teams are still based in Indy.  Team TG is for one.
Stock blocks have been legal for a long time.  Gurney for years was trying
to make a smal block chevy competitive, and I think the Buick motor had
more boost for a long time, but Meynard was the only guy to really try to
develop the motor with Buicks help.  It was a pretty good motor just needed
more work to finish a race or in Al Sr. case a driver who could use to
motor properly.

Again the Buicks had more boost for a while no one developed them.

Roger did take advantage or a loophole when they built the pushrod motor.
It would have been easy to take care of the problem since it should have
been stock block and heads.

Well Meynard was part of the splt, but Foyt is the guy who sealed it.
Reason being if he would not have gone with the IRL it would not have had
any credibilty.  with him the series had something since A.J. is a good
racer.  Having won Lemans, in Stock Cars, in Champ Cars, both dirt and
pavement he put creditbility to the series.  After Brack left to CART tho
it had to hurt the series.  Its kinda like Zanardi leaving to move up to
F1.  The CART has always been bascially a North American series with its
ruts here.  F1 has been for a long time known as an international series
since the 50s.  CART is growing into a international series wiith its races
in South America, Japan and in Aussie.  IRL is ment to only be a National
series.  If you look at it this way then It will always be the F1 then CART
and then the IRL.  Problem is the IRL has the oldest running race in the
USA.  In time it will be degraded more.  I buddy of mine ended up giving up
his tickets to the Nascar race there since they were pressuring him to get
indy 500 tickets.  Well 10 years ago that would have never happened.  For
Tony having the CART teams there fills the seats, so he will probly want
them back even tho it really showed how much the IRL teams need to raise
their game.  Yes Greg did repass Juan for the lead, but Juan passed him
back very quickly in a move that made everyone, but Juan and Chip scared.
Yes Buddy did start to real him in near the end, but was Juan just out
there pedaling the car to the finish.  I think if Buddy would have gotten
any closer you would have seen Juan put the hammer down and seen what he
could really do.  He did it in a few spots and well after seeing the rear
end wiggle thru turn one and he caught showed how much control he has over
the car.  Infact most guys in practise stuffed it with the car wiggling
less then his did.

Hopefully the fans will vote with their feet and attend more CART races and
less IRL since Juan was the guy to realy watch this weekend.

Dave

One irrelevant correction - I think you'll find that Fosters is not
popular with Aussie football players, nor with the Australian population
in general.

However, point taken ;)

-Nick

Michael

Better check Forbes... only 2 people in north american open-wheel
racing make the list.  Mary Fendrich Hulman and John Menard.
Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi et al weren't not-listed.

--cut--

Menard ran the CART season last year with driver Robby Gordon.

John Menard wants to win Indy under his own rules.  I don't understand
the logic behind it.  He will probably hire a team of bodybuilders for
his pitcrew next year.

-----------
"My dispute is with the IRL. I will not support the IRL because I think that's
what has disrupted open-wheel racing in America for us.  I mean, we are pulling
in different directions and that doesn't make sense."
  -- Mario Andretti, May 2000

Juan Montoya tells the truth about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
  http://espn.go.com/media/2000/q2/car_000517jm1a.wav
Oval racing is 98% engineering and 2% driver talent.

Al Unser Jr:  The Indy Retirement League Poster-Boy
  http://www.speedcenter.com/gallery/gallery98/13midohio/need_an_ashtra...

  Once again it is the level of sponsorhsip dollars that raise some
teams above others.

  correct, he and Robbie partner'd up, RG ran a team in CART with
Mennard backing and Mennard ran his team in the IRL with RG as a part
time driver.

  No he probably won't hire a bunch of bodybuilders..although AJ's pit
crew could use some practice, but what I'm concerned about is the
"apparent" pattern of favoritism that a certain track owner has
displayed over the years.  Why did he gift wrap the Indy 500 for
Mennard, and then, when Mennard still couldn't unwrap the bow, did he
custom design a NEW league just for JM?  Aside from Treadway and AJ are
there other teams out there that treat the IRL like a professional sport
and not just a club race?
 dave henrie

Please note that it's MENARD not MENNARD.  Thank you :)

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
-- http://www.WeRace.net
-- People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

Out of curiousity, how DID Menard make his fortune?

Eldred
--
Tiger Stadium R.I.P. 1912-1999
Own Grand Prix Legends?  Goto  http://gpl.gamestats.com/vroc

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
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--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
-- http://www.WeRace.net
-- People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

Eldred
--
Tiger Stadium R.I.P. 1912-1999
Own Grand Prix Legends?  Goto  http://gpl.gamestats.com/vroc

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

However USAC never let the mistakes of others (or even their own) keep
them from making new and interesting rule changes.

The advantage you do get with a stock block is factory $$$$$$$$$.

buzard